Featuring Big Bill Broonzy, Mississippi John Hurt, Son House, Mance Lipscomb, Rev. Gary Davis, Henry Townsend, Robert Pete Williams, Josh White & Brownie McGhee Blues music was developed at the beginning of the twentieth century by rural black musicians. They shaped it with brilliant inspiration from disparate elements of black song. By the early 1920s recorded urban performers solidified the standard three-verse, 12 bar meter structure that has identified most blues. The blues revival of the early 1960s brought many of these survivors to the forefront of traditional music. The rare footage presented in this video is a treasure beyond imagining, drawn from a myriad of sources, depicting some of the greatest blues musicians who ever lived. Running Time: 60 minutes DVD is region 0, playable worldwide

Mance Lipscomb: Silver City & Angel Child (KLRU-TV, 1972)

Mississippi John Hurt: Spike Driver Blues & You're Going to Walk That Lonesome Valley (Pete Seeger’s Rainbow Quest, 1966)

Henry Townsend: Cairo Blues (Legacy Productions, circa 1965)

Son House: Death Letter Blues (Camera Three circa 1965) & I Had a Women in Hughes (BBC 1972)

Reverend Gary Davis: Children of Zion (Pete Seeger’s Rainbow Quest, 1966) & Death don’t Have No Mercy (Lionel Rogosin’s Black Roots, 1970)

Big Bill Broonzy: Worried Man Blues, Barrelhouse Rag, How You Want it Done, John Henry, Blues in E (circa 1950’s)

Robert Pete Williams: Mamie (Univ. of Washington Ethnomusicology Archives, 1968)

Brownie McGhee: Don’t Kid Me (Pete Seeger’s Rainbow Quest, 1966)

Josh White: Jelly Jelly (1965)