Music guru Jack White has teamed up with T Bone Burnett and Robert Redford to release a three-part documentary series titled American Epic. The historical 1920s music documentary will be paired with a companion film and an LP box set release.
Highlighting the use of a specific, seemingly forgotten and unnamed recording machine in the 1920s, the film and documentary directed by Bernard MacMahon will further explore how record companies "captured the raw expression of an emerging culture."
This fall, PBS and BBC Arena will air the three-piece documentary that includes unseen film footage, exclusive photographs and interviews with musicians that made a considerable impression during the enlightening time of music transformation.
"In American Epic, we can examine how important the fact is that when phonograph records were invented, for the first time ever, women, minorities, poor rural men and even children were given the opportunity to say whatever they wanted in song, for the whole world to hear, shockingly without much censorship," White said, according to Rolling Stone. "What they were allowed to say on phonograph recordings, they were not allowed to speak in public or in person. That is an astounding thought."
The film titled, The American Epic Sessions, features a crew putting the recording machine back together with imitated microphones and amplifiers. Prevalent and contemporary artists were invited to record 1920s blues, country, gospel and folk elements with the no-name machine, reports A.V. Club. One half of The White Stripes, Jack White, investigates the groundbreaking machine along with Elton John, Beck, Nas, Willie Nelson and more.
These musicians we profile are the real American heroes," Burnett said, according to Rolling Stone. "They set out from the darkness with nothing but a guitar on their backs, put out their thumbs and conquered the world."
Both films and a deluxe vinyl box set will be released via White's Third Man Records.
