Bluesman

A powerful documentary starring Morgan Freeman about the genesis of The Blues in the South and the music spreading around the world. Morgan Freeman shares his story of his experience of growing up in Clarksdale, Mississippi and his love for the Blues.

Finally released from prison, Elwood Blues is once again enlisted by Sister Mary Stigmata in her latest crusade to raise funds for a children's hospital. Hitting the road to re-unite the band and win the big prize at the New Orleans Battle of the Bands, Elwood is pursued cross-country by the cops.

The story of James Cotton, harmonica powerhouse, whose music shaped blues and rock. Orphaned at 9, Cotton’s life tracks America’s history—from the post-depression cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta to being mentored by the original Delta bluesmen, to Chicagoland’s artistic reinvention to the live music scene in Austin, Texas.

Clapton, live from Los Angeles' Staples Center on August 18, 2002, part of the sold-out worldwide tour that followed Clapton's 2001 album "Reptile." This concert DVD features live material spanning his entire career. Recorded in concert at The Staples Center in Los Angeles, August 18 2001, this performance spans Clapton's entire career and even throws in a cover of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for good measure. Based around the album REPTILE, which had just been released at the time, this footage also includes the songs "Layla," "Tears in Heaven," "Sunshine of Your Love" and many more.

A wanna-be blues guitar virtuoso seeks a long-lost song by legendary musician, Robert Johnson.

During the same summer as Woodstock, over 300,000 people attended the Harlem Cultural Festival, celebrating African American music and culture, and promoting Black pride and unity. The footage from the festival sat in a basement, unseen for over 50 years, keeping this incredible event in America's history lost — until now.

A struggling band find themselves attached to a fugitive and drawn into a series of old feuds and love affairs, as they try to stay together and find musical success.

The 1920s saw a revolution in technology, the advent of the recording industry, that created the first class of African-American women to sing their way to fame and fortune. Blues divas such as Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Alberta Hunter created and promoted a working-class vision of blues life that provided an alternative to the Victorian gentility of middle-class manners. In their lives and music, blues women presented themselves as strong, independent women who lived hard lives and were unapologetic about their unconventional choices in clothes, recreational activities, and bed partners. Blues singers disseminated a Black feminism that celebrated emotional resilience and sexual pleasure, no matter the source.

Following a childhood tragedy, Dewey Cox follows a long and winding road to music stardom. Dewey perseveres through changing musical styles, an addiction to nearly every drug known and bouts of uncontrollable rage.

Jake Blues, just released from prison, puts his old band back together to save the Catholic home where he and his brother Elwood were raised.

Arguably second only to Muddy Waters among the Mississippi Delta singers who traveled north and pioneered urban electric blues (their supposed rivalry is the subject of one of this DVD's bonus features), Wolf was a big, imposing man with an inimitable, booming voice and a lasting influence on generations of rock & rollers-all of which comes across in the 90-minute film.