John Renbourn - Rare Performances 1965-1995

This 90 minute DVD captures thirty years of music by John Renbourn. It follows him from the legendary London basement club 'Les Cousins' to his work with Bert Jansch and their group Pentangle to his traditional/medieval adventures with The John Renbourn Group and to his duet performances with Stefan Grossman. John has also constantly been touring solo. This video chronicles his evolving growth as one of today's foremost acoustic guitar masters. Tab/music transcriptions for many of the tunes are presented in the accompanying 64 page booklet.

'The material is a mix of traditional and original the playing superb. Grossman and Renbourn combine their talents and mix of styles here to produce appealing instrumental music of rare beauty and taste.' AllMusic.comOn their duet records John Renbourn and Stefan Grossman meet on the common turf of American blues and Celtic fiddle tunes and airs. Under The Volcano is a collection of seven duets. Including an extended four-part work for which the album is named and one solo by each of the players the album has what has come to be the characteristic sound of the duo. Reflecting what Stefan quite accurately describes as 'aninterweaving of styles ' it is quite difficult and somewhat pointless to tell which of the two is playing the lead in most parts of the album. The original compositions are at once down-home and high-flown brimming with contrapuntal funkiness and the music manages to sound both loose and precise. Grossman and Renbourn contribute equally to the composition and arrangement of the traditional material. They aren't uptight about overdubbing or using the occasional electric guitar texture. But the lingering impression is one of crisp snapping strings and air being moved by wooden-boxed guitars.Track Listing:1. Idaho Potato2. Medley: Sheebeg An Sheemore & Drunken Wagoner3. Under The Volcanoa) Resurrection of Blind Joe Deathb) Four for the Rosesc) Montagu's Pactd) Rights of Man4. Medley: Bonaparte's Retreat & Billy In The Lowgrounds5. Swedish Jig6. Water Gypsy7. All Things Parallel Must Converge8. The Blarney Pilgrim9. Mississippi Blues No. 3(All tunes except for 'Bonaparte's Retreat' have been transcribed and included in a pdf tab/music booklet on the CD)

In this double DVD lesson of over 4 hours of instruction Ernie Hawkins teaches ten of Big Bill’s greatest guitar solos and arrangements. Each tune is taught phrase by phrase and then uses the split-screen so you can carefully study what each hand is doing.Detailed tab/music booklets are included as PDF files on both DVDs. Also included is rare footage of Big Bill as well as bonus audio tracks of Big Bill’s recordings of the tunes on this lesson. Big Bill Broonzy (June 26 1903 August 15 1958) was an incredible Americanblues singer songwriter and guitarist. His career began in the 1920s when he played country blues to mostly black audiences. Through the 1930s and 1940s he successfully navigated a transition in style to a more urban blues sound popular with white audiences. In the 1950s a return to his traditional folk-blues roots made him one of the leading figures of the emerging American folk music revival and an international star. He was one of the first bluesmen to tour in Europe and his performances and records influenced folk guitars from John Renbourn Martin Carthy Stefan Grossman and Davey Graham to rock guitarists as Eric Clapton (who recorded several Big Bill tunes on his Unplugged CD) to Ron Wood of the Rolling Stones who said: 'Big Bill’s Guitar Shuffle was one of the first tracks I learnt to play but even to this day I can't play it exactly right.'