Deep Blues

Palmer, who's covered popular music for Rolling Stone and the New York Times among others, is an effective guide for this trip into Mississippi: he grew up in neighboring Arkansas, and has both played the music and organized festivals devoted to it. He obviously has a great affection and respect for his subject, and although he's not the most professional-sounding narrator, he's an engaging and friendly host, never pedantic or windy. At the start of the film, he's joined by Eurythmics founder Dave Stewart, who wants Palmer's help in recording some of the legendary blues musicians who inspired him as a youth. Stewart, with his shades, carefully trimmed beard and omnipresent cigarette, resembles a Doonesbury cartoon of a wealthy Brit rock star, but apparently has a genuine interest in the music, although he drops out of the film about a third on to finish a tour.

The film takes us from Memphis, Tennessee, where Palmer and Stewart meet on famed Beale Street, into rural Mississippi, traveling from the northern part of the state into the delta, one of the many birthplaces of the blues. Along the way, we're treated to interviews and frequently lengthy performances by various blues artists, who, while obscure, have greatly influenced better-known names. Jesse Mae Hemphill illustrates where blues rhythms came from with her fife-and-drum group, a piece of musical antiquity that is still evident in that part of the country. Roosevelt "Booba" Barnes, a performer and juke joint owner, does a long, somewhat spooky number in which he plays guitar with his teeth.

Another highlight is "Big" Jack Johnson, known as the "Oil Man" for his deliveries of heating oil during the day and sizzling blues at night; he also does a soul-oriented original, "Daddy, When Is Mama Comin' Home?" Lonnie Pitchford gives a demonstration of a "diddly bow," a one-stringed instrument made of wire, and concludes the film, fittingly, with two songs by blues pioneer (and recently, best-selling recording artist) Robert Johnson. Although many of the performers do use such modern inventions as electric guitars, the music is more primitive than the blues many viewers may be familiar with: the chord changes are not always I-IV-V blues patterns, frequently staying on one, sometimes minor chord for long stretches, giving it a haunting, dark tone, like an electric version of some centuries-old occult chant.

The film provides some informative background material, from a visit to a voodoo shop where many will be interested to learn finally what a "mojo" is, to a barbershop that served as an informal meeting place for many notable blues performers. Palmer is mindful to show the conditions that contributed to the blues, explaining how it grew out of a way of life on plantations and rural farms. He also reminds us the blues was created by people so far down the socio-economic scale it was, and to some extent still is, "outlaw culture."

Director Robert Mugge's style complements Palmer's narrative, having performers do long (sometimes too long) pieces without the camera getting in the way. The scenes of shacks, long expanses of flat land and highway and a nighttime sky so blue it appears painted, all add to the film's rural, hopeful-yet-desolate atmosphere. For this is a world not often seen in documentaries, even musical ones. As cliched as it sounds, music for these performers is inextricably linked to their lives, their work and their attitudes.

DEEP BLUES not only shows the evolution of a musical style, but is a rare opportunity to see the practitioners of that style, many of whom have never been recorded or filmed. leave a comment