Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

This Albert King-Stevie Ray Vaughan combo CD/DVD package is worth the price a thousand times over for anyone with even a remote interest, let alone a love of electric blues. I have been an electric blues fanatic for over a quarter of a century and probably twenty-five-per-cent of my free time is spent listening to electric blues... researching electric blues... and spreading the gospel to age groups and races of all kinds. My all-time favorite electric blues CD is Albert and Stevie on the "original" **IN SESSION** which was created from a TV program in Canada on **DECEMBER 6, 1983** a date that will definitely live on for eternity as a sacred day in the history of **ELECTRIC BLUES**. The original *IN SESSION** CD was released in 1999. It is no exaggeration to say that I have played this CD close to a thousand times. Being that two types of people will probably be reading this review: 1) Someone who already has the original CD and is wondering if it's worth it to lay out what I believe is a steal of a price for the DVD... and 2) Someone who doesn't own the original CD and wonders if they should make the purchase at all... even with the priceless inclusion of this newly released DVD. I obviously, as stated above have the original CD, but I've been searching and hoping and praying for eleven years for a DVD version, because, besides the unmatchable, otherworldly, electrical blues magic these two titanic icons of *STRING-BENDING* *ELECTRIC-BLUES* invented together on that day when all the blues planets aligned just perfectly... is much more than the music itself. Albert King was Stevie's idol... and the vocal interactions between... and during the songs... were so touching and awe inspiring... that the thousand times I listened to the original CD I used to try to imagine what the expressions were on their faces. There were also times when I didn't know for sure who was bending the lead and who was following. You will know it all on this super-stupendous DVD. One fact a potential buyer should be aware of is that the classic "BLUES AT SUNRISE" though on the CD is not on the DVD. Now that of course is a shame. BUT... BUT... BUT... On the DVD are a couple of songs that I personally have never heard Albert and Stevie do together... especially in such length... and of course not visually. On the DVD they perform **TEXAS FLOOD** together and I mean it when I say that in my blues dominated adult life... I have never seen nor heard such an ethereal heavenly electric blues performance. The entire DVD is *ONE-HOUR-TWENTY-SEVEN-MINUTES-LONG* and not one minute of it is below sensational. *TEXAS FLOOD* is approximately fifteen-minutes long and the string bending from each of these virtuosos has not and CANNOT be duplicated by anyone else on this planet. Another mind-blowing addition to the DVD is Albert's anthem *BORN UNDER A BAD SIGN*... if you're a blues fan who has seen Albert play this... hold on to your seat... as Stevie helps bring it to another level. Another showstopper on the DVD but not previously on the CD is *I'M GONNA MOVE TO THE OUTSKIRTS OF TOWN*. If you've been away from true-true electric blues for too long, and aren't sure what the true definition really is... watch and listen to this... there WILL BE NO DOUBT! This is what it can be... but unfortunately may never be again. Another question a potential buyer might have is... this was filmed twenty-seven-years-ago... is it clean and clear? Hell yes! It is crystal clear in color and sound. What else might be important along with the previous items? Emotion... soul... affection for each other... respect... for each other and the blues. You can't miss it. They chit-chat... they exchange glances... they wink at each other... (All the things I could only dream about the last eleven years that I listened to the original CD.)... they sit while they play... they jump up and bend their bodies when they become one with the music... one with their guitar... one with each other. I got goose bumps and actually had tears in my eyes a couple of times. At times they were so fired up that they leaned toward each other and gave each other a soul handshake. There are also a couple of shots of the few technicians off to the side of the stage... and I guarantee you that the expressions on their faces were self-evident... that they knew they were in the presence of electric-blues-genius... and a day like this may never be seen again. Albert King who stood 6-foot-five-inches-tall and weighed at least two-hundred-fifty-pounds cast a mighty big shadow as compared to the diminutive by comparison Stevie Ray... but all size was equalized by the purity of the string-bending-blues that reigned supreme that glorious day. A true electric blues aficionado should also note that the left-handed King "played with his guitar held upside-down, treble strings up, causing him to bend his strings down, among other idiosyncratic techniques." Albert's massive hands look like twin XMAS hams adorned with pinkie rings that glittered like Super Bowl rings... but like Stevie he could move them with lightning speed. As of this writing I have published four-hundred-sixty-seven-reviews on Amazon and this is the one I am recommending with the most heartfelt passion. With Albert and Stevie in heaven, I can only hope that when my day comes, if I qualify for heaven... that I'm greeted with their string bending guitars instead of an angel's harp!