American Epic- T-Bone Burnett, Robert Redford, Jack White

[Kali Durga]

From the sound of it, it's going to make the film festival rounds before hitting PBS.

[rsimms3]

From the sound of it, it's going to make the film festival rounds before hitting PBS.

So....2017 then? Bullshit.

[Kali Durga]

Even better re-cap of last night's q&a from Rolling Stone: http://www.rollingstone.com/movies/news ... 6-20160129

[rsimms3]

Wasn't it 3 episodes before and now it's 6?

[Kali Durga]

For some reason, I had 4 episodes in my head. But my brain's been a bit fried lately so I dunno.

[Aquamarine]

From the sound of it, it's going to make the film festival rounds before hitting PBS.

So....2017 then? Bullshit.

Rolling Stone article says fall.

I thought it was four episodes too, though not sure.

[JakobGreen]

Im so ready for this. And ready to see the Third Man release of this.

[Kali Durga]

^^ I'll second and third that. Enough with the teasers, already-- http://on.aol.com/video/american-epic-p ... -519509007

[MichaelRox]

I got to see the North American Premiere during SXSW. They showed part 4/4 which consisted almost primarily of music sessions. Amazing artists collaborating to make some incredible recordings. The audio is straight from the discs they record in the movie. The sound is perfect. You get to see plenty of Jack. I can't wait to see more and spin soundtrack. I can answer more questions in a pm if you wish but I don't want to post any type of spoiler.

[Kali Durga]

I've been wondering if anyone saw it at SXSW. I'm driving up to NJ on April 10th to see whichever portion they're showing at the Asbury Park Film & Music Fest. Cannot wait, that and then RSD the following weekend, it feels like it's been such a long time since I've had Jack-related stuff to be giddy about.

[Kali Durga]

I drove up to NJ yesterday for an American Epic "sneak peek" at the Asbury Park Music In Film Fest. Turned out, it was an hour of excerpts-- About a half hour from part 1, which focuses on 9 artists from the 1920s, telling their history and including apparently never before seen pictures and film footage. The excerpt shown was about Mississippi John Hurt, with clips of him at the Newport Folk Fest and some very sweet stories about him from his granddaughter, who said he was known around the neighborhood as "Daddy John". One of the directors, Bernard MacMahon, said in introducing the excerpts that they included Hurt because his story is like American Epic in microcosm. One of my favorite moments from that portion was watching an interview with Hurt at Newport, in which he mentioned someone had told him how great it was that so many of the old bluesmen had been re-discovered because they had so much to teach the young guys, and that he hoped he had something to teach. As he was talking, you could hear Dylan on stage singing Mr. Tambourine Man.

In his introduction, MacMahon had described a bit of how the original lathe machine that the film is about worked, the way the lathe turned via a belt attached to a pulley on which a weight was attached. The belt turned as the weight slowly dropped. The songs recorded were three minutes long because that's how long it took the weight to drop, and you could see this in the second half of the film excerpt, which was from part 4, the sessions in which contemporary musicians go into a studio to record on the re-built machine. You could see the engineer cranking up the weight as he prepped for the recordings.

And then they showed Jack and his band (Dominic, Fats, Lillie Mae, and Carla Azar) performing the track they recorded, a funny little tune about a red-hot mama who could really turn your damper down, but who was looking for a daddy with matrimonial intentions. All of the sound was from the actual recording, and it was filmed with a camera that panned around the musicians, so that they could get one extended shot. Jack sounded so great, singing the verses in a soft voice right up on the mic, then pulling back to romp through the choruses with Lillie Mae. Made me really eager to get ahold of the soundtrack record.

They also showed the recording of an old Memphis Jug Band song by Nas, with Jack and his band as backup. Bit of a daring choice, considering the lyrics of the song, but reflective not only of the times when the song was written, but also of the link between much of 1920s race music and today's rap and hip-hop (which we've talked about here, though I can't remember which thread it was in, and which Nas talks about after his session). One moment that made me grin-- Jack and the band were singing backup for Nas, which was primarily just the last word of each line. At one point, Jack skipped backup on a line, and Fats looked over at him with that same face that he had so many times during the Lazaretto tour, that "ok, what's he doing now?" face.

Couple of interesting notes from the brief q&a with the directors after the hour-long film excerpts:
- Sony was apparently able to locate the original metal masters for many of the old songs included in the first three parts of the series, which is pretty amazing considering how few masters seem to have survived from that era.
- When Elton John came into the studio, he had lyrics with him that Bernie Taupin had apparently just written. He sat down in the studio and composed the music right there, worked with Jack on arrangement, and then recorded it. All on camera. It's the only original composition in the sessions part, the other songs were chosen by the producers for the musicians who recorded.
- Great quote from T-Bone Burnett: "Music is to America as wine is to France".

Bit more info and a brief clip of MacMahon speaking here (scroll down about halfway)- http://www.app.com/story/entertainment/ ... /82880560/

And, they repeatedly said the series will be broadcast this fall. But no specifics beyond that. One thing I hope is explained is how the recording machine was transported around the country when it was originally in use. I've read about the device that the Lomax's drove around with in the trunk of their car, but this thing was massive. I can't imagine it was easily transported.

[love_islander]

This sounds like it's going to be quite interesting to see (when it eventually gets out there!)

[Kali Durga]

This sounds like it's going to be quite interesting to see (when it eventually gets out there!)

Have you watched the trailer for it?

[love_islander]

This sounds like it's going to be quite interesting to see (when it eventually gets out there!)

Have you watched the trailer for it?

When this thread was started I didn't have access to this sort of thing - finally got around to checking it.

[Kali Durga]

This sounds like it's going to be quite interesting to see (when it eventually gets out there!)

Have you watched the trailer for it?

When this thread was started I didn't have access to this sort of thing - finally got around to checking it.

I dunno about you, but it gets my heart racing.