A shockingly lifeless outing by pedant/filmmaker John Sayles. Its 1950, and Alabama saloon owner and former bluesman Tyrone Pine Top Purvis is on the verge of losing his business. If legendary electric bluesman Guitar Sam gets to town, everything will be OK, but theres a good chance he wont make it! Meanwhile, in a completely unrelated plot point, a young drifter looking for a break wanders into town
carrying an electric guitar! In this incredibly formulaic tale, the acting talents of Charles S. Dutton, Stacy Keach, Danny Glover and newcomer Gary Clark Jr. are wasted on some of the stiffest dialogue this side of a John Kerry speech. If Sayles were a little more interested in filmmaking and a little less interested in giving a civics lesson, he could have had something with this. As it is, the entire movie is probably best condensed into a short op-ed piece.