Blues + Cinema = The Blues Brothers?

I am ecstatic about several things in this world. For now, I'll let you know about two:


1. Blues music.

2. Good films.


Blues music and good films fit together like Santa and Rudolph, Eminem and 50 Cent, Diet Coke and Mentos, and Jim Jones and Kool-Aid. Well, maybe not like Jim Jones and Kool-Aid, but blues and film do work together quite well all the same. Different films use blues music as a background and I would say The Blues Brothers is one of the best comedies ever made. I'm not a big fan of math, but when you take a plus b (a being blues and b being cinema), I believe the result would be The Blues Brothers. Keep in mind that I wasn't using one of those number devices (a calculator?), so you might want to double-check my answer just to make sure. 

The Blues Brothers (1980), starring John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, is a comedy film based off of the Saturday Night Live sketch of the same name. The movie's title does not actually refer to blues music per se, instead referencing characters Elwood Blues (Aykroyd) and Joliet Blues (Belushi), a.k.a. "The Blues Brothers," also the name of their R&B band. That's right, R&B (rhythm and blues). I would not classify The Blues Brothers totally under the blues genre just yet, although the song "Sweet Home Chicago" is a definite exception:

 

Speaking of brothers, director/brother duo Ethan and Joel Coen made an excellent and really funny film called O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). The Odyssey-inspired movie stars George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson as three escaped convicts searching for treasure in Depression-era Mississippi. The soundtrack is a mix of country and blues, with some folk thrown in too. In my opinion, there couldn't be a better musical combination. But don't be so quick to drink my Kool-Aid, judge for yourself:

 

The name of the band, comprised of George Clooney (lead vocals), John Turturro (background vocals), Tim Blake Nelson (background vocals), and Chris Thomas King (guitar), is called The Soggy Bottom Boys (a play-on-words in correlation with real-life bluegrass band, The Foggy Mountain Boys). O Brother, Where Art Thou?'s soundtrack was produced by T-Bone Burnett, who is among the top music experts in film. Burnett has worked on various other projects, including Walk the Line (2005) and Crazy Heart (2009), for which he has also received numerous Academy and Grammy Awards. Want to hear some more from The Soggy Bottom Boys? Check out http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/search?q=The%20Soggy%20Bottom%20Boys, where a playlist full of songs is there for you to enjoy.

I recommend both The Blues Brothers and O Brother, Where Art Thou? for some genuine hilarity. Prepare to be rolling over with laughter, because these movies are really funny. Out of the two, I would pick O Brother, Where Art Thou?, but that's only because I'm a bigger fan of the Coen brothers (The Big Lebowski, No Country for Old Men, and True Grit) than I am of John Landis (Michael Jackson music videos). The only film directed by the Coens that I didn't thoroughly enjoy was 2008's Burn After Reading.

I'm saying all of this because I'm waiting in anticipation for the 83rd Annual Academy Awards (Oscars) on Sunday, February 27, 2011 at 8:00 p.m on ABC. I look forward to watching this celebrity-filled extravaganza every year. I'm a little worried about the upcoming show, however, because Anne Hathaway and James Franco are co-hosting. In the past, tradition has been set forth that well-known, older comedians host the event. Bob Hope, Jack Benny, Jack Lemmon, Carol Burnett, Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Whoopi Goldberg, Steve Martin, Chris Rock, Ellen DeGeneres, and John Stewart are some who have hosted since the awards show began in 1929. Almost all were older, somewhat funny people. James Franco is thirty-two and mildly hilarious (think of 2008's Pineapple Express). On the other hand, twenty-eight-year-old Anne Hathaway is not really that funny. I'll admit that I laugh at Hathaway's films, but that is only because I think she is terrible in them. One positive note is that the hosts are generally invisible during the show, only appearing sporadically to sing or read the teleprompter. Maybe it won't be so bad. Hopefully Anne Hathaway does good, and then I will owe her an apology.

Based on this clip from 2010's Alice in Wonderland, I doubt that will happen.

Artist of the Week: The Soggy Bottom Boys(taken from http://www.timeinc.net/)
Although they're not a real band that tours and makes albums year after year, they've still got one album and I think they deserve some credit for that. Technically, George Clooney and the rest of the band did not record their own music; meaning, they lip-synched in the film. I'm not that bitter, though, because they make up for it with their comical acting. Come on in and listen, boys and girls, the music's fine.

New Album of the Week: Deluxe Edition by Shemekia Copeland
Released 01.18.2011
(taken from http://www.amazon.com/Deluxe-Shemekia-Copeland/dp/B004BBPKWM/ref=pd_nr_m_17?ie=UTF8&s=music)
I'll admit that I had never heard of Shemekia Copeland until I came across her album, Deluxe Edition, on Amazon.com. Once I previewed the opener, "Turn the Heat Up," I was blown away. Shemekia's got some amazing vocals, much better than I was expecting. I listened to this compilation album over and over again, entranced by her bluesy, Aretha-channeling voice. The 31-year-old singer is the daughter of famed blues guitarist Johnny Copeland, but she's proved that she is her own musician. Deluxe Edition is wonderful and I encourage anyone to give it a try. You can preview snippets of the album on Amazon (http://www.amazon.com/Deluxe-Shemekia-Copeland/dp/B004BBPKWM/ref=pd_nr_m_17?ie=UTF8&s=music), or you can check out http://listen.grooveshark.com/#/search?q=Shemekia%20Copeland to hear full length tracks.