By Paul T. Mueller
If you’re looking for revelations, Troubadour Blues may leave you disappointed. There’s not too much in the way of new truths in Tom Weber’s independent documentary about singer-songwriters. Most of it comes down to (A) these folks do what they do because they love it, not for money or fame, and (B) what really counts is time spent on a stage; everything else is just a means to that end. Not that those things aren’t true, but we’ve heard them before.
What may be new here is a chance to see some performers you might not otherwise get to see. There are some pretty big names here, but also many who are less well known, at least to the wider public. And beyond the usual performance footage, Weber shows them talking about their lives and their art – the kinds of things you don’t always get to hear in the course of a show. If you’ve got any fondness at all for this corner of the music business, Troubadour Blues is a pretty entertaining way to pass an hour and a half or so.
The film, which Weber seems to have spent the better part of a decade working on, is loosely centered on Peter Case, a founding member of the Plimsouls who reinvented himself as a solo performer and has spent most of the past 26 years in that role. Snippets of Case performances from 2003 to 2009 are interspersed with narrative segments in which he recalls his upstate New York roots and the various turns of his musical career.
Along the way, Weber gives us brief looks at a wide range of other musicians, ranging from the well- known – Chris Smither, Dave Alvin, Mary Gauthier, Gurf Morlix, Slaid Cleaves – to some who may be less familiar – Mark Erelli, Billy Matheny, Jeff Talmadge and Karl Mullen, among many others. There are also some interesting glimpses of the venues where they perform, from house concerts in private homes, to the Tin Angel in Philadelphia, to Jorma Kaukonen’s Fur Peace Ranch in Ohio, to McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, California.
Says Knoxville’s R.B. Morris of the troubadour life, “I feel like I’m a circuit preacher, ridin’ a horse from town to town… showing up in different places, and preaching the word, so to speak… just telling the stories and moving on to the next place. “ If you’re the kind who’s likely to be in the “congregation” when Morris or someone like him comes to town, you’ll find Troubadour Blues rewarding.
Tom Weber is currently on what he calls the Troubadour Blues Big Southwest Tour 2012, a series of screenings in several southwestern states.