Times Ain't Like They Used To Be
Early Rural & Popular Music
From Rare Original Film Masters 1928-35
Yazoo 512; Video & DVD; Ordering Information

"A dream come true ... a selection of the best, most
amazing old musical film clips known to exist.
A++." - Entertainment Weekly
"A fascinating and unprecedented collection ...
it pays tribute to the extraordinary diversity
of this country's rich musical history." - Request

If you've ever been captivated by the striking faces of Depression era photos of rural America, that experience will be considerably magnified here when those same images come alive playing vintage American music. In the early days of sound film, in addition to covering major events, newsreel cameras captured the sights and sounds of everyday life in America, including its music. Musicians were filmed where they lived and played, captured by roving newsreel crews on street corners and front porches, at country dances and summer resorts in nightclubs, and broadcasting from churches and radio stations. Up till now most of the images and music in this video have remained as raw unused footage, untouched and unseen since the stories were first shot 60 years ago. Painstakingly reconstructed for this release, all the joy and innocence of this music of another era is communicated with undiluted immediacy. If music is the truest expression of the human spirit, these images are the purest window we have of everyday America in the 1920s and 1930s.

• 70 minutes of magical historical film from 1928 to 1935 that brings to life an earlier epoch of American culture and music.
• The only surviving film of JIMMIE RODGERS, the father of country music - 3 songs from the only original 35-mm print.
• Fascinating rare footage of other legendary figures in early American music: Whistler's Jug Band, Bob Wills, Jack Johnson's Jazz Band, Otto Gray's Cowboys, Bela Lam, Bascom Lamar Lunceford, Jules Allen, Elder Michaux and many more.