For my extra credit project in my F-121 World Arts and Cultures class, I chose to do a documentary film review. From the website www.folkstreams.com, I watched a documentary called Living Texas Blues. This is a three part series, but because it was so interesting I decided to watch all three. All three parts take place in were filmed by Alan Govenar and deals with the effects that music, especially the Blues, has on people’s lives. The first part of the series is called Battle of the Guitars. Battle of the Guitars is about a Blues band that plays music inspired by the great T-Bone Walker. I especially found this interesting because we studied T-Bone Walker in my History of Rock and Roll class that I took in the Fall Semester. Part one focuses on the Blues band of Pete Mayes and Joe Hughes. Their band has two Blues guitars, one bass, one saxophone, drums, and a keyboard. There are an all black band and the film focuses on their performance for an all black audience. They are somewhat of a tribute band to T-Bone Walker, even though they play mostly their own music. The whole band dresses in nice tuxedos as another way to honor their hero, who would come out onto stage in an all white tuxedo with flashy jewelry. T-Bone Walker’s most famous song is titled “Call It Stormy Monday”. This song tells of the struggles that he goes through, along with many others in the black community. It goes on to say “Call it stormy Monday, and Tuesday’s just as bad. Wednesday is worse, and Thursday’s oh so sad.” He concludes by saying that the weekends they go out and play, and on Sundays they go pray. Being from a different era entirely, I can’t express what this song means to those who heard it then, but it is obvious it carries some weight.
The second part of the series is called Cigarette Blues. It opens with a black artist in
Part three of the series is called Deep Ellum Blues. This is the story of a place in
Music can be a powerful tool. This documentary has successfully showed how much something like music can affect people’s lives. It can pay tribute to a legend, show others the truth, or join different people as one. I think that many people only see music as a talent, but it has not always been like that. In order to truly understand music, you have to actually hear what is going on. The Blues is arguably the most expressive and deepest form of musical expression, and this music does justice to its greatness. This has been my response to the Extra Credit opportunity.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Extra Credit
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1 comment:
Nice job
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