Watching what is ostensibly the only existing film of Jimmy Reed compels the question of whether any other blues figure has created a more fully-formed persona through his songs (or has had more of his songs covered by a wider range of artists). Firm, resolute, and good-natured, Reed compels attention even the misconceived light show can’t distract from, and the jaunty gait of the band, accentuated by Reed’s harmonica, gives life to rhythms and changes that so often fall flat in the hands of others. Even though the audience remains seated in the first portion–an excerpt from a German TV program broadcast of a performance at the American Folk Blues Festival, October 1968–there’s no denying the depth of engagement on the part of those watching and listening. Meanwhile, each of the latter two segments illuminates the independence and fortitude Reed brought to his songs with such deceptive understatement.
