June 26 marks the day that Emmett Malloy’s documentary Big Easy Express will finally become available to the public. The film chronicles the epic Railroad Revial Tour, which was a 6-stop tour on a vintage train from San Francisco to New Orleans with Mumford and Sons, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Old Crow Medicine Show.
Emmett Malloy established himself as a worthy music documentarian with his previous film, Under Great Northern Lights, which was about The White Stripes. Judging by the film’s trailer, Big Easy Express looks beautifully filmed and seems to capture what ended up becoming a significant experience for all of the musicians involved.
Intimate jam sessions happened during the time the three bands spent together on the train and the film seems to stand for a true passion for music that was shared in their time together. It appears that these musicians shared the Kerouacian philosophy that bliss comes from a life on the road, with each band’s deep roots in folk bringing back the timeless sentiments of Americana. This can be seen in the grand finale at the shows, where all the musicians involved would share the stage to close the show with Woody Guthrie’s “This Train is Bound for Glory” . When speaking of life on the train, Old Crow Medicine Show’s singer and fiddler Ketch Secor said, “It puts you in touch with a mode of transportation that used to be such an important part of the way America works. Everybody traveled by train.”
Watch the trailer for Big Easy Express below.
Leave a Comment