"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

"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

"It is difficult to describe the transformation that took place as this smiling, friendly man hunched over his guitar and launched himself, bodily it seemed, into his music. The blues possessed him like a 'lowdown shaking chill' and the spellbound audience saw the very incarnation of the blues as, head thrown back, he hollered and groaned the disturbing lyrics and flailed the guitar, snapping the strings back against the fingerboard to accentuate the agonized rhythm. Son's music is the centre of the blues experience and when he performs it is a corporeal thing, audience and singer become as one." - Bob Groom/Blues World

"In the years before World War II, Son House created some of the purest, most powerful Mississippi Delta blues on record. Playing with partners Charley Patton and Willie Brown, he exerted a profound influence on Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters, both of whom copied his music and carried it to new generations. House's influence still echoes through the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, and many other musicians, and in many respects, he is the true father of what's known today as deep blues."- Jas Obrecht

In this lesson Tom Feldmann takes you step by step through 15 classic Son House tunes that span every phase of Son's recorded career. This 4 hour lesson is undoubtedly the most extensive look into the music of Son House and the techniques he developed. DISC ONE highlights 8 songs in Spanish tuning. While DISC TWO focuses on 7 songs using the Vestapol tuning (Open D), Standard, and most surprising to students of House's playing, Cross-Note tuning with Clarksdale Moan. 

Also included on DISC TWO is a bonus interview with Stefan Grossman where he talks extensively about meeting Son House and recording with him. Rare performances of Son House following his rediscovery are used throughout the lesson. The original audio tracks are included where footage is not used.

Titles Include: OPEN G TUNING: Death Letter Blues, My Black Mama, Low Down Dirty Dog Blues, The Jinx Blues, Special Rider Blues, Walkin' Blues (from 1930), Dry Spell Blues, County Farm Blues OPEN D TUNING: Shetland Pony Blues, Preachin' The Blues, This Little Light of Mine, CROSS-NOTE TUNING: Clarksdale Moan, STANDARD TUNING: Depot Blues, Am I Right Or Am I Wrong, Walkin' Blues (from 1940's)

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

Review: The Guitar of Bukka White/T he 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

Review: On quite a roll from tackling bedrock country bluesmen as far and wide as Fred McDowell, Kokomo Arnold, Barbecue Bob and Mississippi John Hurt, six-string professor Tom Feldmann is now gunning for Son House. And he's outdone himself honoring the godfather of deep Delta blues with this master class. Luxuriating across four hours of step-by-step guidance, the two DVDs are the exact guitar tutorial Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters would've killed for when originally struggling to decipher their idol's technique and repertoire. Because Feldmann's got all the moves worked out, from the slideless "Jinx Blues" to "Death Letter Blues" with a slide riff just as killer as its macabre imagery. Even to the heart-stabbed "Low Down Dirty Dog Blues." Saddled with such fret-rattling misery, House wasn't exactly a Mississippi merrymaker. He was more about gripping you by the throat with brutal themes, then bruising your soul with strings traumatically snapped, bent up, shoved down and sheared with whip-crack bottleneck flourishes. But besides woodshedding time, The Guitar Of Son House also saves you tens of thousands of dollars by including the ultra-ultra-rare Paramount sides "Clarksdale Moan" and "Mississippi County Farm Blues" among its 15 dissected songs. Twenty three of House's original audio recordings (including that wickedly expensive pair) are stuffed into the bonus goodies, along with priceless film of him in mesmerizing action, an entertaining conversation with Stefan Grossman who recorded with him and a tab/ music/lyric booklet. All but Son's string tie and hulking brass slide are inside here. - Dennis Rozanski/Blues Rag