"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

"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

Bukka White's slashing slide figures and pounding chords are capable of generating a high level of excitement, capable of leaving dancers joyously exhausted. Yet there is also a sensitivity and a sense of dynamics to his music. Bukka's lyrics ran the gamut from the perceptive to the surreal. The combination of these two voices places Bukka squarely within the blues tradition and in his own unique niche.

In this lesson Tom Feldmann takes you through 10 of Bukka White's tunes. Starting off in Vestapol tuning you'll get his right hand, train beat picking down pat with Special Streamline. Next you'll learn to master playing in Cross-Note tuning with Jitterbug Swing, Aberdeen Mississippi Blues, World Boogie and Sic Em Dogs On.

Bukka's approach to Cross-Note tuning set him apart from his contemporaries and will add a new depth to your own playing. You'll learn Bukka's trick of dampening the 3rd string, behind the slide as well as his signature “Spank the Baby” technique, a real crowd pleaser. Moving into Open G tuning you'll learn Poor Boy, Fixin' To Die Blues and Gibson Hill. The lesson finishes with When Can I Change My Clothes and Strange Place Blues in Standard Tuning.

These carefully selected songs where chosen on the basis that Bukka used similar patterns for many of his songs and by learning these 10 you're really learning his entire recorded works. The original old recordings of all the tunes are included.

Titles include: OPEN D TUNING: Special Streamline CROSS-NOTE TUNING: Jitterbug Swing, Aberdeen Mississippi Blues, World Boogie, Sic Em Dogs On OPEN G TUNING: Poor Boy, Fixin' To Die Blues, Gibson Hill STANDARD TUNING: When Can I Change My Clothes, Strange Place Blues

112 minutes • Level 2/3 • Detailed tab/music PDF file on the DVD

Review: Pound for blue pound, Bukka White gave ol' Son House a run for the money as being Mississippi's most visually spellbinding guitar man. And, for that matter, its most physical, too. (Charley Patton's heart gave out in '34 before film could visually validate all the fabled hearsay for his run at the title.) Slide or no slide White's huge hands led all-out attacks on the strings, beating out the fishtailing swing behind “World Boogie” and “Fixin' To Die Blues,” never once stopping the thrust to accommodate razored bottleneck breaks. The steel body of resonator guitars (like House, White was a National man) didn't fare any better, enduring no less brutalization. For proof, check out the included vintage footage, especially “Aberdeen Mississippi Blues” receiving his signature 'spank the baby' maneuver, a fine piece of hot-dogging if ever there was. For Bukka, playing guitar was war set to a driving, danceable rhythm. Now you too can make guitars shudder in fear. Because Tom Feldmann has been picking off all the great country bluesmen one-by-one, dissecting their technique and repertoire on DVD for fellow players. In just shy of two hours, The Guitar Of Bukka White dismantles ten classics to illuminate all of White's quintessential elements, which then build everything from his prison yard soliloquy “When Can I Change My Clothes” (validated by a stay on Parchman Farm for gunning a man down) to his chugging hobo opera “Streamline Special” (complete with air brakes and other guitar-made railroad sound effects) to that 'spanking' ”Aberdeen.“ – Dennis Rozanski/Blues Rag

Review: The Guitar of Bukka White/The Guitar of Son House: Yes, these DVDs show you how to play guitar in the style of Mississippi Delta bluesmen Son House and Bukka White. But thanks to master teacher Tom Feldmann, they are so much more. Feldmann is on a roll of late. He's proven himself an able revivalist and interpreter of classic blues and gospel fingerpicking and slide on several solo recordings, including his latest, Lone Wolf Blues, recently lauded in Vintage Guitar Magazine. His series of how-to DVDs are exemplary, and also include releases on Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Willie Johnson, gospel blues including Charlie Patton and others, and a general guide to bottleneck slide.

Feldmann's DVDs get deep into the deep blues. He analyses the musical style, how House and White approached a song and made it their own. His instruction is intermixed with rare filmed performances of the bluesmen and original audio tracks wherever possible. On the two-DVD House set, he deconstructs 15 songs: 8 in open G tuning, 3 in open D, 1 in cross-note, and 3 in standard. These songs cover all aspects of House's career, from the classic 30s and 40s recordings through his rediscovery. The White DVDs follow the same approach and scope.

The Son House DVD runs four hours while the Bukka White lesson runs over two hours. These are in truth, detailed documentary films on the mechanics of House and White's playing - documentaries no mainstream production company would ever dream of making, but ideal for diehard guitarists. You might even sit down some evening with a shot of whiskey, your dog curled up at your feet, and just watch for fun and edification. But remember, you can learn to play from them as well. – Michael Dregni/Vintage Guitar Magazine

Mississippi John Hurt is certainly renowned for his blues songs, whether tales of murder like Stack O'Lee and Frankie or the tongue-in-cheek Candy Man Blues, yet it is his gospel songs that may more accurately reflect the heart of the man himself; gentle yet powerful, simple yet substantial.

In this lesson Tom Feldmann takes you step by step through Mississippi John Hurt's most celebrated and inspiring gospel songs in the keys of G, C, D and E. Whether beginner or intermediate you will learn to pick in the distinctive "Hurt" style and build a large repertoire of classic gospel country blues.

A detailed tab/music booklet is included as a PDF file on the DVD. In addition the original old recordings of all the tunes are included.

Titles include: Do Lord Remember Me, Here I Am Oh Lord Send Me, Blind Man Sit In The Way And Cried, Since I've Laid My Burden Down, Weeping and Wailing, Blessed Be The Name, Praying On The Old Camp Ground, Nearer My God To Thee, Beulah Land and Oh Mary Don't You Weep

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

Review: There's something transcendent about Mississippi John Hurt's music. The simplicity, power, and gentle precision of his style, whether playing gospel classics, such as "Do Lord Remember Me" or murder ballads like "Stack O' Lee," are unparalleled in the blues archives. Though Hurt may be better known for his blues than his gospel, it's really quite difficult to separate the two; his blues are infused with gospel and his gospel infected with blues. Hurt had his own very personal style and it permeated all the music he played. In the opening moments of this instructional DVD, Tom Feldmann describes his own experience upon first listening to John Hurt. Having previously immersed himself in the grittier styles of Lightning Hopkins, John Lee Hooker, and Muddy Waters, the music of John Hurt offered Feldmann a new vista on the blues. Mississippi John Hurt's music, Feldmann notes, is perfect for the novice fingerstyle guitarist. But the truth is these humble guitar pieces would bring joy to pickers on any level of expertise. It's just great music and great fun to play. And Feldmann, a gentle guide whose personality and approach reflect his subject, has that style down. He takes you step by step through the gospel classics "Do Lord Remember Me,""Since I Laid My Burden Down,""Nearer My God to Thee," the powerful "Mary Don't You Weep," and many others, all in the familiar keys of G, C, E, and D. There are nine songs altogether. Two added and absolutely essential features to the DVD are a PDF of all the tabs and the original recordings of the songs. The "Gospel Guitar of Mississippi John Hurt" is another superior product from Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop. - Chip O'Brien/Minor 7th

Review: If Mississippi John Hurt's gentleman guitar could transplant a warmly pulsing heart-of-gold into cold killers like "Frankie" and "Stack 0' Lee," just think what its calming charm could do with divine inspiration? If that most humble of blues power worked for the Lord, the undertow from those trademark pick-and-roll moves tugging along more heavenly subject matter instead? Imagine the softest of angel wings (disguised as waltzing C chords) whisking "Weeping And Wailing" or a kindly bass bump shepherding "Blessed Be The Name" with laid back urgency. "Blind Man Sit In The Way And Cried" attains its grace through the most modest of means, playing impressive hopscotch across the strings with only a G chord. Fabulous. So by teaching the technical how-to behind The Gospel Guitar of Mississippi John Hurt, Tom Feldmann, essentially, also ends up teaching the Zen of fingerpicking. That's why the chapel chug of "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" is as much an inner-peacemaker as is the drone of "Do Lord Remember Me" singing every syllable. A tab/ music/lyric booklet, slow-motion split-screen views of left and right hand action and all ten original Hurt recordings help pave the road to six-string enlightenment that'll settle the soul, but stir the feet. - Dennis Rozanski/Blues Rag