Searchin For The Heart

Description

Dutch Musicians Ad van Meurs & Ankie Keultjes are on a search for the way of life and the music that goes with it, in the Heartlands of The United States of America. A road movie featuring the stories of Cowboy Jack Clements, David Munyon and others. Accompanied by 10 track bonus CD, THE BIG MANITOU LOVES AMERICANA Chapter I Tom Skinner The uncrowned king of Tulsa folk and Americana, this stubborn but friendly giant is under no illusion as to the chances of becoming famous. You can see him playing in the honky tonks every weekend, with Don, Gene, Jay and many others, rocking to the unmistakeable beat of Jimmy Karstein, J.J. Cale’s drummer: Oklahoma’s heartbeat. Let’s roll, let’s roll, ...Good old Jimmy! RIVER PEOPLE Chapter II Writers, actors, enlightened types, and also ‘difficult kids’ live here in Lupus MO, on the Missouri river. It’s peaceful appearance radiates something threatening, uneasy, as though the river is a giant snake, biding its time. And this deceptive peace is spliced on the hour by the roar of a passing freight train. ANARCHY IN KANSAS Chapter III The ‘Winfield’ bluegrass festival in Kansas has developed into a get-together for all that is hip, alternative, and able to hold a guitar, which fact has triggered a number of improvised venues around the festival. This year, floods caused a spontaneous exodus to any old place, lake-side: no electricity, no facilities, a smooth anarchy. We’re following Truckstop Honeymoon from New Orleans, driven out by Katrina, and landed in Kansas. COUNTRY GIRL Chapter IV Once a country girl, always a country girl: the story of June Davis, Gene Davis’ widow. Gene Davis played guitar in Roger (King Of The Road) Miller’s band, owned the famous Palomino Club in Los Angeles, and wrote for and played with the world’s great musicians. However, the grass turned out to be greener, and nicely-mown, back home in Pevely, Missouri. Randy, June’s son, is a rocker, plays drums in David Frizzell’s country band, and is mostly on tour. Grandma June raised Randy’s son, and Gene sings of his love for his grandson on ‘Poppy’s Boy’. WORLD HISTORY IN MEMPHIS Chapter V World history always starts with some line scribbled on a beer coaster, a simple tune, a store where you could record a song. Without this store, no Elvis, without Elvis, no Beatles. In Memphis, at the Sun Studios, we meet ‘Cowboy’ Jack Clement. He’s been there since the very beginning. Sound engineer in the fifties, he discovered, amongst others, Jerry Lee Lewis, and is himself no stranger to writing beautiful songs. Later that day we hook up with bluegrass group the Hartmans, four sisters and a brother between ten and nineteen years of age. They play on the street,as if their lives depend on it, in honour of the legendary ‘Cowboy’ Jack. CLICHÉ OR THE REAL THING? Chapter VI Elvis needed a place like Clarksdale, down the Mississippi on Route 61, where the blues legends come from. A place stuck in second gear, where rich and poor are worlds apart. We visit the Delta Blues Museum where music is taught. FOR ALL GODS AND ALL COUNTRIES Chapter VII David Munyon is a Vietnam veteran, and a religious man in his own way. He believes in all the gods, and all the gods believe in him. You may find it hard to take seriously, but David needs Him and his songs illustrate that. Maybe there is a god of beautiful words and sounds who does everything in his humble heavenly power to enhance the hearts and lives of people with David as his rock ‘n roll disciple.