Nothing But The Blues (DVD)

Eric Clapton’s lifelong passion for the blues burns brightly in Nothing But The Blues. The film – which was broadcasted once in the U.S. on PBS in 1995 and nominated for an Emmy® Award – has been upgraded to 4K for its long-awaited official release.

Written and produced by Scooter Weintraub and executive produced by Martin Scorsese, the documentary includes an in-depth interview with Clapton conducted by Scorsese. Throughout the interview, Clapton discusses his love for the blues and the profound impact bluesmen like Muddy Waters and B.B. King had on his music. Many of those artists (Robert Johnson, Howlin’ Wolf, Buddy Guy, T-Bone Walker) appear in the film through vintage performances, interviews, and photographs.

At the heart of the film format is Clapton’s performances of blues standards and
lesser-known blues songs. The DVD contains 20 songs. Two nights at the Fillmore in San Francisco (November 8 & 9, 1994) were filmed and recorded during his acclaimed From The Cradle tour, and the highlights from the two shows were selected for this release. Likewise, Clapton’s longtime co-producer, Simon Climie, has remixed the audio from those performances from the original multi-tracking recordings.

The previously unreleased live performances on NOTHING BUT THE BLUES serve as a vital counterpart to From The Cradle, which was recorded in the studio. While several songs appear on both (“Motherless Child,” “Standing ’Round Crying,” and “I’m Tore Down”), the performances are entirely different.

The soundtrack also includes songs that did not appear on From the Cradle, including Jimmy Rogers’ “Blues All Day Long” and Robert Johnson’s “Malted Milk,” as well as the standards “Every Day I Have The Blues” and “Forty-Four.”