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Palmer, a former rock musician and Memphis Blues Festival cofounder best known for his bylines in The New York Times and Rolling Stone, had already chronicled the saga of Southern blues in his seminal book that provides the film's title. He's an astute guide, and Mugge underlines this role by pairing him with British rocker Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), whose avid interest in the music makes him an effective foil.
The film's real triumph, however, rests in the team's success in capturing modern day blues survivors and inheritors playing in the bars, juke joints, and barns of delta country. Palmer, who had returned several years earlier to the delta to capture these artists for his scrappy Fat Possum label, introduces us to the now-amplified but still elemental blues of R.L. Burnside, the late Junior Kimbrough, Jessie Mae Hemphill, Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes, and other keepers of the faith. Mugge, whose profiles of Al Green, Sonny Rollins, and other musicians probed their cultural and artistic contexts with intelligence and sensitivity, captures both the music and the milieu in crisp color footage. Deep Blues thus triumphs as a testament to the blues' deep roots and an unintentional eulogy for Palmer, who would pass away in the mid-'90s just as the gut-bucket music of Burnside and Kimbrough served notice that the blues were alive and kicking. --Sam Sutherland
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Electrifying,
By
This review is from: Deep Blues (DVD)
The late journalist Robert Palmer and director Robert Mugge toured the South and successfully documented some incredible blues performers, most of whom had never been recorded before. They open a window into a world of juke joints, fish frys, and country folk for whom the blues remains a vital part of their lives. There is some truly amazing music; for me, the highlights were Booba Barnes and Junior Kimbrough. Between the songs, there are short segments that provide some background and an opportunity for the performers to speak for themselves. Eurythmic Dave Stewart's on-screen involvement is mercifully brief--the juxtaposition of carefully styled Euro-rocker with authentic, down-to-earth rural types is jarring to say the least. The contrast inadvertantly reminds us of a major aspect of the appeal of the blues--it's purity as opposed to the way so many other genres have been shaped by concerns over saleability and fashion.
5.0 out of 5 stars
made me smile!!,
By Steve Brown (Cambridge, MA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Deep Blues (DVD)
i just got the dvd last night and played it right away. i had read all the previous mixed reviews but i bought the thing anyway. Boy am i glad!!! i enjoyed it from beginning to end. even the parts where our guides are involved was ok with me. i think that the more people there are who love the blues; the better off the world will be!
4.0 out of 5 stars
Who is the white guy part II,
By
This review is from: Deep Blues (DVD)
This is a terrific documentary and I endorse everything the reviewers below say - especially Steve Kaplan, who was actually in the film! Well done Steve! For me the highlight was Lonnie Pickford's virtuoso, but utterly faithful, take on Robert Johnson's Come On In My Kitchen and If I Had Possession Over Judgment Day. Eerie though it is to listen to a recording of Johnson's original item, it does require some imagination to get through the poor recording quality - it is definitely rewarding to hear (and see) it played freshly and crisply in front of your very eyes. Lonnie definitely goes on my list of Must Buys.The only nitpicks have nothing to do with the music, but firstly the curious decision to film everything (including the interview out takes) in Black and White and secondly the (happily brief) appearances of that doyen of Mississippi blues, Sunderland's own Dave Stewart, founder of the Eurythmics and, even more credibly, the Spiritual Cowboys. I suppose we have Dave to thank for having the film at all; seemingly he bank-rolled it - and in fairness he did have the sense to leave it for the most part to Robert Palmer (no, not THAT Robert Palmer) and the artists. But the vision of this anaemic little guy with a silly beard, dyed black hair, and faux rock star get-up when it appears amongst this totally down-home, real-life music - and even JOINING IN at one stage, god forbid - is pure Spinal Tap. As is the interview segment of the DVD, which inexplicably feeatures a clip of the Eurythmics playing Missionary Man live in its entirety, and concludes with Mr Dave summing up his views on the blues in the following fashion: "It's like - Shakespeare. How can you ever not have, um, Blues Music?" Derek Smalls could not have put it better.
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