Guitar Artistry of Ari Eisinger

Product Description Contrary to the rumors, blues and ragtime guitarist Ari Eisinger has only 10 fingers. It just sounds as if he has more. His mission is to preserve the classic blues and ragtime tunes from the 1920s and 1930s. - The Plain Dealer He's a fingerpicking guitar player par excellence who specializes in country blues and ragtime from the 1920s and 1930s... His playing is astoundingly complex and precise, obviously reverential yet filled with personal touches... A brilliant musician... he sounds like four people playing at once. - The Philadelphia Inquirer Ari Eisinger is one of the most dazzling country blues and ragtime guitarists playing today. Listen to his astonishing performances of the music of Blind Blake and you will hear things no guitar player has managed to pull off since Blake himself disappeared in the early 1930s. The sportin' right hand, the piano rhythms, the notes everybody else leaves out - they're all there. "One of the finest fingerpickers I've heard anywhere," "One of the top guitarists in the country," "One of the finest interpreters of traditional blues and ragtime"" - these are just a few of the reactions from critics and fellow musicians to Ari's remarkable way with the blues of the 1920s and '30s. Able to shift effortlessly from complex East Coast ragtime to the propulsive rhythm of the guitar evangelists to down-home Texas country blues, Ari is one of the most authentic musicians you are ever likely to encounter. His interpretations of the songs of masters like Blind Lemon Jefferson, Memphis Minnie and Reverend Gary Davis have been called "downright spooky" for the way the styles of these pioneering guitar heroes are brought vibrantly back to life. Whether he is taking on the crystal tone and virtuosity of Lonnie Johnson or the liquid bends of Josh White played on a low-tuned Stella guitar, Ari deftly recalls the great music of the past while bring-ing his own brilliant musical personality to bear on some of the neglected classics of the blues. Based in Philadelphia, Ari has toured across the US and performed in the UK and Japan, sharing the bill along the way with artists like Doc Watson, John Jackson, Dave Van Ronk, Paul Geremia and Taj Mahal. He has led guitar classes both in the US and the UK, and he is a featured instructor for Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop. Opportunities to see him in concert don't happen nearly as often as fans would like, so this collection of Ari performing some of his favorite material, filmed in 2001 and 2009, will be a welcome treat. DVD is region 0, playable worldwide. Review Ari Eisinger doesn't look like your typical bluesman. A science teacher, maybe, but not a blues singer/guitarist. Which proves Willie Dixon's line - You can't judge a book by looking at the cover. Behind his low-key demeanor and DIY aesthetic, Eisinger can play the blues - specifically country blues of the '20s and '30s - about as well as anybody alive. The Philadelphian has released only two CDs on his Second Wind label (his debut, You Don't Understand and 2005's That Will Never Happen No More) and, having tackled the styles of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lonnie Johnson, and Blind Boy Fuller in previous instructional videos, he now climbs the Mount Everest of ragtime/blues - the music of Blind Blake. But the bigger news is the DVD devoted to his own playing, The Guitar Artistry Of Ari Eisinger. As is clearly evident by his graying, receding hair, the video was taped in two sessions. In the 2001 session, Eisinger plays a 1960 Gibson LG-1; in the 2009 session, he plays a parlor-sized Stella Concert from approximately 1920. After singing "Jesus Gonna Make Up My Dying Bed," a song usually associated with Josh White, the 52-year-old talks about his first guitar lessons with Roger Sprung and later studying with Bob Zaidman, as well as soaking up LP reissues of blues 78s. In the 90-minute DVD, he goes on to illustrate the influence of Mississippi John Hurt, Charlie Jordan, Rev. Gary Da