John Jackson grew up in rural Virginia, listening to the older musicians around him and the blues stars whose records he heard on his family's wind-up phonograph. For a while in his youth, he played at country dances, but mostly he just picked the guitar and banjo for his own amusement, and his tastes ranged from the Piedmont blues of Blind Blake, Josh White and Blind Boy Fuller to the hillbilly yodels of Jimmie Rodgers and an old-time banjo style that reached back to the 19th century. “I can play most anything I put my mind to if I want to,” he would say, with a big smile. “Blues, mountain hoedowns dance tunes... I don't get into soul or disco or rap music or nothing like that, but I ain't got anything against it; it just didn't come along when I did.”

Jackson always seemed supremely relaxed and easy-going, but under his friendly country manner he was an indefatigable worker. He recalled a time when musicians would walk twenty miles over dirt roads to get to a house party, play till the wee hours of the morning, then walk home and put in a full day on the farm, and he kept numerous jobs – most famously as a grave digger – into his seventies. He was just as dedicated onstage, an all-around entertainer who mixed his songs with jokes and stories and tried to give his audiences a sense not only of the music he loved, but of the world that had produced it.

That world is long gone, but it lives on in the loping rhythms of Jackson's intricate guitar picking and the mellow flow of his honey-slow Virginia drawl. This is old-time, back-porch country music, played by a man who always seemed like he was just kicking back and enjoying himself with some friends, but put all he had into every note.

An American Songster Documentary by Renato Tonelli, 1986 • from Horses Sing None of It! 1999 Diddie Wa Diddie, Ralph Litwin Introduces John, Chesterfield, Albums That John Recorded, Bootlegger Blues, John’s Hunting Story, Boats Up The River, About Playing Banjo, When You And I Were Young, Maggie, Key To The Highway, Buckets Got A Hole In It, Troublin’ Mind, Growing Up and Playing Music, Midnight Hour Blues, Reuben, Banjo Technique, Kneel At The Cross, A Fishing Story, San Francisco Bay Blues • from University of Washington 1970 That Will Never Happen No More, John’s Rag

Running Time: 88 minutes

Review: This 88-minute DVD features material that was only previously available on video, and most of the footage up until now has been very hard to locate. An American Songster, a documentary directed by Renato Tonelli and released in 1986, starts the disc off on a high note showing Jackson at home, at work, and in concert over a seven year period. The charismatic Jackson speaks about his early life and his musical influences, and his passion for his music is obvious and infectious. The film shows him digging graves, which he did for many years, but thankfully by 1986 he is using a back hoe. He talks with passion about his impressive collection of Civil War artifacts, which he has dug up around Fairfax, Virginia, his home. There is delightful footage of his wife Cora telling how she would travel with her husband but would not fly.

Folklorists Charles and Nancy Perdue recall when they first met Jackson, in 1964, and explain how they subsequently launched his concert and touring career. One of the highlights of this outstanding collection is the footage filmed in New York City in 1986 in which Jackson talks and plays alongside New York City-based musician Larry Johnson. From the same session comes tantalizingly short footage of Cephas and Wiggins performing, including a wonderful outing with North Carolina acoustic bluesman John Dee Holman. A number of shots show Jackson performing in concert, where his complex and authoritative acoustic guitar playing is at its very best.

Two of the films here, which appeared on television in 1999, feature Jackson as the guest of Ralph Litwin on his show Horses Sing None,of It. Jackson appears relaxed and happy and talks freely about his life with grace and humor. Jackson even plays the banjo on the show- (he is quite a picker) and slide guitar, laying the guitar across his lap.

The last two songs, That Will Never Happen No More and John's Rag, both recorded at the University of Washington in 1970, bring this collection to a perfect close, with Jackson playing and singing with authority. For the later part of his career Jackson was ably managed by his friend Trish Byerly, who brought his music to a much wider audience on both sides of the Atlantic. Jackson only released a few albums, and his last release from 1999, Front Porch Blues (Alligator ALCD 4867), is worth tracking down; along with his collection it will only enhance his reputation even further.

Bob Tilling / Living Blues

Review: John Jackson worked wonders with six strings. Just as did the inventors-- Blind Blake, Blind Boy Fuller, Rev. Gary Davis-- of the East Coast school of pick-and-roll, so did the soft-spoken Virginian turn an acoustic guitar into a mini-band. The crisp, clean, syncopated burn from his flying fingers, capped off with a caramel thick baritone, was pure Piedmont bliss. The DVD Collection collectively spans Jackson's career by pooling three very different film sources: a pair of 1970 songs for the University of Washington, Renato Tonelli's 1986 American Songster documentary, and an intimate 1999 TV visit to Horses Sing None of It. The earliest footage finds the newly-'discovered' songster at home in Fairfax busily playing away in bib overalls and later, casually blowing through "John's Rag" with offhanded virtuosity before campus cameras. Then it's onto festival stages - and even behind stages to swap licks with fellow fingerstylists Larry Johnson, Cephas &
 Wiggins, and John Dee Holeman. His final showcase wonderfully comes as a loose and lengthy session televised three years before passing at age 77. While Jackson's humble warmth radiates out from interviews and a few tall tales, the big heat emits from his masterful performances. Nimbly picking Blake's "Diddie Wa Diddie," Hank Williams' "Bucket's Got A Hole In It” and his own "Boats Up The River," sliding through "John Henry," gliding across "Kneel At The Cross" lap-style, and banging out "Reuben" from a ringing banjo: all glow with humble brilliance.

Dennis Rozanski    Blues Rag

vestapol 13116dvd  $24.95