DVD honors the spirit, vivacity of classic blues

Classic blues is something we’ve heard a lot more of than seen over the years because there is so little footage of the great early blues musicians. “The American Folk Blues Festival: The British Tours” DVD series reminds us of what we’ve been missing.

We not only get to see such vital figures as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Sister Rosetta Tharpe on the just-released Volume 4 in the series, but we also see them at a key period in their careers.

Though most of England’s young musicians were first turned on to rock by ‘50s pioneers such as Elvis Presley and Chuck Berry, it was the hard-core blues character and spirit of the artists who performed on the “Festival” tours in the ‘60s that helped cement the musical commitment of such figures as Eric Clapton, Robert Plant and the Rolling Stones.

“I was at these shows in shabby provincial England in the mid-’60s,” the Led Zeppelin singer has said of the “Festival” series. “Those eerie voices from another world lit up my life, leaving me breathless, spooked and inspired for a lifetime.”

Various Artists

“The American Folk Blues Festival: The British Tours 1963-1966”

Hip-O Records

The back story: Watching the 18 performances in the new volume, it’s easy to understand the excitement of those tours -- and not just on the part of the audiences. Because their careers had largely evaporated in the U.S. by then, the artists themselves seemed thrilled by the enthusiastic reaction night after night.

Though the blues contributed so much to the birth of rock, most of the mainline blues figures were largely ignored in this country in the late ‘50s as teens raced to embrace younger (generally) rock stars. Waters, for instance, found his U.S. audience so reduced that the singer-guitarist was so delighted by the response on a 1958 trip to England that he returned there regularly, including as a member of the “Festival” cast in 1963. He’s seen on the new DVD performing his sexy signature tune, “Got My Mojo Working,” from that tour. The collection also has clips of the Mississippi Delta native doing two additional numbers from a 1964 British TV special, “The Blues and Gospel Train.”

While Waters tended to stand in one spot while singing, there was so much tension and energy in his music that he couldn’t help but move his head and shoulders from side to side.

But Tharpe, the guitar-wielding, gospel-blues singer who appeared on the same TV special, rocked her entire body as she sang two numbers with such verve that it’s a wonder she hasn’t been given more attention over the years by rock fans.

In “Shout, Sister, Shout!,” a marvelous new biography by Gayle F. Ward, the author describes Tharpe’s bending of secular and spiritual traditions. “She was a woman of many guises,” Wald writes. “She could play the sincere penitent, the deep spiritualist, the saintly believer, or she could play the humorous exhibitionist, the uninhibited flirt, the needy child.”

Gayle said Tharpe’s influence was especially strong on many of the young, gospel-minded rockabilly stars at Sun Records. Jerry Lee Lewis, for instance, even sang a Tharpe gospel number when auditioning for the label’s owner, Sam Phillips.

Howlin’ Wolf, another Mississippi native, was as riveting as Tharpe in two “Festival” numbers with a band that included bassist Willie Dixon and pianist Hubert Sumlin.

While those performances are enough to make new “Festival” edition a treat, the DVD -- released in association with Reelin’ in the Years Productions and Hip-O Records -- also includes tunes by Sonny Boy Williamson, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Big Joe Turner. Highlights of earlier editions include John Lee Hooker and T-Bone Walker on Volume 1, Victoria Spivey’s version of “Black Snake Blues” on Volume 2 and Big Mama Thornton and Waters again on Volume 3. Treasures all.

One more thing / Monterey Pop: The Monterey International Pop Festival, the first of the great ‘60s rock festivals, was held 40 years ago next month. Razor & Tie / Starbucks Entertainment is releasing a two-disc highlights package, “Monterey Pop Festival,” which contains three previously unreleased tracks: Simon & Garfunkel’s “Homeward Bound” and “The Sound of Silence,” and Buffalo Springfield’s “For What It’s Worth.” The package, with liner notes by former Rolling Stones manager Andrew Loog Oldham, will be released next Tuesday. In addition, VH1 will premiere the documentary “Monterey 40” on June 16 to mark the anniversary.

Backtracking, a biweekly feature, highlights CD reissues and other historical pop music items.