Masters of the Country Blues - Rev. Gary Davis and Sonny Terry (1995)

Taken from kinescopes of performances filmed by the Seattle Folk Society, these two black-and-white performances offer unique looks at two blues legends: blind older musicians who spent their lives keeping a musical tradition alive. A stern-looking the Reverend Gary Davis has a finger-picking style that is both spare and stunningly intricate as he plays instrumentals ("Slow Drag," "Candy Man"), spirituals ("I Heard the Angels Singing"), and down and dirty blues songs ("She Wouldn't Say Quit," "Where'd You Get Your Liquor"). Sonny Terry, who spent years partnered with guitarist Brownie McGhee, offers a master class in blues harmonica, accompanying himself on both traditional tunes ("Easy Rider") and originals (the ironically titled "I Got My Eyes on You"). Terry tears it up, alternating wonderfully bent notes with whoops and hollers on "Hootin' the Blues." Though short (an hour), it's an impressive document of a dying musical style. --Marshall Fine Amazon.com

Obscure Wonderful Blues

Although I have seen Sonny Terry in person many times, I had never seen any footage of Reverend Gary Davis. These are two of my all time favorite artists, and here they are, together on one dvd.
The clips used, unfortunately, consist of each artist sitting on a stool without an audience, and just playing a little stiffly. However, this may be the only available video of Gary Davis, who knows. I have never seen Sonny Terry perform without Brownie McGhee, so this was a little different. Great stuff, though.
This dvd has more historical value than entertainment value, but, if you are into acoustic blues, this is wonderful.
The dvd I received, although new, did not play very well, and skipped the middle of the disc. It played well enough, though, but if I seriously want to listen to the music, I would rather play their CDs. September 30, 2008

See what you always wanted to see

Two of the most rootfull bluesmen: Rev. Gary Davis and Sonny Terry, introduced by another leggend of music, Taj Majal. This video shows us the power and the glory of the songs, hymns and other compositions by Rev. Davis. With powerfull voice and a marvelous guitar he celebrates with holy grace of the Lord. Sonny Terry makes an exceptional and rare solo performance that reveals his skills as harp player and shows the very escense of whoopi'n the blues as no one ever. An exceptional testimony of two greats of the blues music ever. December 29, 2000

More reviews at Amazon.com ...