[Harp-L] Lightning in a Bottle (long - limited harp content)

["Tim Moyer - Working Man's Harps" <wmharps@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yesterday, my wife and I caught a matinee showing of "Lightning in a
Bottle," the concert film from Martin Scorsese's history of the blues
concert at Radio City Music Hall in New York City.  Frankly, I didn't
expect too much going in, because I've seen many a boring concert film, but
I wanted to see it because of the performers involved.  I wasn't expecting
too much harp, and I was right about that.  

In a nutshell, I really enjoyed the movie.  It moved along nicely, without
too much time aside for interviews and historical background, though there
was some of that.  Some of the archival clips were used to establish the
identities of some of the lesser know names, like Hubert Sumlin, who was
Howlin' Wolf's guitarists for a few decades.  Interviews were short and
interesting, and didn't distract too much from the main performance.  

The songs were mostly pretty short -- no 20-minute slow blues drones -- so
if you didn't like something it would be over in a few minutes.  The
downside was that if you did like something, it would be over in a few
minutes.  Some of the highlight of the film, for me, were the most
surprising.  India.Arie singing Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" was
positively chilling.  Macy Gray doing a rollicking version of "Hound Dog"
was very fun.  James "Blood" Ulmer sounded like "Barry White does the
Blues", and was great with Allison Kraus backing on fiddle.  Angelique
Kidjo did an amazing version of "Voodoo Child," having managed to persuade
Buddy Guy to accompany her.  The Neville Brothers brought down the house
with "Big Chief".  

The lowlight for me was Chuck D and Fine Arts Militia, who turned "Boom
Boom" into an out-of-place anit-war hiphop rant.  It was obvious from the
filming that they had not been playing with the other musicians (the stage
is devoid of all other equipment and stage props), but somehow they got
edited into "prime time" in the movie.  But again, it didn't last long.  

Harp did appear a few times, as when Kim Wilson accompanied Mavis Staples
(playing into a vocal mic) on "See That My Grave is Kept Clean", then again
(playing through a bullet) with Bonnie Raitt on "Coming Home".  There's a
still on the movie website of him with Jimmie Vaughn, though they never
appear together in the film.  Steve Tyler honks some harp through a green
bullet, accompanied by his Aerosmith partner Joe Perry on guitar on "King
Bee".  I mentioned Howlin' Wolf in an archival clip -- his hands were HUGE!
 But that's about it for harp.  

All in all, a very enjoyable 108 minutes.  Even my wife enjoyed it, and
she's not the biggest fan of the blues (too much time spent in smokey bars
listening to my bad blues bands).  She cried when B.B. King played, she was
so moved.  He was the best I've see him in years.  I'll give it a thumbs up.  

-tim


Tim Moyer
Working Man's Harps
http://www.workingmansharps.com/