August 12–19, 1999

movie shorts

Hellhounds on My Trail: The Afterlife of Robert Johnson

Recommended

For a quarter century, Robert Mugge has been documenting the history of indigenous music, from blues to gospel, salsa to zydeco. Hellhounds, his newest film, suffers a bit from its unusual (for Mugge) subject matter — instead of biography or history, much of the film is taken up with the analytical matter of Johnson’s influence, while you get the sense that Mugge is most comfortable just letting people tell their own stories. Produced by the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the film is centered around a tribute concert and symposium mounted in the Fall of 1998, with the Rock Hall’s typically uneven lineup. Joe Louis Walker and Alvin Youngblood Hart pump new life into Johnson’s compositions, while the ever-atrocious Bob Weir (of Grateful Dead fame) offers a lackluster run through that barely qualifies as blues. (G. Love and Special Sauce play over the closing credits.) The tantalizing glimpses of the symposium’s panel discussion offer insightful comments from Memphis historian Robert Gordon (director of his own Robert Johnson film) and especially Peter Guralnick, who wrote memorably about Johnson in Feel Like Goin’ Home. A lengthy discussion of whether or not a piece of found footage might be of Johnson playing guitar is fascinating in its tedium, revealing the depth of Johnson scholars’ obsession, but many of the best moments in Hellhounds (not surprisingly) take place (not surprisingly) far from Cleveland. Whether it’s the back porch interview with a childhood friend of Johnson’s or Tracy Nelson, Marcia Ball and Irma Thomas’ rendition of "Come On in My Kitchen" on a dusty Arkansas road, they’re moments that Johnson’s legacy is truly alive, and his spirit continues to exert its otherworldly influence.

—Sam Adams