Folk-Rock Movie on DVD-Festival Express

Subject: BS: Folk-Rock Movie coming soon on DVD
From: PoppaGator
Date: 08 Sep 04 - 12:53 PM

Due at your local video store in November:

Festival Express

This was shot in Canada way back in the 70s, and as far as I know never had a theatrical release (at least, in the States, not outside "major cities"). Some promoter had set up all-day festival concerts across Canada, put the entire roster of performers on a chartered train to hop from one site to the next, and invited the filmmakers along for the ride.

The film consists of on-stage performances as well as (better yet) informal jam sessions recorded on the train. Check out the ad-hoc duos listed as performing some of the numbers: Buddy Guy and Rick Danko, for example, and Jerry Garcia and Sylvia Tyson (!)

Roger Ebert gave this an enthusiasic "thumbs-up" review several weeks ago on TV, long before the DVD would become available. My brother sent me this link a few days ago, and now I can't wait to see (and hear) it -- the disk will, of course, feature state-of-the-art surround sound.

Note that the roster includes some folk-music acts in addition to the rock 'n' roll headliners, e.g., Ian & Sylvia and Tom Rush.

Subject: RE: BS: Folk-Rock Movie coming on DVD
From: Paco Rabanne
Date: 09 Sep 04 - 08:30 AM

It is also reviewed in this month's "Uncut" (english magazine)

Subject: RE: BS: Folk-Rock Movie coming on DVD
From: PoppaGator
Date: 09 Sep 04 - 10:38 AM

I *just* learned this morning that "Festival Express" is coming soon to our local "art" movie theater.

I'm surprised that the DVD would be released so soon after (perhaps even *during*) the theatrical run -- but I'm glad we'll be able to see it in a theater and then have the option of renting or buying a DVD version almost immediately.

Subject: RE: BS: Folk-Rock Movie coming on DVD
From: open mike
Date: 09 Sep 04 - 01:12 PM

this has already bee discussed in this thread
http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=72168#1240890

Subject: RE: BS: Folk-Rock Movie coming on DVD
From: open mike
Date: 09 Sep 04 - 01:15 PM

i don not know what happened to the post i made about this so i will send it again:
there are themes for trains across canada: Roots on the Rails
the organizer is http://www.flyingunderradar.com/index.html
there is a cowboy/western train, a song writer train...
Charlie from Bellows Falls, Vermont is the fellow who organizes
these trips.

Subject: RE: Folk-Rock Movie coming on DVD-Festival Express
From: JJ
Date: 10 Sep 04 - 08:48 AM

If you want to know where Catherine O'Hara got her character in A MIGHTY WIND, just look for Sylvia Fricker Tyson in FESTIVAL EXPRESS, esp. in the present-day parts where she talks.

Subject: RE: Folk-Rock Movie coming on DVD-Festival Express
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 27 Nov 07 - 10:21 PM

I picked this up on the weekend, watching it now. I'm enjoying it. It was a pretty wild party.

Subject: RE: Folk-Rock Movie coming on DVD-Festival Express
From: number 6
Date: 27 Nov 07 - 10:59 PM

Having seen this twice I can see very little 'folk' in this documentary. Ian and sylva were extremely disappointing, in fact quite embarrassing sad to say. Since this festival was billed a a rock festival I guess they were trying to come across more as a rock and roll act. The Burrito Bros. I also found to be disappointing.

The Band and the Grateful Dead acts were very good in this.

The most memorable scene, and well worth watching this documentary for is when Rick Danko, Janice Joplin (both totally gonged out of their minds)and Gerry Garcia do a jam together on the train.

biLL

Subject: RE: Folk-Rock Movie coming on DVD-Festival Express
From: number 6
Date: 27 Nov 07 - 11:10 PM

BTW ... this documentary has been floating around on Canadian specialty TV channels for almost a year.

My intention above was not to try and steer people away from it ... it is nostalgic and is well worth catching ...

I wish Delaney, Bonnie had some musical exposure in this film.

biLL

Subject: RE: Folk-Rock Movie coming on DVD-Festival Express
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 28 Nov 07 - 11:20 AM

number6,

The special Features have additional concert footage. Tom Rush and Eric Anderson performed.

I have to admit, altough I am a big fan of Rock from this era, I have heard very little Grateful Dead. I guess my only exposure to them was Truckin' and Casey Jones, both songs that I like. I am realizing that I missed out, I really enjoyed what I heard of them in this DVD. I will have to seek them out.

Yeah, the jam with Danko, Garcia and Janis was something. As completely out of it as they were, they sounded pretty good.

Buddy Guy jamming on the train complete with Horns was neat too.

Tough to watch realizing that Janis would be dead a few months later. What struck me is just how young she looked (and was).

The Band footage was great. Man, I loved those guys.

It's too bad that the Promoter lost his shirt on this. The performers seemed to have had the party of their lives.

Subject: RE: Folk-Rock Movie coming on DVD-Festival Express
From: PoppaGator
Date: 28 Nov 07 - 01:32 PM

What little acoustic/folk music you can find on "Festival Express" is in the "DVD extra features," not in the documentary itself. That's where you'll see and hear Tom Rush and Eric Anderson each doing a solo turn.

Now, I am by no means a folk purist, and I love this movie with or without those "extra" acoustic performances. In fact, after having rented it more than once, I broke down and bought a copy a few months back.

The DVD extras also include information on how this old footage was rediscovered and how the film was made many years later than originally planned. Copyright/permission issues were a big problem, which explains why some of the top-billed acts are completely absent from the film (e.g., Delaney and Bonnie and Friends). The most interesting point of information is that a huge number of hours of footage exist that still remain unseen except by the researchers and film editors.

My take on being disappointed by Ian and Sylvia: The film includes a "blues jam" on CC Rider, ostensibly performed by I&S and their band (the Great Speckled Bird, if I'm not mistaken); in reality, there are more "guest artists" on stage than actual band members, including pedal steel whiz Sneaky Pete and Jerry Garcia among others. I think it was filmed at the final stop on the tour as an effort to recreate sonme of the musical magic that had been taking place on the train, but it really didn't work. Sylvia was a very good singer, but by no means a blues singer, and the instrumentalists don't really come together very well, either.

On the other hand, there is a very nice Ian & Sylvia performance of Tears of Rage, accompanied only by Ian's acoustic guitar. But (I think) this performance is one of the "extras," not included int he film itself.

Steve, it's a shame that you missed the Dead in their heyday. People who "know" them only by reputation (as doped-up hippies, or whatever) are often unaware of their incredible musicianship, not to mention their very deep roots in the folk-music subculture. If you're interested, there are still plenty of "Deadhead" sites and discussions on the internet, not to mention huge stores of live recordings.

The song performed by Janis, Jerry, and Rick Danko in that oft-mentioned drunken jam was, by the way, "Ain't No More Cane on The Brazos." Just great!

Incidentally, this DVD is sold as a 2-disk set. The extra musical performances included in the DVD but not in the film itself are all on Disk One, along with some latter-day interviews and such. Disk Two is ALL talk, no music at all.

Subject: RE: Folk-Rock Movie coming on DVD-Festival Express
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 28 Nov 07 - 02:15 PM

PoppaGator,

I think it was their reputation that turned me off checking them out further. But I will make a point of digging a bit deeper. I really liked what I heard.

I have not got around to disk two yet, but I will. I was wondering why there was no footage of Delaney & Bonnie, it seems that I will get the details in disk two. Speaking of Delaney & Bonnie, whatever became of them??

Subject: RE: Folk-Rock Movie coming on DVD-Festival Express
From: number 6
Date: 28 Nov 07 - 05:15 PM

I think I'll go out and get the DVD.

That jam with Danko, Joplin and Garcia was excellent ... regardless of the 'state of mind' they were in. I think that is what was so unique about Danko ... no matter how inebriated he was, he could always punch out such wonderful music, if he was either playing the guitar, bass, mandolin or fiddle ... and he's always have that sincere goofy grin on his face.

Thanks Poppa G for the title of that song ""Ain't No More Cane on The Brazos." ... I wondered what it was called

biLL

Subject: RE: Folk-Rock Movie coming on DVD-Festival Express
From: PoppaGator
Date: 28 Nov 07 - 05:50 PM

There are very brief glimpses of the Bramletts (Delaney and Bonnie, separately) on the train in the opening few minutes of the film, but never on stage and never with their band (whoever might have been in the band at the time). I think we might hear one or the other them sing a line or two in that informal on-the-train "jam" context.

I don't know what became of them, either. Leon Russel and Eric Clapton both played with their group at some point(s) in time, and Clapton stole the core group of players in their "and Friends" band to become "the Dominoes" of "Derek and..." After the loss of those three guys, I'm not sure that D&B continued their performing careers at all...

Yeah, wasn't Rick Danko just great? I have to believe that his tragic early demise was more "accidental" than those of so many of his drugged-out contemporaries. I mean, I know for a fact that never hesitated to get high at the slightest provocation, but he never projected the persona of a self-obssessed junky superstar; he always seemed like a very affable and "regular" guy, albeit an abnormally talented one...

Subject: RE: Folk-Rock Movie coming on DVD-Festival Express
From: Steve Latimer
Date: 28 Nov 07 - 06:39 PM

PoppaGator,

Leon enlisted many of "and Friends" for the legendary Joe Cocker Mad Dogs and Englishmen Tour.

No knock against the other members of The Band, but to me, Danko and Helm were the heart of the band. I know that Robertson wrote a lot of their best known songs, but the combination of those two voices were what made them magic to me.

Subject: RE: Folk-Rock Movie coming on DVD-Festival Express
From: number 6
Date: 28 Nov 07 - 07:27 PM

"Danko and Helm were the heart of the band"

I'll say Amen to that Steve !

biLL

Subject: RE: Folk-Rock Movie coming on DVD-Festival Express
From: PoppaGator
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 02:22 PM

The Band were so great because every single member had an equally important role.

Richard Manual, certainly, was the best singer of the bunch, both technically and in terms of emotional expression ~ but only by a pretty small margin, of course, since Rick and Levon were also so excellent. Rick and Levon probably displayed more "individuality" than Richard, each with a very recognizable vocal persona.

Richard's incredible range dictated that he took the high harmony "background" part in a lot of songs, or more precisely, in parts of a lot of songs. The band split up vocal duties among the three main singers more than any other group, routinely assigning different parts of a single song to different members. For example, check out "King Harvest," where Richard sings solo most of the time, and Rick and Levon harmonize on certain key lines in each verse.

But it's no accident that the few Band songs with an absolutely solo vocal generally featured Richard Manuel.

Robbie was not only the main songwriter (and thus, in a sense, the "brains of the outfit"), but also one of the finest electric guitar players ever ~ a "mathematical guitar genius," in the words of one Mr. Bob Dylan.

And then there's Garth, who never sang a note (far as I know) but made an incredible contribution as a multi-instrumentalist.

Subject: RE: Folk-Rock Movie coming on DVD-Festival Express
From: GUEST,The Mole Catcher's Apprentice
Date: 29 Nov 07 - 02:48 PM

This was shown on the big screen in cinemas across Canada about a year and a half ago. the showing in Winnipeg, Manitoba was very special because some of The Band's footage was filmed there.