An official selection at the 1992 Sundance Film Festival, Robert Mugge’s music documentary Deep Blues has now been restored and is arriving this fall. In 1990, commissioned by Dave Stewart of Eurythmics, veteran music film director Mugge and renowned music scholar Robert Palmer ventured deep into the heart of the North Mississippi Hill Country and Mississippi Delta to seek out the best rural blues acts currently working. Ahead of release at Metrograph and in Virtual Cinemas on October 13 via Film Movement, we’re pleased to debut the new trailer.
Starting on Beale Street in Memphis, they headed south to the juke joints, lounges, front porches, and parlors of Holly Springs, Greenville, Clarksdale, Bentonia, and Lexington. Along the way, they visited celebrated landmarks and documented talented artists cut off from the mainstream of the recording industry. The resulting film expresses reverence for the rich musical history of the region, spotlighting local performers,...
Starting on Beale Street in Memphis, they headed south to the juke joints, lounges, front porches, and parlors of Holly Springs, Greenville, Clarksdale, Bentonia, and Lexington. Along the way, they visited celebrated landmarks and documented talented artists cut off from the mainstream of the recording industry. The resulting film expresses reverence for the rich musical history of the region, spotlighting local performers,...
- 9/28/2021
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Former Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant is heading to Mississippi to headline a festival in the historic Delta blues town he recorded a song about in 1999.
Plant recorded "Walking Into Clarksdale" with former Zeppelin bandmate Jimmy Page and has visited the town numerous times. The rock star is returning to Clarksdale this weekend to headline the Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival's 25th anniversary celebration with his new roots-music band, the Sensational Space Shifters.
On Saturday, Plant will take the stage with Grammy-winning vocalist Patty Griffin, West African virtuoso musician Juldeh Camara, guitarists Justin Adams and Bill Fuller, keyboardist John Baggott and drummer Dave Smith.
The performance is being hailed "one of the single biggest things to happen to Clarksdale," said resident and Cat Head music store owner Roger Stolle.
"Robert Plant can do anything in the world he wants to do but chooses to come here and pay homage...
Plant recorded "Walking Into Clarksdale" with former Zeppelin bandmate Jimmy Page and has visited the town numerous times. The rock star is returning to Clarksdale this weekend to headline the Sunflower River Blues and Gospel Festival's 25th anniversary celebration with his new roots-music band, the Sensational Space Shifters.
On Saturday, Plant will take the stage with Grammy-winning vocalist Patty Griffin, West African virtuoso musician Juldeh Camara, guitarists Justin Adams and Bill Fuller, keyboardist John Baggott and drummer Dave Smith.
The performance is being hailed "one of the single biggest things to happen to Clarksdale," said resident and Cat Head music store owner Roger Stolle.
"Robert Plant can do anything in the world he wants to do but chooses to come here and pay homage...
- 8/9/2012
- by AP
- Huffington Post
A spellbinding documentary about the Mississippi blues, ''Deep Blues, '' hosted by former New York Times music critic Robert Palmer and commissioned by British rocker Dave Stewart, is veteran filmmaker Robert Mugge's best film to date.
Not merely a record of a musical tradition, the film is actually a discovery, both of extraordinary musicians who have never seen the inside of a recording studio -- including the nearly legendary Junior Kimbrough -- and of a reblossoming of a music with clearly discernible African roots.
It is in Los Angeles for a one-week run at the Grande as part of the AFI USA Independent Showcase, but further exposure, via cable, public television, video, or even further theatrical distribution, could well prove profitable.
The film opens on the gentrified streets of Memphis' old blues quarter, where Palmer and Stewart meet and talk about the background of the musicians they are going to record. The pair then travel to the back hills of Northern Mississippi, a region long scanted by record makers in favor of the Delta region to the south.
It is here that the film makes its most intriguing stops, not just at Kimbrough's jumping, backroads juke joint -- where the guitarist performs an astonishing number, part propulsive, part haunting -- but at the home of guitarist Booker T. Lawry. At a large picnic, we see Jessie Mae Hemphill's Fife and Drum band, a trio whose performance layers elements of traditional American music over a stong African base.
As the film progresses, Palmer explains in a non-pedantic manner the folk, social and religious roots of the music, some trends of which combine in the appearance of young Lonnie Pitchford, who demonstrates the primitive ''diddleybow'' and performs a classic Robert Johnson song, a song taught him in youth by the legendary bluesman's stepson, Robert Junior Lockwood.
This easy melding of performance and history marks the film, which follows the Mississippi south to the Delta region, and concludes with a look at the performers of Greenville, Clarksdale, and other famed towns in the musically and agriculturally fertile region.
These performers, including Roosevelt Barnes and Big Jack Johnson, who perform in relatively large clubs in full-size bands, get the movie's most extended playing times.
The film's notes promise a soundtrack album, a welcome addition given the lack of exposure many of these musicians have received. Meanwhile, the movie -- which features excellent sound recording -- should serve as their best calling card.
DEEP BLUES
Radio Active Films and Oil Factory Ltd.
Producers Eileen Gregory, John Stewart
Executive producer David A. Stewart
Director-editor Robert Mugge
Writer, interviewer, music director Robert Palmer
Director of photography Erich Roland
Sound recording William Barth
Line producer Robert Maier
Color
With: Junior Kimbrough, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Roosevelt ''Bubba'' Barnes, Big Jack Johnson, Lonnie Pitchford
Running time -- 91 minutes
No MPAA rating
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
Not merely a record of a musical tradition, the film is actually a discovery, both of extraordinary musicians who have never seen the inside of a recording studio -- including the nearly legendary Junior Kimbrough -- and of a reblossoming of a music with clearly discernible African roots.
It is in Los Angeles for a one-week run at the Grande as part of the AFI USA Independent Showcase, but further exposure, via cable, public television, video, or even further theatrical distribution, could well prove profitable.
The film opens on the gentrified streets of Memphis' old blues quarter, where Palmer and Stewart meet and talk about the background of the musicians they are going to record. The pair then travel to the back hills of Northern Mississippi, a region long scanted by record makers in favor of the Delta region to the south.
It is here that the film makes its most intriguing stops, not just at Kimbrough's jumping, backroads juke joint -- where the guitarist performs an astonishing number, part propulsive, part haunting -- but at the home of guitarist Booker T. Lawry. At a large picnic, we see Jessie Mae Hemphill's Fife and Drum band, a trio whose performance layers elements of traditional American music over a stong African base.
As the film progresses, Palmer explains in a non-pedantic manner the folk, social and religious roots of the music, some trends of which combine in the appearance of young Lonnie Pitchford, who demonstrates the primitive ''diddleybow'' and performs a classic Robert Johnson song, a song taught him in youth by the legendary bluesman's stepson, Robert Junior Lockwood.
This easy melding of performance and history marks the film, which follows the Mississippi south to the Delta region, and concludes with a look at the performers of Greenville, Clarksdale, and other famed towns in the musically and agriculturally fertile region.
These performers, including Roosevelt Barnes and Big Jack Johnson, who perform in relatively large clubs in full-size bands, get the movie's most extended playing times.
The film's notes promise a soundtrack album, a welcome addition given the lack of exposure many of these musicians have received. Meanwhile, the movie -- which features excellent sound recording -- should serve as their best calling card.
DEEP BLUES
Radio Active Films and Oil Factory Ltd.
Producers Eileen Gregory, John Stewart
Executive producer David A. Stewart
Director-editor Robert Mugge
Writer, interviewer, music director Robert Palmer
Director of photography Erich Roland
Sound recording William Barth
Line producer Robert Maier
Color
With: Junior Kimbrough, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Roosevelt ''Bubba'' Barnes, Big Jack Johnson, Lonnie Pitchford
Running time -- 91 minutes
No MPAA rating
(c) The Hollywood Reporter...
- 11/15/1991
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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