Land Where The Blues Began

Alan Lomax, John Bishop, & Worth Long

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In 1978, Alan Lomax asked me to make a film with him in Mississippi. Worth Long had been wanting to make the video equivalent of the classic LP (now available again as a CD from Rounder), Blues in the Mississippi Night. He interested Paula Tadlock and the Mississippi PBS station and we spent six weeks shooting blues singers, railroad crews, story tellers, church services, and picnics. The 30+ hours of footage was edited into an hour program that aired on PBS in 1980. The program was cut apart and restructured to fit the format of the American Patchwork series that aired on PBS in 1990.

This is the original version with more music and less narration. The DVD also includes sections omitted from the first edit, 40 minutes of additional musical performances, the 30 minute first edit of the levee camp workers talking, a film about making the film based on John Bishop's 1978 journal that follows the chronology of the trip, a transcript of the film and several articles.