"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

Charlie Patton, considered the “Father of the Delta Blues,” is generally recognized as the most influential blues artist active in the first decades of the twentieth century. No single individual can be credited with “inventing” the Delta blues style but Patton was one of the first mainstream stars of the Delta blues genre. Old fashioned and modern at the same time, Patton's music bridged the musical traditions of the 19th century while simultaneously creating a framework of his own that would inspire just about every other blues musician from that point on.

In this double DVD lesson, Tom Feldmann gives you a detailed look at 18 of Patton's most celebrated tunes. Making this the definitive Charlie Patton lesson. DVD One is dedicated to songs in standard tuning, covering C, E, A and F positions. You'll learn Patton's relaxed right hand strum, top tapping technique, and of course his signature licks as you work through songs like, Down The Dirt Road Blues and Pony Blues. 

DVD Two focuses in Patton's bottleneck slide and non slide numbers in Spanish (Open G) and Vestapol (Open D) turnings. Songs like, Banty Rooster Blues, When Your Way Get's Dark and Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues will become heavy hitters in your blues arsenal.

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

Titles include: Poor Me, Down the Dirt Road Blues, Green River Blues, Jim Lee Blues, Some of These Days I'll Be Gone, Pony Blues, Devil Sent the Rain, Shake It and Break, Tom Rushen Blues, High Sheriff Blues, Hammer Blues (Take 1 & 2), Banty Rooster Blues, Mississippi Bo Weavil Blues, When Your Way Get's Dark, Pea Vine Blues, Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues, High Water Everywhere (Take 1 & 2), A Spoonful Blues

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

Review: Warning: Do not misinterpret the bow tie worn in his ancient portrait. Beneath, the grand master flash of all Delta blues-bedrock Charlie Patton was a "rock star" decades before rock became a devilish glimmer in the blues' eyes. When your prototypical playing style and whiskey-n-women lifestyle recruit a Mississippi dream team of apostles in Son House, Tommy Johnson, Robert Johnson, Howlin' Wolf and quintessential crossroad "friend Willie Brown," you are the man. Singing, you can hear gravel being ground in his throat (don't miss the bonus audio with Patton's records). Combine that with how he struck a guitar, and you make dynamite. Up to then, the 1920s never experienced anything like that: whacking the instrument's body for even extra rhythm, as its strings got violently snapped or deeply stabbed by a slide on its way down to the 17th fret. Patton was even Hendrix before Hendrix, hot-dogging plantation gigs by flipping his axe into the air, playing behind his back, then between his legs. You're on your own for the circus acrobatics, but country blues authority Tom Feldmann has got you covered for all the rest. It takes two DVDs, in fact, for him to break down, step-by-step, Patton's method, licks, tricks and 18 classics. Feldmann is a revelator bare-handing the beautifully aching "Some Of These Days I'll Be Gone," then bottlenecking the monster cotton patch smashes "Screamin' & Hollerin' the Blues" and "Pony Blues." Back in the day, you'd have to sell your soul at the crossroads for four hours of detailed how-to instruction like this. – Blues Rag/Dennis Rozanski

Who hasn't been influenced by Mississippi Fred McDowell? Imitated by just about everyone that has picked up a slide, his impact has spread the world over. With so many trying to figure out exactly how he played, we are so fortunate to have a lesson like this one where we get to learn from the man himself. The footage of Fred McDowell seen in this lesson is a treasure because it's as if it was filmed with us, the students of McDowell's style, in mind. With clear shots of his left and right hands, it's like your own private lesson with the master himself.

DISC ONE is devoted to footage of Fred McDowell performing many of his classic tunes in Open E tuning. After each performance, Tom Feldmann breaks down Fred's techniques and then goes to the split screen, playing the song slowly as you play along.

DISC TWO is devoted to the recordings of McDowell in Open A tuning. Tom performs this time around as none of the available footage has McDowell performing in Open A.

A detailed tab/music booklet is included as a PDF file on each DVD. In addition the original recordings of all the tunes in lesson two are included. On Disc Two there is 51 minute interview with Tom Feldmann where he talks about his influences as well as performing a wide variety of tunes. 

Titles Include: OPEN E TUNING: When I Lay My Burden Down, Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning, John Henry, Break 'Em On Down, Louise, Mojo Hand, I Heard Somebody Call OPEN A TUNING: Write Me A Few Lines, Been Drinking Out of A Hollow Log, Fred's Worried Life Blues, The Train I Ride, Kokomo Blues

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

Review: No matter how famous McDowell's assertions of “I do not play no rock'n'roll, y'all” were, that talkative bottleneck ratted Fred out otherwise. When dropped onto guitar strings, blowing up the push-pull rhythm of elastic groovers like “Write Me A Few Lines”, “John Henry” and their kingpin in “Shake 'Em On Down,” that little glass tube dilates pupils and gets pulses racing, leaving you off far higher than where you first got on. Those aren't physiological hallmarks of the typical “straight 'n' natchel blues.” But such is Fred's type of rockin'. And with it, he was a one-man house party, a north Mississippi slide hypnotist in the grandest definition. So whether holy rolling “When I Lay My Burden Down” or even slide-lessly chugging on “The Train I Ride,” his repertoire knows how to have a good time. Except when wallowing in the depths of despair (“Been Drinking Out Of A Hollow Log” even rubs salt into the wound with its dastardly lowdown lick). Now over the course of two instructional DVDs, the inner workings of The Guitar Of Fred McDowell get exposed by disciple Tom Feldmann. Finally, step-by-step proof that “Shake 'Em” (a.k.a. “Break 'Em”) and 11 other songs can, indeed, be played by mortals. And Feldmann does a fantastic job teaching Fred's moves. Vintage film also lets some of Fred's moves get taught by Fred, the downhome dude with the pencil thin mustache, pomade-slicked hair, string tie, curvaceous electric guitar and grooves that everyone from R.L. Burnside to the Rolling Stones to the North Mississippi All-Stars and now you - just got to have. – Bluesrag/Dennis Rozanski

Review: Over the past ten years plus Tom Feldmann's name has become synonymous with the slide guitar style of country blues and gospel music of the 1920's-1940's. His has honed his skill and developed chops that have put him in the top tier of performers and instructors. His pedigree includes an affiliation with Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshops, and Mel Bay has produced numerous instructional DVDs of such legends as Blind Willie Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt and just about everyone in between. He has released eight CDs since 1999 while touring, six on his own Magnolia Recording Company label and two early CDs for Maple Island Records. In short, Feldmann has not only become an authority on Country Blues but is also well on his way to becoming a national treasure and a portal to the past. It is no surprise that his latest instructional DVD, “The Guitar of Fred McDowell” lives up to all that has come before and is a treasure trove of instruction and insight into the blues and the music of Fred McDowell. This two DVD set offers film footage of McDowell playing seven tunes in Open E (Disc 1) and five in open A tuning (Disc 2). The format of instruction for each tune begins with a film performance of McDowell on electric guitar from later in his career. This of course helps keep instruction rooted to McDowell's actual performance instead of focusing on an interpretation of his playing. Feldmann follows each performance with a discussion of the intricacies of technique of each specific tunes, followed by a split screen that isolates the left and right hand simultaneously throughout his own playing of the same tune at a very moderate tempo to allow the student to adequately take in the techniques presented. Feldmann's easygoing demeanor and clear description of technique makes his instruction accessible for any level player. Feldman also gets into the technical aspects of McDowell's technique and various methods of approaching guitar set-up from string gauges, saddle dimensions and the use of an unwound third string for E Tuning -- all of which speak to Feldmann's knowledge and the quality of his instruction. Bonus materials include a detailed tab of each song in the form of two PDF booklets as well as almost an hour of interview footage of Feldmann who delves into his influences, experiences, technique and instruments. Feldman performs a handful of additional tunes to augment these segments. Total running time of both DVDs is 220 minutes. – Minor 7th