HOMESPUNTaught By Rory Block.
Level 3
Two Hour DVD, Includes music and tab
Learn to play the guitar style of the most influential Delta blues artist of all time! Robert Johnson’s unearthly singing and intricate Mississippi Delta style slide guitar have inspired innumerable players in the decades since his untimely death in 1938. On this exciting, jam-packed DVD lesson, the award-winning contemporary blues singer and guitarist Rory Block completely demystifies the licks, runs, strums, bass lines, turnarounds and other important guitar elements that combine to make up the unique Robert Johnson sound.
Working in open G and D tunings, Rory provides a series of informational keys – specific guitar techniques that “open doors and unlock information” to allow you to play any song in Robert Johnson’s repertoire. She works with you on getting a good slide sound, and details the percussive picking and strumming skills you’ll need to achieve that special Robert Johnson feel. Rory discusses blues singing style, provides fascinating insights into the Mississippi blues, and shows how to establish the energy, drive and motivation that will make you a funkier, more interesting player.
Although these skills pertain to any Robert Johnson song, you’ll learn detailed renditions of If I Had Possession Over Judgement Day, Terraplane Blues and Preaching Blues.
Review:
Rory Block is a national musical treasure. Her unwavering dedication to country
blues guitar for 40 years has produced a body of work second to none while shining
a light on the legendary artists who inspired her as a teenager in Greenwich
Village. Her love and passion for the music comes through from the very beginning
of her excellent, two-hour tutorial on the blues styles of Robert Johnson…. Her
sincere, enthusiastic manner invites the student into her world of blues guitar
and made this veteran picker want to grab his axe and play along. Though beginners
will be justly rewarded, this DVD is meant for intermediate to advanced fingerstyle
country blues guitarists and is recommended without reservation. - Dave Rubin,
Play Blues Guitar
World renowned for her mastery of country blues, Rory Block
has won the W.C. Handy award for “Traditional Blues Female Artist of the Year”
in 1997 and 1998 and “Acoustic Blues Album of the Year” in 1996 & 1999. Add
to these laurels her latest award, the French “Trophees France Blues 98 -- International
Guitarist Acoustique ‘98” -- and one can see that Rory Block has become one of
the all-time highest regarded blues artists in the world. Block plays regularly to devoted, enthusiastic audiences throughout America and Europe. She’s performed and recorded with an such luminaries as Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Wonder, Mark Knopfler, Taj Mahal, Keb’ Mo, Jorma Kaukonen, the Band, Mary Chapin Carpenter and many others. She is an esteemed presence as a songwriter, having garnered not only a gold record in Europe for her album, Best Blues And Originals, but has also won three INDIE awards for “Best Adult Contemporary Album of the Year.”
She is beloved for the power and honesty of her songwriting and for the unique directness and passion of her performances.
"Rory Block has been an inspiration to me since we started out years
ago. Her guitar playing, singing and songwriting are some of the most soulful
in traditional and modern blues." Bonnie Raitt