The OG funkateer and innovator of all things electric guitar Jimi Hendrix has gotten PBS' American Masters treatment in the full length documentary Hear My Train a Comin', which is officially streaming for free (!) on their site. The documentary follows the guitar god's ascent to the peak of both rock stardom and the world's music scene alike. Some say his outlandish stage performance was meant to veil his ever-humble and painfully shy personality, but this writer believes that if you've ever seen footage of those mythological late-60's sets, what you really witnessed was a man channeling every spirit of the guitar lexicon (Chuck Berry, Bo Diddly, Curtis Mayfield, Elmore James, BB King, and Muddy Waters) and throwing fists with them on a wholly metaphysical plane.
What comes of it is simply put, pure genius. The focused fury and lush sweetness of his playing is something that seems almost divinely ordained (never seen without his guitar, practice makes perfect folks) but there is something so organic and stupor-inducing about this purple-tinged player, that it could easily come off as a sort of alchemy or voodoo (go figure.) All of these things are reasons that you're evening should be entrenched in this somber thought-provoking documentary that attempts to treat Hendrix's artistry and legacy as seriously as he did. Watch this intimate and detailed recollection of the voodoo chile's legacy and go get yourself a copy of the doc on DVD via Amazon to peep 13 never before seen performances from the Seattle-born legend.
