“In the spring of 1971, I drove through the American south to find and record some of the last living blues legends, to discover the very roots of American popular music, and the rock music I had grown up with. That film was seen at a handful of festivals, and then sat in storage. Fifty years later, inspired by that footage of a bygone time, and a desire to reconnect with the creative inspiration from back then, I drove the identical route to see what had changed in the birthplace of the blues. Looking for the source of the blues in the flatland cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta, and the lonely highways that crisscrossed the region, I felt the presence of the spirits of the departed blues artists. I also found a new respect for the cultural value of a musical form that had been all but ignored in the south of a half-century ago. Rock fans, mostly white, from all the world, raised on music adopted from rural black communities, were flocking to that wellspring in record numbers. In many states, museums and historic markers had sprung up to guide a steadily growing caravan of international tourists. Venues from roadside Juke Joints to newly constructed concert halls offered musicians, both veterans and young performers, places to perform almost every night of the week. The resulting film is a personal memoir that encompasses the evolution of American music, the upheavals of the civil rights movement, the power of memory, the enduring power of this foundational music, and a reflection on the treasures of personal experience, both lost and found.”
– Ted Reed, Director
