On August 5, 2008 Music Video Distributors will be releasing Johnny "Guitar" Watson's Live In Concert, the DVD featuring a 1993 performance by the legendary guitarist at the North Sea Jazz Festival, held each year in Rotterdam, The Netherlands. The DVD release features over two-and-a-half hours of music and special features, including interviews with Watson, a biography of the artist, and a complete discography of the acclaimed musician.
Aside from the aforementioned North Sea Jazz Festival performance, Live In Concert also includes live footage from a 1980 Watson performance that features extended funk jams on "Booty Ooty" and "Real Mother For Ya;" an early-era Watson performing with rock-and-soul legend Bo Diddley; and four performances culled from one of Watson's final shows at the 1996 Bluesfest in Levekusen, Germany.
Johnny "Guitar" Watson's Live In Concert DVD also includes "In Memoriam," a 1996 tribute documentary that includes one of Watson's last interviews in which he talks about his music, his career, and his popularity with – and influence on – a generation of hip-hop artists. The disc also includes a 1987 radio interview with the influential bluesman.
Watson was born in Houston, Texas and was originally taught the piano by his musician father. However, inspired by Texas blues musicians like T-Bone Walker and Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown, the future fret wizard turned to guitar at the young age of 11. A natural on the instrument, Watson performed alongside such Lone Star bluesmen as Albert Collins and Johnny Copeland while still a teen.
Throughout the 1950s and '60s, Watson blazed trails in blues and R&B with his dynamic stage show and electric Texas blues sound. In the 1970s, keeping up with changing musical trends, Watson reinvented himself as a funk guitarist and enjoyed a number of hit albums through the decade, each more outrageous and musically explosive than the previous. Watson continued to tour until his death in 1996, bringing his larger-than-life charisma and unique blend of blues, R&B, rock, and funk to stages across the globe.
