Son House & Bukka White - Masters of the Country Blues

Rating:
Summary: "The Snake that lays an egg ain't poisonous..."
Review: After viewing this DVD several times I will say that I am not only impressed with Son House the musician, but also with the man.

The mumbled monologues and inaudible introductions by Son House almost made me feel sorry for him, not in a negative way, but in a way that I wanted to do something for him, to help him have more courage. The more I viewed him and was able to decipher the words I realized his forthrightness in speaking this way to an audience who was so foreign to him and I was overwhelmed with his honesty and sincerity.

The music itself is spellbinding and reaches the very heart and soul of an open-minded listener. The beat he taps with his shoe while playing creates an almost otherwordly aura around this music that I believe to be of the deepest expression men have ever conveyed through sound. This beat is at the root of all popular music today, although this expression is unparalleled. How is it that an uneducated man from an oppressed group of people can be so wise and able to communicate through music this wisdom? He had true wisdom which doesn't come from knowledge, it comes from truth, or as House puts it, "from above."

All this I gathered from his monologues but I don't want to take away from the pure simplicity of Son House's music. Yet it is hard for me to understand the music, being a white man in another world from House, separated in this regard but united as men. I can see the lines on his face and the pure humanity of his words and I struggle to understand the deep expression of his music and my love for it.

Son House had quit playing the guitar completely for years and was working regular jobs when he was rediscovered by men with an interest in exploring America's musical direction and preserving the blues.

Anyone with similar motives should look into this DVD, or anyone that simply loves the blues. The segments of Bukka White are a testimony to his influence and greatness. This is the blues at it's raw core, without electricity or accompaniment, gloriously simple but simply glorious!

In this age of technology, there's mass media, quick entertainment and television politicians, it's hard to know just who or what to believe anymore. Listen to the words of Son House, "I love a snake if I wasn't scared of him, but I can't trust him. Somebody said the snake that lays an egg ain't poisonous, but I don't trust none of 'em, I don't care how many eggs he lay..."

Rating:
Summary: Two of the best.
Review: This is a transfer to video of an old TV program. Son House and Bukka White perform before a live Seattle studio audience.

Both are excellent, of course, but Son House's time on stage is something strange and special. After finishing a blues number he'll get to his feet, shakily lay his guitar down, and perform an unaccompanied spiritual. But before he starts he delivers odd mumbled monologues - alomost inaudable - about how he hasn't left God, he is still pious even though he sings the blues, etc. The audience doesn't know quite what to make of all this. Son House was a man with a lot on his mind.

Rating:
Summary: a blues must have!
Review: this is a very special veiwing!honest,raw,moving! Son house was the man!