DVD Review - You See Me Laughin' (Fat Possum, 2003)

Subtitled The Last of the Hill Country Bluesmen this DVD documents the music and lives of the Mississippi bluesmen that the Fat Possum label brought out of obscurity, or at least into less obscure obscurity, if such a thing is possible. R.L. Burnside and Junior Kimbrough are the most famous of the musicians profiled here, but also featured are Cedell Davis, Asie Payton and T-Model Ford. Each has an amazing story to tell, but perhaps none more than Davis who survived a multitude of childhood diseases including polio, and a severe beating that left him hospitalized for 5 months. He re-learned to play the guitar in a unique manner and kept right on playing the blues. You really get the sense of the grinding poverty in which the musicians live and the great spirit they brought to their music. Several of the musicians profiled here have since passed on, but this video and the music they have left us will be an unending tribute to their artistry.

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