America's Blues
About the Film
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From Charlie Patton’s roots in the rural south to Bob Dylan’s 1998 performance at Madison Square Gardens, Blues music has transcended generations and racial barriers. It has laid the foundation for pop culture and American music. Blues is a time-honored art, influencing musical genres like jazz, country and rock n’ roll as well as helping to tear down walls of segregation and create social acceptance of cultural diversity.
America's Blues takes a new angle on an established narrative, focusing on the evolution of American music and the impact that Blues music has had on our society, popular culture, and the entertainment industry. Through interviews with musicians, historians, artist, professionals, activists, and others, a compelling story of the music’s significant historical contribution unfolds. We explore, not only the musical impact it has had on all forms of Popular American Music, but also the influence it has had on art, fashion, language, film, literature and more. |
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About the Cast
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Terence Blanchard
Grammy-Award-Winning Jazz Musician and Film Composer
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Ira Newborn
Award-Winning Film Composer
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Jimbo Mathus
Blues musician and Lead Singer for Squirrel Nut Zippers
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Big George Brock
"Heavyweight Champion of the Blues"
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Leo Bud Welch
Mississippi Blues Legend
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David Dee
Saint Louis Blues Legend
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Bill Sims Jr
Singer/Guitarist for Grammy Nominated Blues Heritage Orchestra
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Chaney Sims
Singer for Grammy Nominated Blues Heritage Orchestra
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Junior Mack
Singer/Guitarist for Grammy Nominated Blues Heritage Orchestra
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Drumma Boy
Multi-Platinum Hip Hop Producer
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Danielle Schnebelen
Blues Musician & BMA Winner
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Samantha Fish
Blues Musician and BMA Winner
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Curtis Salgado
Blues Musician and BMA Winner
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Sharon Lewis
Chicago Blues Diva
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Kim Massie
St Louis R&B/Blues Diva
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Jimmi Mayes
Blues Musician & "Sideman to the Stars"
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Theo Dasbach
Blues Musician, Historian & Founder of the Rock N Blues Museum
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Anthony Gomes
Blues Rock Musician
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Bill Luckett
Mayor of Clarksdale and Co-Owner of Ground Zero Blues Club
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Harry Weber
Famous Artist & Sculptor
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Rip Kastaris
Famous Artist
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Dick Waterman
Famed Blues Photographer & Manager
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Debra Devi
Blues Musician and author of "The Language of the Blues: From Alcorub to Zuzu"
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Lance Williams PhD
Historian and Founder of Blacks on Blues
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Jim O'Neal
Historian and Co-Founder of Living Blues Magazine and Research Director for the Mississippi Blues Trail
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Robert Earl Price
Famous African American Playwright and Poet
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Charles Chamberlain PhD
New Orleans Historian
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Houston Baker PhD
African American Scholar and Professor of English at Vanderbuilt University
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Dean Alger PhD
Historian and author of "The Original Guitar Hero and the Power of Music: The Legendary Lonnie Johnson Music and Civil Rights"
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Hal Lansky
Owner of Lansky's in Memphis and son of the "Clothier to the King"
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Gil Cook PhD
English Professor and contributor to "Jay-Z: Essays on Hip Hop's Philosopher King"
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Janice Monti PhD
Retired Professor & Chair of Sociology and Criminology and Director of the Blues and the Spirit Symposium at Dominican University
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Venci Vernado
Leo Bud Welch's Manager
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Patricia Schroeder PhD
English Professor and author of "Robert Johnson, Mythmaking and Contemporary American Culture"
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Stan Street
Blues Musician, Artist and owner of Hambone Art & Music Gallery in Clarksdale
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Greg Johnson
Blues Curator and Associate Professor in the Department of Archives and Special Collections at the University of Mississippi
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Tom Graves
Historian & Author of "Crossroads: The Life and Afterlife of Blues Legend Robert Johnson"
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The Blues Foundation was very excited to choose 'America's Blues' as the Official Documentary of the International Blues Challenge. We feel that this film does a stellar job of helping the viewer understand the historical context of the blues as it relates to bigger cultural issues within our society. Our audiences's feedback was overwhelmingly positive to both the content of the movie as well as its entertainment value."
Barbara B. Newman
President & CEO at the Blues Foundation
I’m not surprised that America’s Blues has been winning awards. It does a better job than any blues documentary I can think of—and I mean any—in placing the music in dialogue with the full range of its contexts: not just African American social history, but jazz, film, literature, drama, tourism, and fashion. Patrick Branson and Aaron Pritchard have avoided what I’d call the “usual suspects” syndrome in the matter of interviewees, giving screen-time not just to a broad array of contemporary blues performers ranging from Leo “Bud” Welch and Bill Sims, Jr. to Samantha Fish and Jimbo Mathus, but to scholars such as Houston A. Baker, Jr. and Patricia R. Schroeder, foreign-born entrepreneur Theo Dasbach, and jazz trumpeter/composer Terence Blanchard. This documentary manages to celebrate the inescapably African American roots and continuance of this great American music and, without seeming contradiction, document its spread far beyond African American communities. America’s Blues is a winner—and a must-see for any blues fan, scholar, or performer.
Adam Gussow, PhD
Author, Musician and Associate Professor of English and Southern Studies at the University of Mississippi
In an climate of Racing to the Top and Leaving No Children Behind, we educators constantly seek tools to make meaningful strides in the classroom. America's Blues is the epitome of Cultural Relevance and vital to a pedagogy meant for African Americans and students of the South"
Dr Julius Bailey
Author, African American Scholar and Associate Professor of Philosophy at Wittenberg University
Whether you love the Blues or are just starting your journey with it, watching "America's Blues" should be on your short list of things to spend 90 minutes of your life doing. From its origins, through its transformations and evolution, the Blues has not just survived. It has thrived. America's Blues is a great reminder."
Bill Hulsizer, Director
Big Joe Duskin Music Education Foundation
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