Music DVD Review: Bob Brozman Live In Germany

It was some time last winter when I first heard the guitar work of Bob Brozman. I had received his CD Blues Reflex and was left speechless by the sounds he was generating with his collection of Resonator guitars. Seeing him in action with them on his new DVD, Bob Brozman Live In Germany, I felt like I had never seen anyone play guitar before.

It wasn't as if he was doing anything brand new; in fact he was doing something so very old and simple. But it was what he was doing with those styles and how he was using his guitars to obtain his results - that was truly awe-inspiring. He had three Resonator guitars, a lap-top Hawaiian style, a ten-string ukulele from Reunion Island, and the bottleneck of a 1973 bottle of Mateus wine.

The National Company made Resonator guitars from 1926 to 1939, before the electric guitar gained wide acceptance. Its metal body and resonator cones allowed a player to generate a much louder sound for playing live and it was much beloved of many a blues player, including Robert Johnson, because of the sound it created when played with a slide.

With the refinement of the electric guitar with its pickups and volume controls, the Resonator guitar's future was guaranteed to be as bright as the dodo's. The only people playing them were people who were still wedded to recreating that original sound of the '20s and '30s. John Hammond, one of the leading exponents of that style of guitar playing still around, plays a Resonator guitar his father bought him in a pawnshop in the '50s that dates back to the '30s.

It's because of Brozman and his interest in Nationals that National-style guitars began being built again in 1989. The new company produces everything from copies of vintage guitars to new models, including a baritone with a longer neck, allowing a player to achieve a lower range than before. Working from designs Bob created, the company built a prototype for him, which he "road tested" before they put it on the market.

Okay, so why am I spending so much valuable review time for a DVD going on about guitars? You know what they say about seeing is believing? Well, let me tell you, once you see what Bob Brozman does with a Resonator guitar aside from simply strumming, plucking, picking, and fingering, you'll understand how important this instrument is to him and the music he creates.

He's a solo performer; no drummer, percussionist, or bass player to keep the rhythm for him - just him, his guitars, his guitar cases, and the wooden box he's sitting on to keep the beat. The Resonators have such a forceful sound the tempo set by his strumming hand, or even the individual fingers picking out notes, enables the rhythm to be established and maintained for the whole song.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the recently published What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and on line all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

Visit Richard Marcus's author page — Richard Marcus's Blog