Producers Jack White and T Bone Burnett bring together an array of musicians to record an epic tribute to the musical artists celebrated in the first three episodes of this PBS series. What's amazing about the sessions is that they're recorded on a machine using components put together from the original equipment used by the Western Electric recording System dating back to the 1920's. For example, a 1925 amplifier is combined with a 1928 condenser microphone in an effort to capture the original sound quality that would have been captured almost an entire century ago.
If you've watched any of the earlier episodes in the series, this is the payoff. The artists who perform here select their songs and music from the artists featured in the earlier stories. With a total of eighteen sessions, I only recognized a handful the performers, folks like Elton John, Los Lobos, Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, Taj Mahal, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. These and the other musicians are backed by a retinue of artists who have devoted much of their study to the works of the 1920's era performers.
If you like this type of music, this episode and all the ones that went before are a real treat. For many I'm sure, this may not be appealing, especially if one is solely conditioned to modern styles of music like hip hop or rap. On the flip side however, a connection is made to current styles by tapping into the rich and varied backgrounds of the early performers who were never big names themselves. I would particularly recommend this for fans of blues music, as much of the sound of the era rose up from the working class hardships of the Depression era while appealing to a vast untapped audience of the time.
If you've watched any of the earlier episodes in the series, this is the payoff. The artists who perform here select their songs and music from the artists featured in the earlier stories. With a total of eighteen sessions, I only recognized a handful the performers, folks like Elton John, Los Lobos, Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, Taj Mahal, Willie Nelson and Merle Haggard. These and the other musicians are backed by a retinue of artists who have devoted much of their study to the works of the 1920's era performers.
If you like this type of music, this episode and all the ones that went before are a real treat. For many I'm sure, this may not be appealing, especially if one is solely conditioned to modern styles of music like hip hop or rap. On the flip side however, a connection is made to current styles by tapping into the rich and varied backgrounds of the early performers who were never big names themselves. I would particularly recommend this for fans of blues music, as much of the sound of the era rose up from the working class hardships of the Depression era while appealing to a vast untapped audience of the time.
