Graham Nash narrates his sweet story of how he and Joni Mitchell, then deep in domestic bliss, ate at Art's Deli on Ventura Blvd. Linda Ronstadt and JD Souther have a cute meet and move in together, leading to love and creative collaboration those in the orbit of luminous song stylist extraordinare, Linda, found themselves incarnating as a supergroup, The Eagles. Crosby, Still, and Nash, and ultimately Young, hook up and go through various ups-and-down stages of their musical partnership. Many of the artists-in-residence were hosted by, (and introduced to each other via), the exquisite, magnanimous "Mama" Cass Elliot of The Mamas & The Papas. No matter how much you already know or not, this film offers a satisfying overview of the scene: David Crosby produced Joni Mitchell's first album in Florida and brought her to California where they landed in the rural canyon that runs as an artery through urban Los Angeles. This pleasureful project wove together individual stories I'd heard over the years with bits and bobs that were new to me. Over time, their photographic passions unfolded into stunning historical archives of this special time in the canyon and the reach these musicans had on the world. Photographers Henry Diltz and Nurit Wilde, whose photographic contributions are seminal to documenting this tremendous time, both explain how they began taking pictures of the talented, photogenic folks on the cutting edge of the music and social scene to capture the moments they were part of. The film moves fast, but not too fast, in a sumptuous display of picture and video images that tumble forward in accompaniment to the tunes and tales of beloved Troubadours. As a child, I was transplanted from the midwest to the base of this fertile canyon and into this creative aura that permeated my soul. "It was just about a time, the creative awakening." ~ Jackson Browne Allison Ellwood directed this two-part docuseries that covers the time and place where many of the top musicians of the day lived and hung out in a magical, semi-communal style life in the hills of California's Laurel Canyon in the heyday of the 1960s and early 1970s. Finally, please note that this great documentary should not be confused with "Echo in the Canyon," Jakob Dylan's self-indulgent documentary that ostensibly was also about the Laurel Canyon era, but instead was mostly just him and his buddies doing covers of classic songs made famous by the original artists. ![]() If you like this movie, I would also recommend 2008's, "The Wrecking Crew" about the unknown session musicians of that era who were responsible for helping to make many of the classic songs that came out of that time. The movie also reminded me of how great Linda Ronstadt was before she made the puzzling decision to start singing songs from the Big Band Era. A mild criticism of this movie was that it spent precious time on Little Feat, which was noted in the documentary itself that they were not a very popular or well-known group. I'm not an expert in this, but I am pretty knowledgeable about it, so it's always a treat when I learn about things for the first time that I didn't already know. ![]() This really is essential and must-see if you have any interest in the popular music that was created in the mid-60's - mid-70's in Southern California, specifically, the artists who lived in the Laurel Canyon area.
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