Eric had released "Me and Mr. Johnson" only six months ago. It was o.k., but I didn't see anything particularly compelling about it. Some songs were good, a continuation of the Blues material he released on "Behind the Cradle" a few years ago, only this time the focus was exclusively on Robert Johnson material, but a few were lackluster walk-throughs. In addition, the performances were entirely electric, full band efforts which is partly why I was disappointed. I felt that Eric was too comfortable hiding behind a full band set-up. For anyone who has really "gotten it" in terms of what Robert Johnson was all about, acoustic seems the way to go - you want to get to the heart of it all - you just can't hide if it's only you and the guitar. Peter Green made the same misstep a few years ago with his own Robert Johnson compilation. It too was primarily a full band set up. What you really hoped for was a stripped down session with just one guy and his guitar and some real soul - something that Robert Johnson was able to pull off in the 1930's, but something that wealthy white rockers nurtured on stadium rock don't seem to be comfortable with. Robert, after all, performed face-to-face with small house party audiences - obviously he had to bare it all night after night... Eric and Peter had gotten too comfortable with huge stadiums. Still... you have this hope that guys as talented as Peter Green and Eric Clapton have it in them somewhere and you just need to get them to take the chance. Is it possible?

This latest release by Clapton ("Sessions for Robert J.") continues to be exclusively about Robert Johnson songs. Yes, many of the songs are duplicated on the two CD releases ("Me and Mr. Johnson" and "Sessions for Robert J"), but each performance is different on the respective albums. In fact, "Sessions for Robert J." actually contains two different versions of "Hell Hound on my Trail" and "Love in Vain" (yet a third version of "Love in Vain" was originally released on "Me and Mister Johnson" so that there are now three completely different versions available).

O.K. so how is the new "Sessions for Robert J."?

In a word - "STUNNING!"

This is all that I could hope for and more since it is all on DVD in 5.1 Surround Sound. I rank this album as being quite a bit better than "From the Cradle". Watching Eric actually perform these songs on the TV screen is a revelation. And yes, some of it is just Eric and his guitar! But perhaps the best is the session where Eric plays with just one other guitar player - Doyle. It is truly entertaining to watch these guys stay in step with each other on these technically difficult songs - I have learned to play some of these songs in slide guitar and these are tough enough to just play solo!

About half of the songs are with a full band and I have to say (regardless of what I said above) that these are great! Yes, acoustic versions would be nice (and you can choose between electric and acoustic for "Hell Hound on My Trail"), but the full band approach on "Sessions for Robert J." does not disappoint at all! Eric pulls it off and really throws his heart into the performances - no "walk through" performances here! I think this is where "Sessions" outperforms the earlier "Me and Mister Johnson". I felt the energy on "Sessions" whereas "Me and Mister Johnson" seems more workman like. And I would hazard a guess to say that perhaps Eric felt the same way. After all, you have to wonder why he chose to release a second Robert Johnson album (with a huge duplication of song titles) inside of six months if he was really happy with the first effort? Well, whatever the reason, "I'm So Glad" he did! By the way, bluesman Skip James wrote that particular song, not Robert...

My favorite songs on "Sessions":

Terraplane Blues - Eric and Doyle run through this song like a sharp knife through watermelon - they absolutely nail it! I would have paid the 20 bucks just to have this one song! Historical note: this song was actually performed by Eric in the same Dallas Texas hotel third floor where Johnson originally recorded it in the 1930's! In any case, Eric's vocal is simply amazing! Wow! I have a live version of Eric doing this same song solo in 1994 (a very rare performance - I'm not aware that he ever did it again in concert during that tour) - it was one of my all time favorites and now I have the same song in much better fidelity and an even better performance! Yes, there IS a God in heaven - thank you, thank you, thank you!!!

"Rambling on my Mind" & "Stones In My Passway" - Eric performing acoustic solo. These are basically the way I always thought it should be done, one man with one guitar - Peter Green please take note!

"Milk Cow Blues", "Traveling Riverside Blues" & "If I had Possession Over Judgment Day" - Eric with the full band. These rock! Very intense and meant to be played loud. Sounds great on 5.1 DTS.

By the way, my least favorite song is "They're Red Hot" - an atypical song in the Johnson cannon, but I do like Eric's version better than Robert Johnson's original! And it is growing on me - it's just that it's too "happy" for a blues album!

Having said all this, I realize that listening to the original 1930's Robert Johnson songs on scratchy old 78s is an acquired taste for some, but this is probably because few people today are willing to listen to low-fidelity recordings. Please note that the latest releases of the original "King of The Delta Blues" (volume 1 and volume 2) have been remastered (yes, I know - how many times do they need to endlessly remaster this stuff?) and this time on some tracks the vocals and bass have a clarity and presence that far exceeds both the two Columbia box set releases and even the Gold disc. A lot of the hardness in Robert's voice remains on a few tracks, but often it has been toned down a bit in the latest transfers and the bass is much higher in the mix - overall, I think it just sounds better now even if the hiss and ticks and pops are now actually more pronounced - less digital noise reduction seems to result in better fidelity here. In any case, try these most recent remasters if you had a problem with the sound quality of the sterilizing noise reduction used on the Columbia box set (which was re-remastered a second time around 1996 when the smaller box was issued - stay away from the original long box issued in 1991 which now has the worst sound available). I have learned to play several Robert Johnson songs on slide guitar and through that experience found genius not just in his execution, which of course is perfect, but also in Robert's arrangements. The simple truth is that Robert Johnson with his limited resources (poor Black man in the 1930's in the deep South) was perhaps an even a more naturally gifted musician than Eric Clapton - if that is even possible! This assessment is reinforced by Eric himself in the section in the DVD where he discusses how hard it is for him to sing in a different tempo than the guitar as Robert often effortlessly does. So take it from there...

By the way, if you go directly to the various sessions in the DVD you will miss the mini-interviews with Eric. You have to click on "play all" to get the entire presentation. I had been just clicking on the individual sessions thereby missing the interviews until I found them accidentally.

Please note that the companion CD is missing something like half of the performances included in the DVD! My solution was to make my own compilation direct from the DVD with ALL the songs - it will fit nicely on one 80 minute CD-R.

Bottom line, Eric finally does justice to his blues influences (this is even better than "From the Cradle") and created yet another classic in the process.

Clapton has emerged, particularly since McCartney's CONCERT FOR NY, and the TRIBUTE TO GEORGE as a statesman of incomparable dignity, sublime in both the finesse and creativity that he brings to efforts whose subjects he deeply respects. It is no less the case with his most recent releases, be the homages to B B King, George, his own tours, an incredible guitar festival, and now Robert Johnson. The CD is excellent - some additional material and different takes on the ME AND MR JOHNSON release, an extraordinary document in its own right.
But what takes this to an entirely different level is the DVD. A mix of recording sessions in interesting locations (Clapton's English countryside, Johnson's former recording studio) and Clapton's reflections on his approach to Johnson and his myth, most of which Eric is keen to debunk, having been the victim of enough myths to rewrite Homer himself.
And it is just this effort of his to get to the music as he feels it and not take any of the side show for more than that that gets inside of you. You are not going to hear Robert Johnson completely re-worked. You're going to hear his tunes really honsetly delivered. There is a sublime beauty to that that just takes you to that very special place where MUSIC leans over and brings you into its confidence. And that seems to be the point for Clapton: to get inside that confidence in order to honour a man whose dedication and discipline inspired a poor English kid years ago to reach down deep.
And on both the CD and the DVD, the music is without peer. As I say, Clapton at this point in his career has acheived a level of dignity that is to be admired.

I'm a huge Clapton fan and have been Disapointed time after time after time. Releases like Pilgrim and Riding with the king have only let me down. This is the REAL thing, the music is great as is the DVD. Live in the studio, no overdubs - no nonsense.

If you like Clapton BUY this now. Proabably the best thing he's done in 20 years.

I already wrote a review for this release, but thought I would return a few months down the track and reconsider some of the content.

Upon revisiting the DVD, it becomes clear that the production values are very high, and that real time and effort was spent constructing the 'movie'. As a 'bonus' item, the DVD is exceptional in both audio and visual terms. Clapton fans are certainly being well catered for, and seeing the material 'performed' adds immeasurably to the value of the package. Clapton and co. certainly deserve applause for this attention to the 'fans'.

With releases like this, it is clear that Clapton is 'throwing in his lot' with Robert Johnson and has become (if he wasn't, indeed, before) the central organising presence in the popular musical world justifying Johnson's critical worth and encouraging his contemporary popularity. However, what becomes apparent in the 'interview' sections of the DVD is that Clapton has a somewhat wrong-headed understanding of Johnson's place in blues history (if contemporary scholarship is to be believed). At one point he places Johnson with Charley Patton, Son House and Blind Lemon Jefferson - all of whom were a generation removed from Johnson, whose first recording session was late in 1936 (ten years AFTER Jefferson began recording).

Indeed, like many, Clapton arrived at Johnson by going backwards - through Chuck Berry, Howling Wolf, Muddy Waters, etc. Therefore, he considers Johnson to be one of 'the first' - i.e. 'the thin end of the wedge' (as he puts it), rather than as one of the LAST great Delta performers. This is significant, in that it invests Johnson with a degree of 'originality' (for want of a better term) without justification. These problems are compounded by Clapton's statements regarding Johnson's repertoire. At one point in the interview segment he admits 'blues' is not the only genre of music Johnson would have played for audiences, but then later states that 'this' (i.e. 'blues') is ALL Johnson played - or COULD play, given the restrictions on what the labels would have wanted from such a performer given the time. This reduces Johnson (whose 'They're Red Hot', 'Steady Rolling Man' and 'Drunken Hearted Man' indicate an artist very much skilled in a range of styles, and willingly appropriating others), allowing him to fit snugly into the 'blues' label with little deliberation.

Indeed, Clapton appears content with the 'Robert Johnson' as presented on the liner notes for the first 1960s release of 'King of the Delta Blues Singers', a portrait that may have accorded with a romanticised 'folk' depicition of 'the blues' but which has come under scrutiny in the last decade or so - and for good reason. (See Elijah Wald's 'Escaping the Delta' for perhaps the most important understanding of Robert Johnson in blues scholarship.)

Ultimately, this package will confirm Clapton's status yet again with his (blues) audience - but that audience is entirely comfortable with Clapton and his understanding of that genre. The problem is that Clapton is as much contributing to the popular understanding of Robert Johnson with releases like this as much as he is building his OWN reputation. Not only is this a weighty endeavour, but he is willingly promoting a particular portrait of Johnson that is (somewhat) problematic. Some might suggest that, at this late stage, it hardly matters, but Robert Johnson is very much an industry - the rise and fall of which bears greatly upon the popular appreciation (and understanding of) 'the blues'. The danger is not that Clapton clearly loves this music and happily promotes it, but that it is a specific interpretation of the music that is being presented (and unconsciously so).

Yes, we all know these songs are sub-standard renderings of Johnson's material. The added acoustic element of the CD+DVD package bumps up the value for money (slightly), but it is still somewhat dull.

I'd like to concentrate here upon the DVD. Firstly, the conceit of having Clapton visit the sites of Johnson's recording sessions is interesting - if you didn't see John Hammond do it back in 1990 for his documentary 'The Search for Robert Johnson'. Clapton labours for authenticity, but the sight of him being handed guitars by his guitar techs and aides, and the undoubted preparation that went into his recording in the dilapidated warehouse district building, just seems so staged and - to be honest - so pig rich, that it irks. In Hammond's documentary, he is filmed playing in a railroad sidecar, on the streets, at crossroads (!) and the Gunter Hotel - just him and his National. It's a more honest depiction of how Johnson would have presented his music in the everyday, without the help of an entourage. (And Hammond seems to handle all the parts of Johnson's guitar work fine - debunking Clapton's insistence that he play with another guitarist [Doyle Bramhall II] in order to 'capture' the full range of what Johnson was doing).

Clapton also needs to accept a little bit more of the so-called 'revisionist' work of authors like Elijah Wald, who does a terrific job in his 'Escaping the Delta' of providing some much needed context to Robert Johnson's work. Clapton also needs to publicly state that Johnson was very much a product of records as much as everyday experience and the so-called 'juke joints': he openly lifted entire arrangements from other players that came before him. His music did not spring fully formed from his own fingers.

So, be wary of this release. The additional DVD is certainly intended to bump up sales ('Me and Mr. Johnson' is already being tossed out for $9 at my local music store), and the acoustic material is nice to listen to given the quality of the guitars, but I'd recommend John Hammond's 'The Search for Robert Johnson' if you want some general background to Johnson, and even his own CD ('At the Crossroads: Blues of Robert Johnson') which collect's Hammonds attempts at recording Johnson over the years (recordings that indeed pre-date Clapton's 60s Johnson work).

But, of course, the real place to go is the new releases of 'The King of the Delta Blues' (Vol. 1 and Vol. 2), which will give you Johnson as he's never been heard before. After that, the later, mid-90s release of 'The Complete Recordings' will give you all the alternate takes so far located.

So, this CD + DVD is best heard - and seen - once. Then discarded. Like bubblegum.