“It’s a good guitar, but it didn’t sound like anything you’d necessarily want to write home about,” Slash says in the film, with Jerry Cantrell listening at his side. “There’s an example of a guitar that’s got some history and made some amazing sounds, but didn’t speak to me in the way my own guitar did.”
This is just one vignette from Turn It Up!, which will be released January 22 on Amazon via DVD, Blu-Ray, and digital download. Directed by Robert Radler and narrated by Kevin Bacon, Turn It Up! is a documentary exploration of the electric guitar through interviews with 6-string royalty, including Les Paul, B.B. King (in one of his final interviews), Paul Stanley, Steve Lukather, Nancy Wilson, Steve Howe, and John 5. In addition to the full-film footage, the DVD and Blu-Ray sets include a bonus disc with outtakes from luminaries such as Jeff “Skunk” Baxter, Seymour Duncan, and Robby Krieger.
Movie
Nathan East: For the RecordYamaha Entertainment Group
The story of bassist Nathan East is in some ways similar to that of Sound City Studios. When you consider the sheer amount of successful music that has passed through these institutions, it’s hard to believe that any other bassist (or studio) had enough work to stay afloat.
Nathan East: For the Record documents East’s profound career while providing a behind-the-scenes look at the making of his recent self-titled solo album. Between sound bites from Eric Clapton, Lionel Richie, Vince Gill, and others, East tells his story in his own words, from his early days playing with his brothers in church to helping craft classic hits with Phil Collins and his breakthrough performance at Live Aid with Kenny Loggins. One particularly poignant scene captures Nathan’s son Noah playing an arrangement of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” while his dad accompanies him on upright. Each song has a story, artfully told by Nathan and his collaborators. From showing a Nashville string section recording session to capturing one of the last performances of the late drummer Ricky Lawson, For the Record is one of the better music documentaries of the year, and a long-overdue look at one of the great musicians of our time.
MOVIE
Johnny Winter: Down and DirtySecret Weapon Films
Johnny Winter has lived pretty much all of the stereotypical elements of a hard-living elder statesman of the blues—including bouts with drugs, bad management, and sometimes surprisingly subpar performances. However, Winter, now 70, still has undeniable spirit. Even if he’d hung up his Firebird decades ago, his career would be hall of fame-worthy. And in Down and Dirty, Winter’s story gets its due through his own words and those who helped him through his darkest times.
Director Greg Olliver follows Winter and his crew from the swamps of Florida to the concert halls of Hong Kong in a quest to document his origins, where he is now, and the most important steps in between. The movie isn’t a strict chronological journey of Winter’s history, but nearly every era of his life is touched upon—the good and the bad.
