Elizabeth Cotten

This two DVD set is for the beginner and intermediate guitarists who want to start fingerpicking. Rev. Gary Davis use to tell his students that playing the guitar was easy. He would say that a piano player has only two hands (the left keeps an alternating bass while the right plays a melody) but a guitarist has three hands! Our right hand thumb is one hand and plays the bass figures while our index finger is our second hand and plays the melody. Our third hand is our left hand which fingers chords. The results produce a full and orchestrated fingerstyle sound with a rhythmic bass played against melodic lines. This is the alternating bass technique which we sometimes jokingly refer to as "bum-chick." It is the most popular fingerpicking style played and has been used by legendary guitarists. Mississippi John Hurt, Rev. Gary Davis, Merle Travis, Doc Watson, Chet Atkins are but a few of the giants of this style.

With a selection of indelible recordings made over 70 years, Classic Piedmont Blues captures the essence of this fascinating blues tradition. Originating in the foothills of Southern Appalachia, the Piedmont blues served as a breeding ground for cross-pollination between traditions: rural and urban, black and white, country and coastal. Swept up on the tide of the Great Migration, it was carried from the Carolinas and Virginia, north and east through Maryland and Washington, D.C., to New York City and back again. Featuring influential artists like John Jackson, Cephas & Wiggins, Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, and many others, this collection offers an illuminating overview of the Piedmont style. 64 minutes, 36-page booklet with extensive notes.

Stepping away from the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Rhiannon Giddens teams up with producer T-Bone Burnett for her 2015 solo debut, Tomorrow Is My Turn. Giddens previously worked with Burnett on Lost on the River, an album where musicians added new music to lyrics Bob Dylan left behind during The Basement Tapes, and she also appeared in a concert he shepherded for the Coen brothers' folk revival opus Inside Llewyn Davis – two projects steeped in history, as is Tomorrow Is My Turn…