There’s a stunning new film, documentary, and record that will be coming up soon, and it celebrates a historical piece of recording technology as well as the progression of Contemporary American Music. Spearheading the projects are none other than Jack White and T Bone Burnett.
Jack White has quite a lot of new projects on his plate as of recently. Alongside his production of Elvis’ first record ever released, and a special edition Jay-Z record being produced by White’s Third Man production company, he’s now cooperating with legendary blues figure T Bone Burnett to produce an exciting new documentary series chronicling the birth of a very primitive, yet very influential piece of recording equipment that dates back to the Twenties.
The documentary series and accompanying record, American Epic documents an early form of mobile recording that was used by record companies in the Twenties to record live music as it was happening. In the series, both White and musicians like Elton John, Beck, and Los Lobos rebuild this dated piece of technology and record a few tracks for an upcoming record. Every element in the recording process will mirror the exact same technology that was originally used, right down to the microphones and amplifiers. The series will encompass a television series hosted by PBS and BBC Arena, a film, and a record. Although there has yet to be an official timeline for the release of the film and the record, the American Epic television documentary will air this Fall.
American Epic is produced by Jack White, T Bone Burnett, and Robert Redford.