Word: songe
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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They are the stars of River of Song: A Musical Journey down the Mississippi, an ambitious four-hour, four-part documentary series that begins airing on PBS stations this month (check local listings). The series, written by Elijah Wald, a music critic for the Boston Globe, and directed by Boston-based filmmaker John Junkerman, is a multimedia event: there's a corresponding seven-hour, seven-part series airing on Public Radio International; a 36-song, two-CD sound track (Smithsonian Folkways); and a 352-page companion book (St. Martin's). But the purpose of each is singularly focused: to document...
...River of Song isn't documentary broccoli. The viewer isn't assailed with dates and events, fussy terminology and black-and-white daguerreotypes with accompanying narration by overly earnest Hollywood actors. The story is told through a series of punchy personal portraits of the musicians who live in the cities and towns along the Mississippi, places like Davenport, Iowa, and Festus, Mo. We get to know these musicians not as representatives of trends and genres but as regular folks trying to make a living and a little music as well. We see them sweating through performances, straightening their hair with...
...series is nimbly narrated by folk-punk guitarist Ani DiFranco, who brings curiosity and energy to the project. "Beneath the surface of mainstream popular culture, there is the ever-present undercurrent of organically generated music," DiFranco writes in the River of Song companion book. "I'm talking about the indigenous, unhomogenized, uncalculated sound of a culture becoming itself in the streets, bars, gyms, churches and back porches of the real world...
...anybody's Christmas, but it really was so boring. I kept asking myself, why would anybody young come to this thing? Why would anybody with a television set? Or even a pulse? Because people do come. Since its inception in 1971, 500,00 people nationwide have joined in the song and dance of the Revels. I believe they keep coming back All sixteen shows were sold out a long time before the show opened, and everyone there was having a great time. My section was particularly hardcore when it came to audience caroling-there was big-time vibrato and harmonizing...
...Robin Wagner's magnificent Art Deco set, the choreography of the swing members made the big production number "Le Jazz Hot" smoulder. And the two-level, four-door hotel rooms of the secnd act's set did allow for a funny screwball hide-and-seek scene. But one good song does not a great musical make, nor can one humorous scene sustain an entire comedy. It all seems so meager in relation to the possibilities, which is what makes it so disappointing. The very fact that 'Victor' is supposed to be a major star should in itself call for more...