| American Epic: The Soundtrack | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Soundtrack album by Various artists | ||||
| Released | May 12, 2017 | |||
| Recorded | 1927-2014 | |||
| Genre | Cajun, country, blues, folk, Hawaiian, Native American, Tex-Mex | |||
| Length | 44:22 | |||
| Label | Lo-Max, Sony Legacy | |||
| American Epic chronology | ||||
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American Epic: The Soundtrack is the soundtrack of the 2017 documentary film American Epic . The album features the 15 musical highlights from the documentary series recorded between 1927 and 2014.
The album was compiled by the American Epic film producers and co-writers Allison McGourty, Duke Erikson and director Bernard MacMahon to provide a brief overview of the music featured in the documentary series. [1] The album features 13 songs recorded in the 1920s and 30s, an early 1960s gospel performance by Sister Rosetta Tharpe and a recording made for the film featuring the grandchildren of Amédée Breaux performing his song "Jole Blon" on the same instruments he and his brothers recorded it on in 1929. [2] [3] The album shares a number of selections with the 5-CD box set American Epic: The Collection .
New sound restoration techniques developed for the American Epic film series were utilized to restore the thirteen 1920s and 30s recordings on the album. [4] The 78rpm record transfers were made by sound engineer Nicholas Bergh using reverse engineering techniques garnered from working with the restored first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s in The American Epic Sessions. [5] This was followed by meticulous sound restoration by sound engineers Peter Henderson and Joel Tefteller to reveal greater fidelity, presence and clarity to these 1920s and 1930s recordings than had been heard before. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Some of the recordings were repressed from the original metal parts, located whilst researching the films. [10] Henderson explained, "in some cases we were lucky enough to get some metal parts – that's the originals where they were cut to wax and the metal was put into the grooves and the discs were printed from those back in the '20s. Some of those still exist – Sony had some of them in their vaults." [9]
The album was released on May 12, 2017, a month prior to the broadcast of the American Epic documentary films. [1] The album issued on vinyl, CD, and download. [1]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Vice (Expert Witness) | A [11] |
Robert Christgau in Noisey awarded the album an A grade [12] and made it his number 5 Album of the Year. [13] He described it as "a terrific new anthology of American folk music," [14] and praised the compilation's ethnic and gender diversity writing "if this be political correctness, bring it on." [12] The restoration work was described by Greil Marcus in The Village Voice as "re-mastering I can only call profound. Performances you might think you knew sound as if you've never heard them before — never apprehended them." [6] Ian Anderson in fRoots , reviewing the restoration wrote "you haven't really heard these tracks at all. Not like this. Forget bad dubs of worn-out 78s pressed on poor vinyl. The 'reverse engineering' transfers by Nicholas Bergh and subsequent restorations are so startlingly better, practically everything you will ever have experienced from this era can be discounted and CD is the best way to hear them. The clarity of group recordings where every instrument is well defined, and of solo artists where their instruments and voices suddenly sound real, will have you on the edge of your seat. And there's none of that fog of 78 surface noise which many people find too much of a distraction: suddenly, legendary artists are in the room with you". [8]
| No. | Title | Original Artist and year | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Gonna Die with My Hammer in My Hand" | Williamson Brothers & Curry 1927 | 3:25 |
| 2. | "On The Road Again" | Memphis Jug Band 1928 | 2:50 |
| 3. | "Frankie" | Mississippi John Hurt 1928 | 3:28 |
| 4. | "Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow" | The Carter Family 1928 | 2:59 |
| 5. | "Mal Hombre" | Lydia Mendoza 1930 | 3:32 |
| 6. | "Peg and Awl" | The Carolina Tar Heels 1929 | 2:57 |
| 7. | "Tomi Tomi" | Sol K. Bright with the Aloha Serenaders 1930 | 2:43 |
| 8. | "Indian Tom Tom" | Big Chief Henry's Indian String Band 1929 | 2:36 |
| 9. | "Cocaine Habit Blues" | Hattie Hart and the Memphis Jug Band 1930 | 2:51 |
| 10. | "Up Above My Head" | Sister Rosetta Tharpe 1960s | 2:58 |
| 11. | "Down the Dirt Road Blues" | Charley Patton 1929 | 2:56 |
| 12. | "Allons à Lafayette" | Joe Falcon 1928 | 2:57 |
| 13. | "Stackalee" | Frank Hutchison 1927 | 3:06 |
| 14. | "Waiting for a Train" | Jimmie Rodgers 1929 | 2:47 |
| 15. | "Jole Blon" | The Breaux Brothers with Louis Michot 2014 | 2:09 |
| Total length: | 44:22 | ||
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John Smith Hurt, better known as Mississippi John Hurt, was an American country blues singer and guitarist.
Ralph Sylvester Peer was an American talent scout, recording engineer, record producer and music publisher in the 1920s and 1930s. Peer pioneered field recording of music when in June 1923 he took remote recording equipment south to Atlanta, Georgia, to record regional music outside the recording studio in such places as hotel rooms, ballrooms, or empty warehouses.
Charley Patton, also known as Charlie Patton, was an American Delta blues musician. Considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues", he created an enduring body of American music and inspired most Delta blues musicians. The musicologist Robert Palmer considered him one of the most important American musicians of the twentieth century.
Douglas Elwin "Duke" Erikson is an American musician, songwriter, screenwriter, film producer and record producer, best known as a co-founder and guitarist in the alternative rock band Garbage. Garbage has sold more than 17 million albums worldwide.
Lost Bayou Ramblers is a Cajun music band from Broussard, Arnaudville and New Orleans, Louisiana.
Allison McGourty is a film producer and screenwriter.
Bernard MacMahon is a British-American film director and screenwriter.
American Epic is a documentary media franchise based upon the first recordings of roots music in the United States during the 1920s and their cultural, social and technological impact on North America and the world. The franchise comprises a three-part award-winning documentary film series directed by Bernard MacMahon, a feature-length musical documentary film, a book, ten album releases and an educational program. American Epic is widely considered as the definitive portrait of the musical era, and one of the best music documentaries ever made.
American Epic: The Collection is a 100-track, 5-CD box set of American roots music performances from the 1920s and 1930s. It was compiled by film director Bernard MacMahon to accompany the release of his American Epic documentary film series. The box features 100 songs by 100 different artists and has been acclaimed by many critics as a worthy successor to the Anthology of American Folk Music and one of the best box sets to ever be released. The box set won particular acclaim for the song selection and the sound quality of the transfers of vintage 78rpm records.
American Epic: The First Time America Heard Itself is a collaborative memoir written by film director Bernard MacMahon, producer Allison McGourty, and music historian Elijah Wald. The book chronicles the 10-year odyssey researching and making the American Epic documentary series and The American Epic Sessions. It features interviews with subjects of the films and contains large amounts of supplementary information not featured in the documentary films or the music releases. The book and an audiobook was released on May 2, 2017.
The American Epic Sessions is a documentary film in which an engineer restores the fabled long-lost first electrical sound recording system from 1925, and twenty contemporary artists pay tribute to the momentous machine by attempting to record songs on it for the first time in 80 years. The film was directed and co-written by Bernard MacMahon and stars Nas, Alabama Shakes, Elton John, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Jack White, Taj Mahal, Ana Gabriel, Pokey LaFarge, Beck, Ashley Monroe, Los Lobos, The Avett Brothers, Bettye LaVette, Rhiannon Giddens, Raphael Saadiq, Edie Brickell, Steve Martin, and others.
American Epic: The Best of Blues is a compilation of early blues songs recorded between 1927 and 1936 and released to accompany the American Epic films in 2017. The album was released as a 17-track download and a 13-track vinyl LP. The album was praised by critics as the definitive pre-war blues compilation.
American Epic is a documentary film series about the first recordings of roots music in the United States during the 1920s and their cultural, social and technological impact on North America and the world. Directed and co-written by Bernard MacMahon, the story is told through twelve ethnically and musically diverse musicians who auditioned for and participated in these pioneering recording sessions: The Carter Family, the Memphis Jug Band, Elder J.E. Burch, The Williamson Brothers, Dick Justice, Charley Patton, The Hopi Indian Chanters, Joseph Kekuku, Lydia Mendoza, the Breaux Family, Mississippi John Hurt and Blind Willie Johnson. The film series is the core of the American Epic media franchise, which includes several related works.
Music from The American Epic Sessions: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is the official 2017 soundtrack album of the award-winning film The American Epic Sessions. The album features twenty-three music acts recording songs live on the restored first electrical sound recording system from the 1920s. The artists participating include Nas, Alabama Shakes, Elton John, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Jack White, Taj Mahal, Ana Gabriel, Pokey LaFarge, Beck, Ashley Monroe, and Steve Martin. The album won a Grammy Award for the Alabama Shakes' performance of "Killer Diller".
American Epic: The Best of Country is a compilation of early country and folk songs recorded between 1922 and 1934 and released in 2017 to accompany the award-winning American Epic documentary film series. The album was released as a 16-track download and a 12-track vinyl LP.
American Epic: The Best of Mississippi John Hurt is a compilation album released to accompany the American Epic documentary films in 2017. It collects all the surviving performances from Mississippi John Hurt's first two recording sessions for OKeh Records in Memphis and New York City in 1928. The performances are cited as some of the greatest recordings of the 1920s.
American Epic: The Best of The Carter Family is a compilation of Carter Family songs recorded between 1927 and 1933 and released in 2017 to accompany the award-winning American Epic documentary film series. The album was released as a 15-track download and a vinyl LP.
American Epic: The Best of Lead Belly is a compilation of Lead Belly's first commercial recordings made in 1935 and released in 2017 to accompany the award-winning American Epic documentary film series. The album was released as a 14-track download and a vinyl LP.
American Epic: The Best of Blind Willie Johnson is a compilation album released to accompany the award-winning American Epic documentary film series. It collects performances from Blind Willie Johnson's five recording sessions for Columbia Records in Dallas, Atlanta, and New Orleans between 1927 and 1930. The album was released as a 16-track download and a vinyl LP.
American Epic: The Best of the Memphis Jug Band is a compilation album released to accompany the award-winning American Epic documentary film series. It collects performances from the Memphis Jug Band's career-spanning recording sessions for Victor Records and OKeh Records between 1927 and 1934. The album was released as a 15-track download and a vinyl LP.
