MEDIA
Preview
BY CHRIS KIES, BRANDON BRINSON
AND JOE COFFEY
DVD
Down the Tracks:
The Music That
Influenced Led
Zeppelin
If you ask a guitarist
about what/who
gave them the
“itch” to play,
there’s a good
chance they’ll
mention Led
Zeppelin, or
more specifically Jimmy
Page. But do you ever wonder
who inspired these Rock ‘n’ Roll giants
who played the blues on steroids? Down
the Tracks: The Music That Influenced
Led Zeppelin investigates the matter.
In this documentary-style DVD, authors,
producers, historians and musicians explore
the roots of Zeppelin’s use of various styles
and sounds. It starts by telling a story of
how Plant and Page realized they could
work together. Apparently, the two spent a
few days and nights talking about and listening to music. They found a commonality in
the Delta Blues movement lead by Charley
Patton, Howlin’ Wolf and Robert Johnson.
Other areas of confluence were exhibited by
Bukka White, Muddy Waters, Elvis Presley
and Scotty Moore. The DVD brings these artists into a chronological story, weaving video
and audio clips into the narrative. In addition,
it includes actual performances by Davey
Graham, Cadillac John and Bob Brozman,
showcasing how each had an independent,
yet complementary effect on the pioneering
British heavy metal band.
The DVD doesn’t focus too heavily on
the actual band, nor does it purport to.
Instead it dives deep and provides a rich
background of information and insight into
what drove Zeppelin in the direction they
went. What’s particularly inspiring is the
DVD’s ability to remind you how influential
and relevant those artists and their music
continue to be nearly a hundred years later.
-CK
Street $12.99
eaglerockent.com
Mark Tremonti:
The Sound and
The Story
With an intro by none
other than Paul Reed
Smith himself, and
guest lessons by Rusty
Cooley, Michael Angelo
Batio, and Troy Stetina,
this first guitar entry in
the The Sound and The
Story series featuring Mark Tremonti is a star-studded instructional video with something
for nearly everyone. Tremonti addresses all
areas of fretboard mastery in his revamping of
the instructional DVD genre.
Effortless and unpretentious, Tremonti spends
the first part of the video walking viewers
through some of the solos on Alter Bridge’s
latest album, Blackbird. For each solo, there is
a live video, an explanation of the writing and
recording process, a breakdown of the solo
played both at speed and slowly, and then a
demonstration of the entire thing once again.
The strength of this DVD is in the individual
technique lessons. Spending time on acoustic
work, vibrato, legato, picking, and rhythm
playing, Tremonti gives exercises and pointers that could help beginners and seasoned
veterans alike. Those picking up a guitar for
the first time should begin in the acoustic
lessons: he stresses familiarizing yourself with
different tunings to find what sounds good.
Experienced guitarists will find something to
appreciate in the legato and picking lessons
where Tremonti’s speed is on full display.
Instead of exercises that become skull-numb-ing after twenty minutes, Tremonti’s woodshedding techniques are actually musical.
The only complaint about the video is the
prevalence of half-step altered tuning during
the solo lessons—it’s slightly discouraging
to have to retune every ten minutes in order
to follow along. Granted, the solos are not
unique to the video, but playing them in standard tuning would have been appreciated.
This video breaks down the goods on one of
the hardest-working players out there, who
has managed to become a modern guitar
god. It is a comprehensive glimpse into all
aspects of playing and an encouraging lesson
to boot—with enough hard work (and practice, practice, practice), any of us can get to
where we want to be in our playing. –BB
Street $39.95
FRET12.com
Lynyrd Skynyrd:
Sweet Home Alabama
In this DVD, the boys from
Jacksonville, FL, fly the
stars and bars proudly
as they play to a sellout
crowd for the German TV
Series Rockpalast at the
open-air Loreley Festival in 1996. The
lineup includes three original members: Gary
Rossington (guitar), Leon Wilkeson (bass) and
Billy Powell (keyboards). Singer Johnny Van
Zant, Ronnie’s brother, belts it out and tells
Southerner’s tales with a sound and passion
eerily reminiscent of his older brother.
The show was captured with booms and lenses
that offer sweeping, widescreen overhead
shots of the full band and plenty of uninterrupted close-ups of those oh-so-familiar licks like
Rossington’s bird chirp sounds during his “Free
Bird” slide solo. Other fan favorites in the set list
include “Saturday Night Special,” “That Smell”
and “Call Me the Breeze.”
What really brings this DVD package full-circle
is the fact that it includes three songs from the
1974 lineup, which played the same German
TV series 22 years earlier when they opened
for Queen. The show took place in Hamburg
at an indoor club accommodating about 2,000
fans. The film work from this gig is on the raw
side—done with four 16 mm cameras—but it
has a fly-on-the-wall way of bringing you into
the band’s early energy just as it was jumpstart-ing its launch into fame.
It won’t receive the notoriety the DVD
Freebird: The Movie did because most of the
footage is from an updated reincarnation of
Skynyrd, but Southern rock enthusiasts will
appreciate this DVD’s modern production quality with a shot of history. -CK
Street $14.98
eaglerockent.com
