A fascinating, gritty record of the black city life, with all the low-lying smells, sounds and sights familiar from a thousand blues stories.
Some testimonies are droll, others more pointed than the toughest lyric.
With comments by Dick Gregory interspersed, the film grows with the existential logic of a plague. Few films on American music carry a heavier social and cultural lead than this one does. It treats the musicians with genuine respect. The Blues, it reminds us, starts where people live. This excellent film by Renato Tonelli highlights his career from his 'discovery' by folklorist Chuck Perdue, during the folk revival era, to the present.