Apr 9, 2015

American Epic. A PBS Music History Special

It includes performances by The Alabama Shakes and others, recorded on the same machines that made the very first recordings. It will air in the Fall.

Here is the PBS description:



About This Film

Two British filmmakers, Bernard MacMahon and Allison McGourty, and American Producer Duke Erikson
have pieced together this extraordinary story set in the late 1920s
when record companies toured America with a recording machine and for
the first time captured the raw expression of an emerging culture. It
democratized music and gave a voice to the poorest in the nation.

The
filmmakers follow the machine’s trail across the United States to
rediscover the families whose music was recorded by it, music that would
lead to the development of blues, country, gospel, Hawaiian, Cajun and
folk music – without which there would be no rock, pop, R&B or hip
hop today. Over three episodes the remarkable lives of these seminal
musicians are revealed through previously unseen film footage,
unpublished photographs, and exclusive interviews with some of the last
living witnesses to that era, when the musical strands of a diverse
nation first emerged, sparking a cultural revolution whose
reverberations are felt to this day.

For AMERICAN EPIC SESSIONS
the filmmakers have re-assembled the machine that allowed America to
first hear itself. They have replicated the atmosphere of America’s
seminal 1920s field recordings down to the smallest detail, with top
American artists recording straight to wax, using all the original
microphones, amplifiers, and other equipment from that era. This is the
first time that any performer has been able to use this machinery for
over 80 years. Led by producers Jack White and T Bone Burnett,
today's legends are given a once-in-a-lifetime chance to relive the
experience of the founding mothers and fathers, their idols, and remake
the music that changed America and changed the world.

The AMERICAN EPIC SESSIONS
features performances by Alabama Shakes, The Americans, The Avett
Brothers, Beck, Frank Fairfield, Ana Gabriel, Rhiannon Giddens, Merle
Haggard, Bobby Ingano, Elton John, Auntie Geri Kuhia, Pokey LaFarge,
Bettye LaVette, Los Lobos, Lost Bayou Ramblers, Taj Mahal, Steve Martin
& Edie Brickell, Fred Martin & The Levite Camp, Ashley Monroe,
Nas, Willie Nelson, Charlie Kaleo Oyama, Blind Boy Paxton, Raphael
Saadiq, and Jack White

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