Miscellaneous - We Dreamed America

  by John Clarkson

published: 28 / 10 / 2008

intro

John Clarkson finds much to enjoy in Alex Walker's new documentary DVD, 'We Dreamed America', which examines the British Americana movement

Last year a book was published by Hugh Barker and Yuval Taylor entitled ‘Faking It’, which examined the whole issue of authenticity in music. Using as its starting point Nirvana’s infamous cover of the Lead Belly blues classic, ‘Where Did You Sleep Last Night ?’ at the end of their ‘MTV Unplugged’ performance in 1993, it asked what could be deemed “real” and “fake” in pop music. Alex Walker’s new film, ‘We Dreamed America’, which opens with shots of a series of American turnpikes and highways taken from the window of a speeding car, travels through a similar territory. It, however, concentrates exclusively on that most vilified of genres, country music, and, subtitled “a twisted tale of British roots and American music”, especially the role of British bands in it. There are interviews with and live footage of six of the current main British ‘Americana’ acts -the Alabama 3 ; Kitty, Daisy and Lewis ; Matthew Ord ; Hey Negrita ; the Broken Family Band and the Barker Band. Walker’s documentary takes in commentary too from many other purveyors of the scene including Radio 2’s Bob Harris ; Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett from Little Feat ; singer-songwriter Tom McRae and Sid Griffin, the front man with the Long Ryders and the Coal Porters. For the Americans in Walker’s 47 minute black and white film, authenticity is less of an issue. “Who cares as long as it good”, growls the legendary Guy Clark. Robert Fisher from the Willard Grant Conspiracy meanwhile says that, “If a band is true to its nature and it honest with its music, then it is not trying to label itself Americana. It will just be what it is.” Many of the Brits interviewed in ‘We Dreamed America’ are, however, much more self-conscious. Steve Adams from the Broken Family tells of how, after years of singing in an American accent, he abandoned doing so to sing in his own voice, only still to be slated for singing like an American. More than one interviewee points out that there is a lot more to country music than Dolly Parton, and Tom Bridgewater, the co-owner of Loose Music, Britain’s premier Americana label, tells the camera with bashful awkwardness that he personally doesn’t “see anything wrong with the C word.” Benched around this debate is some superb live and other footage. The Alabama 3 swagger their way through a heart stopping version of ‘Too Sick to Pray’ and the Broken Family Band storm through a feisty ‘The Booze and the Drugs’. 17 year old Lewis Durham from teenage country skiffle group Kitty, Daisy and Lewis talks about his love for both 78 rpm records and 40’s and 50’s recording equipment, the latter with which he has entirely built the band’s home studio. Felix Bechtolsheimer (who has produced ‘We Dreamed America’ and also done most of its interviews) and Neil Findlay from Hey Negrita meanwhile tell of how just as their group began to crack America its other two members quit, and they had to rebuild the band from scratch. A more laugh-out loud moment comes when Sid Griffin admits that he likes the Barker Band, but he would “like them a lot more if they hadn’t pinched my fiddler.” In the last minute of the film, Willie Watson from the Old Crow Medicine Show reflectively says, “In ’91, we would all be alt. country and we would all be on Bloodshot Records with tattoos on our knuckles. Now it’s 2007 and we’re all Americanas.” He then laughs, “Where are we going to be in 2027 ? Underwater ?” This thought more than any other in the documentary captures the philosophy and message behind Walker’s film. Labelling doesn’t really matter. We shouldn’t, despite the likes of Barker and Taylor’s somewhat unnecessary book, let ourselves get too screwed up about it because in 20 years time things will have all moved on again and it will all have become rather irrelevant. What we have at the moment is several superb British roots-based acts with strong American influences that are making music that is honest and true to themselves, and we should be enjoying them for what they are. Certainly in ‘We Dreamed America’ there is a lot to both enjoy and celebrate.