Hound Dog came back with a rifle and said, "Hey, Brewer." And pointed the rifle--pow! Shot me right through the side. I said, "Hound Dog. What did you shoot me for?" And he shot me through this finger, and then he shot me through the shoulder. If that rifle hadn't jammed, he probably would have hurt me - Brewer Phillips, memories of Hound Dog Taylor in a Living Blues interview
This music performance video follows on the heels of the recently released "Legends of Country Blues Guitar" and it is equally impressive. High points include 6 tunes from ace fiddler Clark Kessinger, backed by Gene Meade on guitar and an expert bluegrass banjo player. There are four songs and a talking segment with the great Kilby Snow, for which he is joined by his son, Jim, and buddy, Mike Hudak. This footage is from the Newport Folk Festival, and it is great to see Howling Wolf and Booker White taking in Kilby's music, as they do that of his interlocutor Jimmie Driftwood, who plays the picking bow. There are also two songs from Lily Mae Ledford and the Coon Creek Girls (just two of them), tunes from Canray Fontenot and Alphonso Bois Sec Ardoin, and incredible footage of Ed & Lonnie Young and the Fife and Drum Band. Also featured are Jesse Mae Hemphill and a number of different people playing the diddly bow, attached to the wall of a house. I don't think of this footage as having been filmed all that long ago, but seeing it makes me realize what a different world we live in now, if only by virtue of only a couple of the people shown in this film still being alive. Highly recommended.
All best, Johnm
« Last Edit: November 23, 2021, 11:48:13 AM by Rivers »
Aren't these performances just repackaging of performances that were already out there on DVD? Just curious, it seems that if you have been collecting the DVDs one might already have much of this material.
On which DVDs? I don't recall performance footage of Kilby Snow at Newport, though he's watching the blues performers in Devil Got My Woman. The Ardoin footage was apparently out on VHS but not on DVD according to Suzy T. I don't recall seeing the diddly bow footage from the trailer either. But I might just not have prior incarnations.
The material from Newport on the other new DVD, Legendary Country Blues Guitarists, was mostly new to me. Son House, Skip James and Booker White playing together for instance. (Mostly Booker and Skip, with Son wandering around like a pain in the ass.)
I haven't seen the Kessinger footage but there is a lot on a DVD from Newport. I also have some Kilby Snow on a DVD, will have to dig through the discs to see.