Product: Guitar Artistry of Eric Bibb
Rating: 3.0
The original "Son of Leon" describes his life and plays his music.
This is another is really fine series of "Guitar Artistry of...." Videos from Stefan Grossman's Vestapol label. Grossman, a fine guitarist in his own right, and a long time student of Rev. Gary Davis, has been releasing video since back in the old VHS days. Though some contained performances, Grossman's main product was the guitar tutorial: a series of video lessons by some of the true experts in finger picking.As a person who loves to hear good guitar playing but is "all-thumbs" when it comes to actually playing, I always look forward to a new video of performance - or, as in the case of this DVD, interview and performance. This - one of the new batch from Vestapol - is by blues guitarist Eric Bibb.Bibb, the son of legendary folk singer Leon Bibb, grew up in Greenwich Village in New York and was always surrounded by folk music in the early 1960s. Frequent guests to the house were Pete Seeger, Dave Van Ronk and even a young Bob Dylan. But New York wasn't for him. At 18 he left for Paris and became friends with - and was mentored by - Mickey Baker (of the 50s pop song duo Mickey & Sylvia - "Love is Strange"). From Baker he learned about pre-war blues and dedicated his career to both playing earlier songs and writing new ones in that style.For this 96-minute DVD, Bibb plays 17 songs and discusses his life and career - and opinions - between the songs. Bibb is cerainly opinionated when it comes to racial matters. He talks about the fact that he feels that white music reseachers don't give a fair shake to black musicians. He seems to ignore that fact that there were not many blacks researching the black southern blues culture in the 1940s and 1950s when the Lomaxs, Sam and Ann Charters and, later, photographer Dick Waterman, were recording, documenting and bringing Blues legends like Bukka White, Sonny Boy Williamson, Lead Belly and Mississippi John Hurt north to find them a paying audience and get their music played. Once I got beyond Bibb's opinions, I was able to enjoy his playing and singing.Because Bibb does not introduce each song by name, it would have been helpful to have the song title appear briefly on the screen (at the bottom), but that is a minor point.Like the other "Guitar Artistry" DVDs, this one serves two purposes: to inform and entertain non-musicians like myself and to educate those who play guitar. The camera work is exceptional and the close-ups so sharp that you can often read the label inside the guitar!While this is not my favorite DVD from the pack of rent releases, blues guitar players, as well as Bibb fans should check it out. My rating is based on how much I liked this DVd and, of course, is subjective.Steve Ramm"Anything Phonographic"