Big Bill Broonzy (June 26, 1903 - August 15, 1958) was an incredible American blues 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.

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.

Guitar Shuffle

Oh Yes

Glory of Love

Banker’s Blues

Stovepipe Stomp

Shuffle Rag

St. Louis Blues

Shelby County Blues

Slow Blues

Bill Bailey