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“Hill Country Troubadour” was shot for the most part by myself and two cinematographers, Wade Woodall and Preston Sullivan. We were on a limited budget, so we tried to accomplish a lot in a short period of time. We shot Richard on Beale Street on a Friday night but there were problems with the sound recording. We came back the next night, a Saturday, and we were ready. We knew that anything that could be imagined and some things beyond imagination would happen. They did, and we got them on tape. We recorded him the following night, a Sunday, at a juke joint in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Two more of my colleagues drove over from Tuscaloosa, Alabama to do multi-track recording. My crew and I were spent by the time we got everything set up. The air was charged with anticipation. Some of the people there knew Richard, but most of them only knew him by reputation. They had all come to hear Hill Country music the way it used to be played by the old folks who can’t play much anymore. Somewhere around nine o’clock Richard said, “Are you ready?” and the people cheered. He launched into a Junior Kimbrough song, “Leave Her Alone,” accompanied by Kinney Kimbrough on drums and Eric Deaton on bass. At that point everybody there, the band, the audience, and the production crew all entered a time vortex. It was after three a.m. when the electric generator we had brought to power our lights ran out of gas. I wasn’t tired at all. I hated to see it end. Return to "In Depth" a documentary by Max Shores |