Customer Reviews

Deep Blues

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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!

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.

This movie is the end result of ten long hard years of playing Beale ST night clubs with Blind Mississippi Morris.Everythig in this movie points out the struggle of trying to stay alive in a world of poverty.The band backing Big Jack in the movie was Blind Morris" Beale ST club band "The Blues Connection".We Just thought it was a video,but when we got to Clarksdale we saw a full blown movie production aimed straight at us.We had never played a lick with Big Jack before filming started.Everything in the film is improvised.Oddly enough Blind Morris got cut from the final screening.There must enough out takes to release Deep Blues2.Many songs such as "Chinese Blues" never made it to the big screen.This movie is the real thing.Big Jack has to be the best all around blues player in the known universe.Power,speed feeling,raw but beautifull,blues icon etc.Electric neon bluesman.Big Jack is all of these.We played the Sunflower festivals for years now at the train depo in the center of Clarksdale.I'm well pleased some attention has finally come to Jack. I love you Jack; Sincerely Steve Kaplan,your biggest fan and white boy keyboard man.

As a country/delta guitar man I was thrilled to see this un-slick and organic presentation of "the real deal" living the blues and making the blues., not to mention the rural country side and people. Once to see/hear Junior Kimbrough and Jesse Mae Hemphill as well the rest of the artists, you'll be better for it. Speaking of Junior, (passed on) his juke burnt to the ground.. and a few years back Jesse Mae Hemphill suffered a stroke. Her condition has takin away her guitar ability however she states "I still sing for the Lord" .. She lives alone and has no family and feels she's forgotten. She still lives in Mississippi and I understand she's just making it. There are web sites that will give you a mailing adress if you are so inclined to drop Jesse a card of thanks.Back to the DVD, Robert Palmer (also deceased) is an unsung hero of keeping the blues and he truly was a musicolgist and a blues encyclopedia, he kept blues in the consciousness of our country and it was great to see him in this film. and I noticed I few reviewers "dissed" in so many words Dave Stewart.. Lighten up a little on the guy. It was Englishmen that "introduced" the blues to our own musically ignorant generation in the 1st place and he's helping to keep it going with this great DVD. Other reviewers did a much better job than I could in depicting diffrent parts of "Deep Blues" but I would like the blues guitarist out there to take a good look a the instruments being played.. If you look closely you'll see that some of them are imported "clones" and I even saw a Squire being played. Not very many of these players have multi-thousand dollar guitars, it seems like in place of expensive fancy guitars they use talent to play the deep blues. GET THIS DVD IF YOU WANT THE RAW REALITY of WHATS ITS REALLY ALL ABOUT -

When I was in my early 20s I lived in Mississippi, visited the juke joints and became a great fan of not only delta blues but the then little known north MS "hill country" blues. This indoctrination occured in the early 70s. I heard RL Burnside and Mr Kimbrough when they were much younger and I can tell you that this documentary is testimony to their virtuosity as Mississippi state treasures, bluesmen extrodinare. Rl's non pretentious manner and performance of "Jumper on the Line" will give the listener and viewer a good representation of the hard driving style of MS hill country blues. The camera angles and brief glimpses of the typical surroundings give the viewer a hefty slice of what one would encounter on a soujorn to listen to this style of blues in its own "backyard". An especially charming performance of Lonnie Pitchford playing a wire strung up off the porch of his house like a slide guitar is absolutely stunning. Dave Stewart of the Eurithmics joins Robert Palmer as musical guides through this musical adventure. There is even a short piece on a store on Beale Street in Memphis that has survived through the years that still sells "John the Conquerer root" and "Mojo hand". This DVD offers just about everything but dissapointment.

If you like the blues, this DVD will deepen your appreciation.

Hippy-dufus journalist Robert Palmer & quasi-famous rocker Dave Stewart wander around the south in search of roots-blues and boy, do they ever find it! The music is sublime and when they get out of the way and let it speak for itself, the film soars. When they don't, well...

The film covers some of the same territory as Alan Lomax's excellent "The Land Where the Blues Began," apparently a few years down the line. It offers so much--the leisurely, respectful cinematography of Robert Mugge; the enthusiastic, informed, perceptive commentary of the late, lamented Robert Palmer; the riveting performances of Jessie Mae Hemphill, Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes, Junior Kimbrough, and others. The sequence featuring Big Jack "The Oilman" Johnson, particularly on "Catfish Blues," is worth the price of the ticket in itself. It's one of the best juke joint performances ever captured on film. This film is essential, indispensable, and downright captivating.

I've been a big fan of the work of the late great blues historian/folklorist, Robert Palmer, for sometime now. His book, DEEP BLUES, is generally regarded as the definitive reference on the Delta tradition... and rightly so (needless to say, if you don't have it... get it). What a treat to finally get a chance to meet the guy... albeit, on my TV screen.

In this eponymous documentary, Palmer assumes the role of the proverbial veteran "tour guide," casually offering us expert commentary, laced with entertaining anecdotes and served up with dry Southern wit. While we do hear and see a great deal of Palmer, the film never loses its main focus-- the blues and the musicians who keep this important element of American musical heritage alive and kicking. Each of the featured artists performs one or two songs in their entirety-- in sharp contrast to so many other music documentaries, which par down their musical selections to excerpted sound bites to make room for talk, talk and more talk.

Here we find everything from down-home guitars and mouth harps being played on farm house porches to full bands--influnced by the modern Chicago-style, yet still distinctly "Pure Delta"--playing in dark, smoke-filled juke joints. True to the blues tradition, the music is hot and sweaty. You can't watch this film and sit still--you gotta shake something. Highlights: cane fife player Napoleon Strickland (you can hear more of this wonderful pre-blues tradition on TRAVELING THROUGH THE JUNGLE: NEGRO FIFE AND DRUM MUSIC FROM THE DEEP SOUTH, an album on the TESTAMENT label, and several ARHOOLIE compilations); the totally stylin' Jessie Mae Hemphill (granddaughter of Blind Sid Hemphill, the pre-blues style fiddler/quills [panpipes] player documented in the Lomax field recordings); harp player Bud Spires telling a folktale about the devil, accompanied by Jack Owen's soulful guitar picking in the cranky, individualistic Bentonia style, popularized by the early bluesman, Skip James; and Lonnie Pitchford's intense singing as he accompanies himself on the diddley bow (a raised metal string nailed to the side of a house, which you pluck with a plectrum and note with a slide).