Topic: Legendary Country Blues Guitarists from Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop

[Johnm]

Hi all,
I was just over at the Woodshed at www.guitarvideos.com, and Stefan announced the release of a new DVD, "Legendary Country Blues Guitarists" and posted some film clips from it.  Whew!  The first clip is of an artist described as unknown, who happens to be Blind Connie Williams doing "Precious Lord"!  Next up is Ralph Willis followed by Henry Johnson doing his version of "Crow Jane".  This is a must-have item for serious fans of the music I would think.  I'd get it if the only thing on it was the Connie Williams footage.  Wow!
All best,
Johnm

[Prof Scratchy]

Wonderful performances!

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk

[blueshome]

Trailer

[joe paul]

Looks good, thanks !

Gordon

[uncle bud]

Just clicked on it innocently on facebook and nearly fell off my chair when Blind Connie Williams started singing. Wow, this dvd looks fantastic. The Henry Johnson clip in the trailer is great too.

[Gumbo]

"footage of ralph willis??" (he blurted)

[Pan]

I never thought we'd see Blind Connie Williams performing on film! Fantastic stuff! 

Cheers

Pan

[harriet]

what you all said. whoa!

[Mr.OMuck]

These are great, and congratulations on having a Crumb portrait John! I browsed and saw your "Country Blues Musicianship" DVD.

[CF]

Isn't this something? Can't wait to see it.

Weird they didn't reach out into their immediate community to identify Connie Williams.

[TonyGilroy]

and where and when was Ralph Willis filmed?

Did he actually die in 1957 and if so where and when etc.

Staggeringly unexpected.

[Bunker Hill]

Stefan's Willis discography shows a September 23, 1948  Savoy session with these artists, two issued 78s and one not. Maybe the footage comes from around that time...or not!

[uncle bud]

Just watched for the first time tonight.

The Ralph Willis footage was filmed in Philadelphia, at least the stuff not in the trailer, which is filmed on the street. My guess is early 1960s, maybe late 50s. Since the interior footage looks like the same location as footage of Connie Williams, I assume Philadelphia as well. Frustratingly, there are no details about where and when any of the clips were filmed, aside from information revealed in the footage itself (Willis and Washboard Pete Sanders do an interview as well as play). The most we get is some "footage courtesy of..." credits at the end, which is not very helpful.

That said, the actual footage on the DVD is great. Completely essential collection!

[TonyGilroy]

And yet Willis is reported to have died in 1957. I think it would be almost unique for this sort of performance footage to be earlier than that and if it is, as presumably it must be, it really does beg questions as to the circumstances, the time and place and what else there might be.

[uncle bud]

Well, it's definitely Philadelphia, because they say so in the footage. It could be late 50s, but the fashion and hairstyles of some of the male onlookers says early 60s to me. Blind Connie Williams was recorded in 1961 after Pete Welding met him on the streets of Philly, and I wonder whether this is related to that discovery somehow - the stage that both Williams and Willis are filmed on is definitely the same place and time.

The interviewer is a woman, and we only catch a couple partial glimpses of her, but she is very comfortable interviewing them and the hair colour and style and the bit of her face we see made me wonder whether it was Ann Charters. Wild guess.

Willis is the picture of health, confident, charming. If this was filmed in the late 50s and if he in fact died in '57, it must have been very sudden.

He talks about coming up from Durham, NC, first to Baltimore, then Philly. He left Philly for New York but returned and had been back in the city for 7 months when this was filmed.

[banjochris]

I think it's got to be from the '60s, because of the BS that is spouted about learning from Robert Johnson and Son House. What bluesman with no connection to Mississippi would have dropped Son House's name (or Johnson's, for that matter) to an interviewer before the '60s rediscoveries?
Chris

[Johnm]

The person represented as Ralph Willis may very well be Ralph Willis, but I find myself extremely dubious as to the possibility of him being THE Ralph Willis who recorded "Just A Note" and the other songs included on the JSP set, "Shake That Thing".  The Ralph Willis who recorded "Just A Note" was an absolute ace guitar player, comparing favorably with just about any East Coast player you could name, and had a very different singing voice and a distinctive vocal style, not very much like the person in the videos.  Moreover, the person in the videos appears to be a simple strummer who phrases everything short, a musical trait not in evidence in the recordings made by the Ralph Willis who recorded "Just A Note".  I'd say the performances rate a big "Hmmmm."   

[uncle bud]

Good point, John (and Chris). When I watched I was thinking his style reminded me of a clipped version of Brownie McGhee.

It all comes back to a lack of information with the DVD. Oh well.

[oddenda]

http://blindman.fr.yuku.com/topic/47420/New-DVD-Legendary-Country-Blues-Guitarists#.UtIBF_aGwpw - from a Stefan Grossman film and pinched from another web site. The trailer included "my" greatest "find", Henry Johnson. There is a Willie Trice clip in the film, plus supposedly RALPH WILLIS whom I've never seen a photo of!!! Wow!!!

Peter B.

[uncle bud]

Hi Peter - we do have a thread going on this DVD, including questions about whether this is in fact the Ralph Willis. I'll merge the topics.  The Willie Trice footage is extensive and great to see. Henry Johnson is just cool as shit and I wish there was more.

[Johnm]

Hi all,
In re-watching this video recently I picked up something that I missed in my initial viewing of it, and that is that there is some terrific footage on it of Sam Chatmon playing and singing that I had never seen before, and he plays two songs in Bflat, "Sales Tax" and a version of "Fishing Blues" that will provide some great viewing for folks interested in how the Mississippi Sheiks's guitar players went about playing in Bflat.  For a really illuminating discussion on that topic, go to the "Sheik Mystique" thread, at http://weeniecampbell.com/yabbse/index.php?topic=501.0 , where Frank Basile offers some insights on how those players approached accompanying songs played in flat keys.
All best,
Johnm

[Pan]

Hi all,

I have been watching some slide players' videos lately, and watching "Take My Hand (Precious Lord)" again, I watched the video on full screen mode for the first time.
Perhaps this is old news to everybody but me, but watching the video on big screen, I noticed, for the first time, that Williams uses a very short glass slide deep on his little finger, almost like a ring. This leaves his little finger's tip free to fret notes conventionally as well.
Anyway, I was always impressed at his chordal vocabulary, while using a slide, so perhaps this is one explanation to it.



Cheers

Pan

[EddieD]

I love that performance! I have been thinking about getting or making a small slide like that. I noticed the local music store actually sells slides this size.