The new Swamp Dogg doc Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted is currently showing and is absolutely worth checking out. It's funny, informative, insightful and moving all at the same time and is just wildly creative: a fast-paced stew of standard archival fare, animation, AI, cinema verite, amazing sound design & left turns galore. The film stars Swamp and his two musician housemates - including the late great Guitar Shorty, who passed away during the project - and a cast of supporting characters who spend a good chunk of the film sitting around the pool, natch. It's a wild ride, touching on everything from loss and grief to the sheer joy of creativity, with an imposing backdrop of Swamp's music and underrated lyrics throughout.
Filmmakers Ryan Olson and Isaac Gale worked on this for several years, with the editing alone taking two years. They've done a superb job shining a light on this American musical treasure, born Jerry Williams Jr, who released his first record (as Little Jerry) in the early 60s, followed by his rebirth as Swamp Dogg in 1970 with the still powerful, timeless psych funk soul of the Total Destruction of Your Mind album. (Hilarious aside: we learn that Mr. Psych Funk himself Norman Whitfield hung the ceiling fan in Swamp's "bachelor pad for aging musicians" in North Ridge and, judging from its current condition, this is something that happened a long time ago).
Swamp's life and career is almost too wild and crazy to capture in a 95 minute film - including stints as running a mail order record label that ran ads on late night TV + a stint managing a pre fame Dr Dre - but Olson and Gale somehow keep the needle in the groove with their usual flair and creativity.
The film is an inspiring testament to the importance of community, family and friendship, and how, for some people, creating art is part of their very soul, no matter how difficult that journey may be in the real world. Considering Swamp's largely unknown contributions to the music world for the last 7 decades - and the film does a very good job of putting his massive accomplishments into context - it's amazing how little he's been compensated materially for that, and it's even more amazing how that doesn't seem to have affected his drive to keep creating even now in his 80s. Swamp is above all else a survivor. Not making art is simply not an option for the (original) dee-oh-double G (there's a cool cameo from a reverential Snoop).
Steve Marsh conducted a great Q&A with Ryan and Isaac after last night's showing, adding even more juicy details to this already fascinating story.
Speaking of continued creativity, Swamp's fine new album delves into....bluegrass and is titled, appropriately, Blackgrass: From West Virginia to 125th Street. In the film he makes a reference to that golden time circa 1970 when all of the genres - rock, soul, funk, jazz, psych, country, blues - all peacefully, albeit briefly, lived in perfect harmony before everything got Balkanized (google "techno subgenres" for reference).
