Mississippi John Hurt deserves his own documentary. He was more storyteller than straight blues artist which pushed him toward the formation of modern folk music. The clip provided showed Hurt’s technical mastery of the guitar which was superb.
The last part of Down The Tracks gets a little more tenuous. While Bob Dylan admired and would produce a significant amount of country music during his career, the links to Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers are not always clear. Dylan’s country style and sound would be more modern than Rodgers or Williams. It was the lyrics and the ability to tell a simple story that would connect him to these early country icons.
Finally the documentary tries to connect Dylan to the beat poets of the day. Spontaneity, being a free spirit and contempt for society are mentioned, but Dylan had those attributes anyway. Bob Dylan, for the past 45 years, has been basically a folk artist clothed in many forms and types of music. Down The Tracks examines his roots and beyond and emerges as a solid historical document of an important artist and art form.
Article comments
1 - Glen Boyd
Your best review to date Mr. Bowling. It's nice to see you dig a bit deeper, and tell us what you really think, rather than just rattle off cursory and well known facts. More of this please, sir. But yes, very well done.
-Glen
2 - JC Mosquito
It's 3AM Glen - don't you ever sleep?
3 - linda
Just watched Down The Tracks and thought it was terrible...some of the film clips have nothing to do with the documentary at all...looked like ridiculous filler to me. (video of NYC now, not when Dylan arrived...along with foolish video of a highway that has no connection to anything...etc)....The worst part of it is you don't get to hear Bob Dylan at all...you do hear a lot of blah blah blah...and a couple of yucky performances from people who think they are cool. I love Bob Dylan and this dvd doesn't respect him.