Ever since his debut 1957 album, GANGSTER OF LOVE, this seminal blues musician has had an almost singularly far-reaching influence on not only blues and soul, but also rock, funk, rhythm and blues, and hip-hop. Included here is a late-career performance in which Johnny Guitar Watson revisits his timeless work at the North Sea Jazz Festival in 1993, by which the time the number of other artists influenced by these gems had grown to countless proportions.

Johnny 'Guitar' Watson was one of the hottest and most influential rocking blues guitarists of the Fifties, playing a pivotal role in the development of rock 'n' roll from its R&B roots and pioneering the use of feedback and reverberation in the process. Watson's groundbreaking recordings from the Fifties were technically years ahead of their time. This DVD, filmed at the 1993 North Sea Jazz Festival, captures Watson in blistering form, playing a selection of his most popular numbers, including the hits 'Gangster Of Love', 'I Need It' and 'A Real Mother For Ya'. It also includes seven bonus tracks filmed at one of his last ever appearances, at the 1996 Bluesfest in Levekusen, Germany. Inspired by innovative guitarists Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown and T-Bone Walker, Watson's own virtuoso and flashy guitar style and stage pyrotechnics in turn were to influence countless R&B and rock guitarists who followed in his wake, ranging from Bo Diddley to Jimi Hendrix, from Ike Turner to Frank Zappa. His greatest commercial success surfaced in the Seventies when he re-invented himself as a pimp-styled funkster and was in the midst of another career revival when he died in 1996.

Blues | Blues Music | Blues Singers | Concert | Concerts | Funk | Guitarists | Guitars | Live Performances | Music (General) | Music Video | R&B / Soul

Genre:

• R&B / Soul

Movie Categories:

• Musical & Performing Arts: Pop Music

Product Groupings:

• Clearance DVDs