Product Description

Reelin’ In The Years Productions, in association with Experience Hendrix, bring you the American Folk Blues Festival 1962-1966 Volumes One & Two. The AFBF was an annual event that featured the cream of American blues musicians barnstorming their way across western Europe every fall from 1962 through 1966. Recorded live in a small TV studio in Germany, these historic and unseen performances have been lost for nearly 40 years. Filmed with superb camera work and pristine sound, each DVD contains 18 complete performances from the greatest blues musicians of all time. Captured during their heyday in an era of scant video documentation, these DVDs are truly one of the most unique and precious visual documents of the blues.

The American Folk Blues Festivals featured a dazzling array of talent that included such greats as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker and Sonny Boy Williamson playing alongside other legends such as T-Bone Walker, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Memphis Slim and Big Mama Thornton to create the most significant group of blues artists ever assembled!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #21330 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-08-26
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Compilation, DVD, NTSC, Black & White, Full Screen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 75 minutes

Amazon.com
Three songs by Howlin' Wolf are the highlight of this second set of blues performances recorded in the 1960s, when an extraordinary lineup of musicians (among the 18 tracks here are tunes by Lightnin' Hopkins, Willie Dixon, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, and Big Mama Thornton) toured Europe, thrilling (among many others) the young Englishmen playing in bands like the Rolling Stones and the Yardbirds. As with Volume 1, the monaural sound and black-and-white video are superb, making the release of the footage four decades later even more welcome. And Wolf? He was still in his prime in '64, perhaps equaled only by Muddy Waters (who appears on the first volume). "Did you ever been in the groove?" he asks at one point. "Well, I'm gonna put you way down in the woods." That he does, and blues fans will be only too happy to tag along. --Sam Graham

Customer Reviews

"second volume is as good if not better ~ Blues lives on"
Are you ready to watch some classic footage of great blues, from the legends to the modern masters of acoustic to the electric featuring essential performances covering the last half-century of blues. Some of the greatest of the great blues performers doing what they do best...BLUES! When you watch this video the feelings come through loud and clear. The sound and performances are picture perfect, very collectible to all the blues fans out there.

"American Folk Blues Festivals 1962-1966 Vol. 2", featuring Willie Dixon, John Lee Hooker, Memphis Slim, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Big Mama Thorton, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf some of the legends that put it on the line and then some. Each performer playing side by side and giving their all. Sit back and enjoy as each cue is dead on, with detailed liner-notes and a little history of their background and accomplishments. This DVD is proof that once and for all Blues is very much alive and well. If you enjoyed this volume, then volume one is another winner...gotta love it!

Total Time: 80 mins ~ Hip-O Records 602498604137 ~ (8/26/2003)

It's Magic Sam on DVD
The bonus section featuring Magic Sam is the most incredible piece of footage I've ever seen or heard. It's even better than his studio stuff and the audio quality is awesome (which can't always be said for his live records and bootlegs though the performances are still downright unbelievable). What can you say about Magic Sam to someone who has never heard him? For me, at least, it was like watching Robert Johnson perform. Magic Sam was the best to ever sing or play the electric blues and unfortunately this footage predates his death by only a few months. What a loss.

An essential blues DVD
At least as strong as the excellent first volume in the "American Folk Blues" series, this second disc opens with Aleck "Rice" Miller (Sonny Boy Williamson II) doing a brief solo rendition of "Bye Bye Bird", followed by a tremendous band-backed "In My Younger Days" which features Howlin' Wolf's combo of Sunnyland Slim, Hubert Sumlin, Willie Dixon and drummer Clifton James.

Willie Dixon himself (purposely) stutters his way through the novelty(-ish) "Nervous", introduced by a very dignified Memphis Slim: "He is such a big man", says Slim, "he weighs four or five hundred pounds, something like that. Imagine a guy that big being nervous!"
Well, John Chatman's own cool borders on arrogance as he tosses off a terrific "Nobody Loves Me" ("Everyday I Have The Blues") with the greatest of ease.

Other highlights include...well, the rest of the disc, really. The black-and-white footage is excellent, and the sound is surprisingly good as well. It's a bit disappointing that the booklet merely duplicates the one from volume one in the series, but that's just about the only gripe I have.
Being able to see Sam "Lightnin'" Hopkins perform his classic "Mojo Hand" live with a small backing group is such a treat, as is grand old lady Victoria Spivey's spirited "Black Snake Blues", and T-Bone Walker's strikingly urbane "Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong".

Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee do a fine "Stranger Blues" (AKA "I'm A Stranger Here"), but the absolute cream of the crop has to be three performances by the mighty Howlin' Wolf, "Shake For Me", "Love Me Darling" and "I'll Be Back Someday". And the two "Bonus tracks" (there's really no good reason why they're presented as such) capture Magic Sam Maghett shortly before his untimely death in 1969, doing the instrumental "Magic Sam's Boogie" and the classic "All Your Love".
No fan of classic Chicago blues should be without this wonderful collection.