Friday, February 3, 2012

Black History Month Celebrates the Country Blues


This 1994 sixty minute documentary of the Legends of Country Blues Guitar feature some great ones you may not be aware of. Black History Month is the perfect time to call our attention to these great pickers that wallowed in obscurity far too long. 

Country blues artists featured in this film partially hosted by Pete Seeger include Mississippi John Hurt, Mance Lipscom, Son House, Henry Townsend, Robert Pete Williams, Josh White, Brownie McGhee (two great songs with harp man Sonny Terry on this link) Big Bill Broonzy and the blind and hilarious Reverend Gary Davis (with a great live hilarious 11 minute version of "Hesitation Blues" on this link. 

WristRock and the Guitar Maniacs are grateful to the University of Washington Department of Ethnomusicology Archives, BBC Lionheart Broadcasting and  Vestapol Productions, a division of Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshops in Sparta, NJ for making this rare footage available and public. Celebrate National Black History Month by taking an hour or so and enjoying some of the greatest blues ever created that you probably never heard.

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