In September 2006 San Diego hosted the world premiere of Primal Twang: The Legacy of the Guitar – the first definitive theatrical journey through the guitar's colorful and surprisingly controversial 3500-year history. This performance was captured on film and combines onstage narration, video projections of rare historical footage and of course performances by living legends such as Doc Watson, Doyle Dykes, Albert Lee and Eric Johnson. I wasn’t actually aware that this was a narrated story but it makes for an interesting experience rather than just performance after performance and you get a brief history of the guitar through the ages starting from the early renaissance through to modern day. The 7 piece band onstage are all excellent musicians and are a perfect backup for the star guests throughout the story. Some of the standout performances are Eric Johnson’s epic version of his classic track “Cliffs of Dover” which has an incredible intro, as well as his cover of Hendrix’s “Bold As Love”. Also Albert Lee’s “Tear It Up” does just that and showcases his vocal and fretboard skills, he really is a classic country shredder! As the narration moves into Blues territory there is a great rendition of “The Sky Is Crying” by Jon Walmsley & The Primal Twang Band showing the introduction of slide guitar into Blues music. There is also a great Flamenco performance including an onstage Flamenco dancer which shows the evolution of folk music in Europe.
Aside from the main performance the DVD includes some special features including 7 bonus tracks from Eric Johnson, Doyle Dykes and Doc Watson, interviews with the guitarists including the Classical Gas composer Mason Williams and some behind the scenes footage.
I think that the idea for this performance was really great but a lot of the music is not really my thing I suppose what I would have really liked would be to have the real superstars of guitar contribute, like having someone like BB King in the Blues Section or Larry Carlton or George Benson in the Jazz section and Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck taking the story from the 60′s and upward but I imagine putting a show like this together is hard enough without getting all the big names! Nevertheless this DVD is certainly worth checking out, go to Primal Twang’s website for more information or to order a copy.
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