Talkin’ Music with Jack – Festival Express – What a Ride

Festival Express

What A Ride

By Jack Coll

2-6-14

     With all the snow we’ve been getting lately I found myself with some extra time in my office and went shopping through my music DVD collection (I have more than 150 music DVD’s, concerts and music documentaries, it’s OK to say it out loud, “music Geek.” Typically I’ll throw in a concert while I’m working just to give me something to listen to.  So I run my finger along the covers of the DVD’s and stop at “Festival Express,” I haven’t seen or listened to this one in a while and popped it in.

If you’re not familiar with the movie/concert/documentary “Festival Express,” well don’t feel bad, ten years ago I had never heard of it either.  Every Friday I rush out to get my very own copy of the Philadelphia Inquirer, not that I ever read it, but it has the treasured “Weekend” section, and that I read from front to back.  It tells me about the plays traveling in and out of the city, the music scene, both local and nationally, what bands are coming and going, and what bands are playing at what local clubs in the city.

One of the things I read is the movie reviews, all of them, Donna and I rarely go to the movies but for some reason I gotta read all the reviews and note the critics rating on the film.  So about ten years ago I come across this Documentary “Festival Express” that was released at the Toronto Film Festival, and was playing at one of the Ritz Theatre’s in Philly, when a film is listed to play at the Ritz it generally means in selected theatres and is unlikely to go main stream.

The film was “Festival Express,” and I couldn’t believe what I was reading.  It was a film produced by Gavin Poolman and John Trapman, and directed by a well-known music guy Bob Smeaton and produced by another well-known music guy Eddie Kramer.  The review claimed to be about a train ride, traveling from city to city in Canada, stopping at concert venues.  Here’s the kicker, the films review claimed to have performers like Janis Joplin, The Grateful Dead, The Band, Buddy Guy among others riding this train and performing at the concert venues.

I read the review a second time to see if this was in fact a documentary, or a movie, the difference being, is this the real Janis, Jerry, and Robby, or were these just actors playing them in a movie.  Now I’m not saying that I know everything about music, but I will brag that I know about ten or twelve percent of the music industry, what goes on in the music world, and somehow I couldn’t believe that I never heard anything about this train ride.  So Donna and I are on the expressway that afternoon, a quick dinner at Old City Tavern and into the Ritz Theatre.

Well it turns out that two young guy’s named Ken Walker and Thor Eaton put together this multi-group tour and decided it would be very cool if they chartered a train, and ride the Canadian landscape from venue to venue. (The tour actually went from Montreal to Vancouver)   If this wasn’t enough Willem Poolman, father of producer Gavin Poolman filmed the entire trip.  The more than ninety hours of raw footage and forty hours of uncut sound and concert footage were lost in legal proceedings for years.

The Festival Express traveled into three Canadian cities: Toronto, Winnipeg, and Calgary during the summer of 1970.  The train consisted of 14 cars; two engines, one dinning car, five sleepers, (remember performers, roadies and band members all traveled on the train) two lounge cars, two flat cars, one baggage car and one staff car.  One of the lounge cars was set up with a Hammond B-3 organ, Amps and a complete drum set.  The equipped lounge car hosted around the clock jam sessions, they were jamming when you went to bed, and when you woke up the next morning a whole new set of performers would be jamming, but as Buddy Guy stated during the documentary, no one really slept, maybe for an hour or so.  One of the impromptu jam sessions featured Rick Danko of the Band, Grateful Dead’s Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir, Janis Joplin and John Dawson of New Riders of the Purple Sage.  The jam session made the hairs on my arm stand up, and they stayed up throughout the session.  The camera pulled back and the train rolled on through the night.

The film showed a liquor stop in Sakatoon, Saskatchewan, on the way to Winnipeg the train stopped in Chapleau, Ontario to replenish the nearly empty alcohol supply, they bought out the entire stock of the small liquor store.

The film highlights twenty four performances, the film opens with the Grateful Dead’s “Casey Jones,” followed with “Don’t Ease Me In,” and “Friend of the Devil.”  The Band follows with “Slippin’ and Slidin’”and Delaney & Bonnie with “Goin’ Down the Road.”  Following Buddy Cage, Rick Danko and Buddy Guy do a nice job with “Baby Here I Come” followed with performances by Jerry Garcia & Sylvis Tyson, Mashmakan, Buddy Guy, and The Flying Burrito Brothers.  In the dead of night The Band pumps out “The Weight,” and Levon Helm was very strong with the vocals.  Janis Joplin followed The Band with an incredible version of “Cry Baby,” Janis was as stoned as stoned gets, but still sounded great.

Other performances included Buddy Guy and Jerry Garcia, Rick Danko and Janis, Buddy Guy and Danko, Sha Na Na, Ian & Sylvia & The Great Speckled Bird, the Dead performed “New Speedway Boogie.”  Richard Manual led The Band in a great performance of Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released,” Manual was a key member of The Band but was a troubled soul.  Janis follows with a burning rendition of “Tell Mama,” and the film closes out with “Me and Bobby McGee” as the credits role.

The film brings the performers to life, they were young, and vibrant and talented.

Three months after the tour, Janis over-dosed on drugs and died.  Several years late Richard Manual of The Band took his own life.  Jerry Garcia passed away years later as did Levon Helm and Rick Danko, none of the deaths were related to the Canadian tour.

With a lineup of everyone mentioned, as well as other performers who would not give permission to be part of the film including Ten Years After, Mountain and others.  Tickets for each show on the tour were sold at $14.00-$16.00 per show.

Festival Express was the second most critically acclaimed film released in 2004, but only earned $1.2 million at the US Box Office, however the DVD with extra’s went straight to number 1 on the Music Video & Concert DVD top-sellers charts.

In April 2011 there was a Railroad Revival Tour with Mumford and Sons along with Old Crow Medicine Show.  Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros also joined the tour, the three bands traveled in vintage rail cars and performed in six outdoor locations over the course of a week starting in Oakland, California.  The entire event was filmed and released in 2012 as a musical documentary called “Big Easy Express.”  None of the original performers joined the short tour.

Enough of this, it’s snowing, snowing bad, I’m sitting in my office, with a cup of hot tea to my left, the Festival Express documentary in my hand, and I’m headed for the television.  Should you ever get the opportunity to check this film out, I highly recommend it, and now, listen to those lyrics, sing it Jerry!

Riding that train

High on cocaine

Casey Jones

You better watch your speed

     Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow, need a plow, call Bob Stokley 484-351-8350 and check out The Festival.