"Tom Feldmann is an instrumentalist of the first degree, renowned among guitarists as an instructor and preservationist. No one can teach Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Skip James or Bukka White better than Feldmann, a master fingerpicker and slide guitarist." – Living Blues

"The strangest, most complex and bizarre of all blues artists." - John Fahey

Skip James is perhaps the most stylistically original of the blues performers from the Mississippi River Delta region, with his unusual Dm (Crossnote) tuning, haunting falsetto vocals, and an intense, variable marriage of music and text. James made a number of recordings for Paramount before the Depression carried him into obscurity, but those recordings would form the basis of his reputation and secure him as one of the legends of that classic era of blues.

"Tom Feldmann is an instrumentalist of the first degree, renowned among guitarists as an instructor and preservationist. No one can teach Robert Johnson, Charley Patton, Skip James or Bukka White better than Feldmann, a master fingerpicker and slide guitarist." – Living Blues

"Robert Johnson is the most important blues musician who ever lived. I have never found anything more deeply soulful. His music remains the most powerful cry that I think you can find in the human voice." - Eric Clapton

"Robert Johnson's music sent me reeling. I couldn't even imagine how someone could play the guitar the way he did and sing at the same time." - Bonnie Raitt

Robert Johnson is arguably the most well known figure in the history of the blues. Though the 29 songs Johnson recorded from 1936-1937 had little impact during his lifetime, a collection of his singles, entitled King of the Delta Blues Singers was released in 1961 and found widespread recognition. Then, 30 years later, The Complete Recordings of Robert Johnson was released selling over one million copies. The first blues recording to do so, winning a Grammy in the process.

Since that 1961 LP, players from all different musical backgrounds have sought to learn Robert Johnson's techniques and in this 3 DVD set, with over 5 hours and 52 minutes of instruction, Tom Feldmann covers every aspect of Johnson's playing. Each song is performed by Feldmann before he dissects the arrangement verse-by-verse and ends with a split screen segment where the song is played slowly with close up shots of both the left and right hands. This is the most expansive look into the guitar playing of Robert Johnson produced in video form.

DVD ONE: STANDARD TUNING: Kind Hearted Woman, Phonograph Blues, 32-20 Blues, A Blues Variations (Dead Shrimp Blues, Little Queen of Spades, Honeymoon Blues), I'm a Steady Rolling Man, Sweet Home Chicago, Love In Vain, From Four 'Til Late DROP D TUNING: Malted Milk CROSS NOTE TUNING: Hellhound on my Trail

DVD TWO: SPANISH TUNING: Stop Breakin' Down Blues, Walking Blues, Come On In My Kitchen, Last Fair Deal Gone Down, Stones In My Passway with Variations for Terraplane Blues and Milkcow Blues, Cross Road Blues, Traveling Riverside Blues

DVD THREE: SPANISH TUNING: If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day, VESTAPOL TUNING (OPEN E TUNING): Rambling on my Mind, I Believe I'll Dust My Broom, Preaching Blues, STANDARD TUNING: They're Red Hot

352 minutes - Level 3 - Detailed tab/music booklet PDF file included on each DVD

Review: Over the intervening decades since Robert Johnson cut his 29 monolithic sides in 1936 and 1937, countless manhours have been spent by countless guitarists hunched over spinning 78s, then LPs, then CDs, and now spinless MP3s, desperately trying to latch onto the mystical powers inherent in those songs - in that sound - which launched as many legions of rockers as of bluesmen. With Johnson's direct apostles below ground - Robert Lockwood, Honeyboy Edwards, Johnny Shines (who thrice returns, via bonus performance footage) - Tom Feldmann is your best possible instructor. The country blues junkie has put in those countless hours intensively detailing everything from the lemon squeezing "Traveling Riverside Blues" to the tamale-peddling "They're Red Hot" - so that you don't have to. He's got the complete canon down cold (come on, both takes of "Cross Road Blues" get dissected here). Right down to that spine-tingling 'howling wind' slide lick dripping down "Come On in My Kitchen." Even down to that momentary flash of wickedness in the fourth verse of "Walking Blues" when string bends actually snap. With calm coaching, you'll run the existential table from the Son House knockoff of "Preaching Blues" to "Hellhound on My Trail," with a "Malted Milk" break in between. Besides using the slo-mo split-screen, Feldmann makes learning easier by wisely corralling similar pieces, as when taking advantage of the structural relationship between "Terraplane Blues" and "Milkcow's Calf Blues" with "Stones in My Passway." Tremendous clout resides within three how-to DVDs, for herein lie both the kindling and the spark which lit the firestorm of modern blues and rock. So the calculus is simple: Six hours of one-on-one Robert Johnson instruction equals essential. - Dennis Rozanski/Blues Rag

McKinley Morganfield, better known as Muddy Waters, grew up on Stovall Plantation near Clarksdale, MS where he learned to play guitar in the regional style emulating local legends Son House and Robert Johnson. In 1941 and 1942 Muddy made his first recordings for Alan Lomax (Library of Congress) who came to Stovall to record various country blues musicians.

These first recordings gave Muddy the confidence to move north to Chicago with the hopes of becoming a full time musician. He purchased his first electric guitar in 1944 and in only a few short years not only achieved his goal but became a major star recording hits like "I Can't Be Satisfied", "I Feel Like Going Home", "I Got My Mojo Working," "I Just Want to Make Love To You" and many more with his infamous band. This raw electric sound ushered in a new era of blues and Chicago, Chess Records, and Muddy Waters where the epicenter.

In this lesson Tom Feldmann takes you through 6 of Muddy's staple slide tunes in Open G, Open D and Standard Tuning. Feldmann teaches each song slowly, phrase by phrase, making this a perfect lesson for those new to playing slide as well as the more seasoned players looking to get deeper into the mind and music of the great Muddy Waters. A detailed tab/music PDF file is included on the DVD.

Titles Include: I Can't Be Satisfied, I Feel Like Going Home, Rollin' and Tumblin' Blues, You're Going to Need My Help I Said, Long Distance Call, She Moves Me

113 minutes - Level 2/3 - Detailed tab/music PDF file on the DVD

Review: The blues has its share of iconic sounds. The silvery vibrato twinge off B.B.'s strings, for instance. The metallic buzz from Little Walter's harp. The quake beneath John Lee's pounding foot. And, of course, Muddy's dive-bombing slide guitar. Old soul Tom Feldmann-who has already dissected the signature sounds, styles and songs of blues bedrock from Robert Johnson and Charley Patton to Bukka White and Fred McDowell-just cracked the code to Waters' bottlenecking. And Feldmann has the sound down-cold. Yeah, he's that good. Meaning that after woodshedding with this two-hour epiphany, you, too, will be able to place a bloodcurdling "Long Distance Call." Ride the elastic recoil of "Rollin' and Tumblin' Blues." Gash into the downturned "You're Going to Need My Help I Said." And get "She Moves Me" to heave on a sea of those deep trademark swells. Rounding out the six Delta-via-Chicago staples is the quintessential duo: the 1948 flipside pairing of "I Can't Be Satisfied" with "I Feel Like Going Home" that shot lightning straight through Chicago and around the world. Feldmann even goes the extra mile to suggest optional bass patterns for those lacking a headcutting backup band of your own. A valuable resource for everyone craving to harness the glory and majesty which streamed from "The Slide Guitar of Muddy Waters." - Dennis Rozanski/Blues Rag