"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

This book was a delight and a challenge to put together. I wanted to highlight the playing of six blues players that have greatly influenced me: Big Bill Broonzy, Lonnie Johnson, Rev. Gary Davis, Blind Blake, Scrapper Blackwell and Tampa Red. Each have recorded wonderful instrumental solos. I have transcribed these from the first note played to the last. These are complete transcriptions. Hopefully they will bring you insight into the playing ideas and techniques of these legendary players.

Titles and artists included are:
• BIG BILL BROONZY Slow Blues, St. Louis Blues

• SCRAPPER BLACKWELL A Blues, D Blues

• BLIND BLAKE Guitar Chimes, Blind Arthur's Breakdown

• REV. GARY DAVIS Bill Bailey, Walkin' Dog Blues

• LONNIE JOHNSON Blues for the West End, Blues in G, Woke Up With The Blues In My Fingers

• TAMPA RED Things 'Bout Coming My Way

HOW TO USE THIS BOOK
1) Listen over and over to the recordings available via download for this collection.
2) Get a program that can control audio files. Use this with the transcriptions and the recordings.
3) Be patient!! Practice and practice!! These are blues masterpieces and can take weeks or month or years to get under your fingers. But what fun it will be once you can play one of these instrumental.

Level 3 • 116 pages

Review: Master these 12, and nirvana is yours. Because "Woke Up With the Blues in My Fingers," the breezy blur of "Blind Arthur's Breakdown" and good ol' "Bill Bailey" pave the path to fingerstyle blues enlightenment. Intricate, catchy and "wow-worthy," not a one of these dizzying dozen is anything less than a spellbinder. And drawn from the repertoires of such six-string royalty as Lonnie Johnson and, yup, Blind Blake, Stefan Grossman heroically, painstakingly and, above all, lovingly transcribed each solo instrumental song-note by note, twist and turn, ooh and aah-from start to finish. 

Variety is king around here. In terms of velocity, Big Bill Broonzy alone runs the extremes from "Slow Blues" to his motorized take on "St. Louis Blues." Scrapper Blackwell's "A Blues" gets you flipping noble somersaults on the bass strings, while Johnson's "Blues in G" prefers exquisitely ping-ponging amongst the treble. "Things 'Bout Coming My Way," poached from Tampa Red, is the slide-driven alter-ego of the melody more famously known as "Sitting on Top of the World." And "Guitar Chimes" sparklingly speaks for itself. So, between "Legendary Country Blues Guitar Solos" 116 illustrated pages of tablature/music notation and the online audio (made available for download with this book), nirvana is closer than you think. - Dennis Rozanski/Blues Rag