American Epic

American Epic (the full series on Amazon Prime) chronicles the discovery and preservation of all types of American music, from Hillbilly to the Blues to Native American to Hawaiian to Cajun. It's all there. The most compelling is the final episode wherein musicians from all genres record their songs using original recording technology. A must for historians, musicians, and techies.

I expected to like this more than I did. There are interesting moments and some really interesting music, but there's an odd shapelessness about it all.

The choice of talking heads doesn't help. Some are pretty knowledgeable, but others like Jack White seem to be there more for name recognition than because they can actually add anything. I have no interest in talking heads if what they're going to say is, well, I've never heard of this before but it sure is cool.

I watched the first two episodes, and I just could not get into the series. I mean, it's fine, though a bit on the slow side, but there's no real sense that there's any sort of vision behind the thing. It's just, here's some music, here are some facts, isn't that neat.

Rock and roll is arguably the American art form, born out of the folk music of both black and white Americans. 'American Epic' explores its primitive forebears, through the first recordings made of its sounds; and as a bonus, we get to see a distinguished array of modern musicians attempt to record with a reconstructed version of the very recording instruments that were used to capture the music heard earlier in the series. It's worth noting just how ancient this music is; the foundational legend of the blues lies in the story of Robert Johnson, for example, but here we learn of (and hear) Charlie Patton, from whom Johnson learnt. Some of the pioneers, like Patton, died young; others, like Mississippi John Hurt, were remarkably rediscovered after decades of obscurity. The series is slow, and reverent, and the music perhaps unsophisticated for modern tastes, but at the same time, the roots of what came after are clear, and it is interesting to think about the context (of rural poverty) within which this music was made. And it's nice to see the moderns appreciating the past.

Watching tonight on BBC 4 and really appreciating this movie. Clean, clear and uncluttered tunes produced in a no nonsense documentary.

As well as the classy music, the insight into old recording technologies is spot on.

The only thing missing is Nick Cave but you can"t have everything :-)