Topic: Movies w/ Blues or Blues related content

[Bunker Hill]

Yikes!  Andy Griffith singing "How Long", "Careless Love", and "I Want A Little Girl"?  Anyone have any idea what this sounds like?

I have it on cassette along with a photocopy of front and back LP sleeve but as yet can't lay hand to it. The title of the LP is "Andy Griffith Shouts The Blues & Old Timey Songs". I kid you not! Shouts the blues? Hmm, not from memory he don't.

[Pan]

Hi all

There seems to be a new movie out, called "The Honeydripper". It's apparently about a juke joint in Alabama in the 50's. Keb' Mo' has a part.

http://movies2.nytimes.com/gst/movies/movie.html?v_id=360557

Here's a trailer:



Let us know what you think of it, if you go and watch it.

Cheers

Pan

[Pan]

Hi all,

Fancy a roadtrip in Mississippi?

Here's a trailer of an upcoming movie, "M for Mississippi" which looks interesting:

http://www.mformississippi.com/

Pan

[jhalasey]

I saw the Honeydripper the other evening. A gem of a film. Not as much music as many of us might like but a solid blues theme. Iconographic imagery of a bygone era with great acting.
Don't want to spoil it with too much detail. This film deserves wider release.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0829193/
If you check out IMDb, click showtimes in the external links section you can see if its playing near you

[uncle bud]

Thanks for the info, jhalasey, and welcome to WeenieCampbell. I've really enjoyed a number of John Sayles' movies I've seen. Looking forward to seeing this one.

[doctorpep]

Is this the same John Jackson who performed in "Ghost World" and played Blind Blake songs and hailed from West Virginia?

[oddenda]

Doc -

          It's the same grave-digger John Jackson that Chuck Perdue "discovered" in the 60s in Rappahanock (sp?) County, VA.. the east of the state: don't know about "Ghost World". He had the typical drawl of one from his region of VA - white or black. Recorded albums for Arhoolie, Rounder, and Alligator, and died a couple of years ago. He was a simply lovely player, and an even lovelier person, if that's possible. Jackson sharedthe bill with Buddy at the recorded concert on Biograph. He knew Buddy's records and volunteered to back him; he also asked that his identity not be written, as he recorded for Arhoolie at the time! This info I got from Arnie Caplin, then owner of Biograph Records. I wrote the liner notes for the LP, my first commission!

          Also, you are probably correct that Jeff Espina seconds Buddy on those cuts. Haven't listend to the CD in a while and it's somewhere in a box right now!!

yrs,
     Peter B.

[doctorpep]

Thank you very much for the information. That's definitely the same John Jackson. He briefly performs in the film "Ghost World", which came out in the late '90s or around the year 2000. He was definitely a fantastic player and I've always found his accent to be unique (maybe because I'm a New Yorker).

[Stefan Wirz]

may I humbly add the track list of "Ghost World" (where I don't see the name of John Jackson mentioned) 

"Ghost World"
Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Daniel Clowes and Terry Zwigoff (of 'Crumb' fame))

- Jaan Pehechaan Ho - Mohammed Rafi
- Graduation Rap - Vanilla, Jade and Ebony
- Devil Got My Woman - Skip James
- I Must Have It - Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks
- Miranda - Lionel Belasco
- Pickin' Cotton Blues - Blueshammer
- Let's Go Riding - Mr. Freddie
- Georgia On My Mind - Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks
- Las Palmas De Maracaibo - Lionel Belasco
- Clarice - Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks
- Scalding Hot Coffee Rag -Craig Ventresco
- You're Just My Type - Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks
- Venezuela - Lionel Belasco
- Fare Thee Well Blues - Joe Calicott
- C.C. & O Blues - Pink Anderson & Simmie Dooley
- C-h-i-c-k-e-n Spells Chicken - McGee Bros.
- That's No Way To Get Along - Robert Wilkins
- So Tired - Dallas String Band


also: John Jackson discography
Buddy Moss discography

[banjochris]

He was a simply lovely player, and an even lovelier person, if that's possible.

I'll second that -- the one time I got to see him was at the Adams Ave. festival in San Diego -- he came into the church where he was playing about 20 minutes ahead of time and there were maybe 15 of us sitting around waiting for his concert. He walked over to each and every person, shook hands and introduced himself and thanked us for coming.
Chris

[uncle bud]

If John Jackson was in Ghost World, I'm a little surprised, as I've seen it twice and figure I'd have noticed (no guarantee, for sure, since I can miss a lot). But having met him at Port Townsend, I would think I'd have blurted out, "Hey, there's John!" When does he appear in the movie?

One of the nicest guys I've ever met and Port Townsend workshop attendees all remember him fondly. 

[CF]

There's a scene where they're at a club. Buscemi (?) is there to hear a blues picker of the rag-prewar mold who I think is opening for an atrocious blues rock act called Blueshammer . . . ha ha, great parody of all us white boys singing songs about picking cotton . . . I'm assuming the prewar picker is allegedly John Jackson.

[doctorpep]

Yes, that's the scene! Buscemi (spelling?) is talking to his date, who knows nothing about Blues but pretends to like it. Steve tries to describe Jackson's music as Ragtime-influenced. After that, Blueshammer takes the stage. Blueshammer is a group of young, white, attractive, blue-eyed, twenty-somethings who sing about the troubles and trials of living a harsh life as a black man in the Delta. It's quite the parody!

[Mike Brosnan]

To complicate the tangent a lil' further...
Not 100% sure, but I think the fictional character's name was "Fred Chatman" and the guy who played him was actually named JJ "Bad Boy" Jones.  http://www.jjbadboyjones.com/_wsn/page2.html
Was I the only one that started cursing at the screen when Buscemi explained the difference between blues and ragtime by claiming blues=12 bars?

[Bricktown Bob]

Not 100% sure, but I think the fictional character's name was "Fred Chatman" and the guy who played him was actually named JJ "Bad Boy" Jones.  http://www.jjbadboyjones.com/_wsn/page2.html

Hmm.  From that link we learn:

JJ?s former brother in law, Albert King, gave JJ his present name in 1985 in honor of his brother, BB King.

Isn't the Internet wonderful?  What did Woody's granddaughter say?  Oh.  She said "useless."  I suppose there actually is a difference between useless and wrong.  At least I've never heard that Albert and B.B. shared anything more than a birthplace (Indianola).  Or that B.B. stands for Bad Boy -- which I suppose it might well do, in addition to the more usual Blues Boy.  Or maybe it's just to render the same initials, so you'd have JJ "BB" Jones.  I think at that point you might want to drop the "ones."  JJBBJ.  Catchy.

But maybe it's me that's wrong.  It's happened before, and good lord willing, it'll happen again.

Oh, and one more useless bit.  JJ was supposedly the first cousin (and mentor) of Eddie Jones, known as Guitar Slim; Chatman, so spelled, was the real name of the piano player known as Memphis Slim.  Coincidence?  Yeah, probably; I think the "Chatmon" reference more likely.