I'm scrambling through DVDs at a snail's pace, but it's an interesting diverse process. It's like attending the Smoke Out, an Easyriders Bike show and a HOG rally all at the same colorful venue. It just goes to show the variety in our big twin sport. That's a good goddamn thing. So, I reached into my pile of dusty DVDs and came up with Mike Griffin's Iron City Blues.
At first I thought it was some violent road story with several film awards to it's favor, including being nominated for California Independent Film Festival Best Documentary, Winner of the Reel Vibe Audience Award at the Memphis International Film Festival, and winner of Best Documentary at the Appalachian Film Festival. I didn't know it had anything to do with motorcycles until I spotted the two miniscule motorcycle silhouettes in the corner of the DVD cover. I didn't have any notion of the cinematic road I was stepping onto until I saw Big Mike Griffin's name on soundtrack DVD inside the box. Then all the Whiskey-soaked cards started to fall into place and I plugged the disc into the black player and fumbled with my myriad of remotes. They all piss me off. It's a fuckin' DVD player and the “Play” button is the smallest icon on the bar of a thousand buttons.
I met Big Mike ten years ago in a Daytona Bike Week bar. He's a giant of a man, who make his guitar look as if he's rattling the saloon windows with a high strung ukulele. He's an unassuming, soft spoken blues player who plays all over the country, rides where he can and loves the blues.
Big Mike Griffin grew up in southern Oklahoma, where he was introduced to music at an early age. ” My Dad played so there was always a guitar or fiddle laying around the house. It seems like I've been playing as long as I've been alive.” Later, he began listening to blues artists like T-Bone Walker, Paul Butterfield, and Mike Bloomfield. His blues education was further enhanced by late night highway trips to Texas to catch legends like Freddie King, Albert King, and Albert Collins.
When the economy faltered in Oklahoma, Griffin set out for Nashville where he began playing wherever he could while finding players along the way who would make up the nucleus of the Unknown Blues Band.
I'll make this easy with Big Mike's description of his film:
Pack some heat and join biker/bluesman Big Mike Griffin on a wild road trip in this award-winning documentary.
For years, urban legends have warned about an isolated Southern town where the locals ran-off their police department and outsiders fear to tread. To Big Mike, Iron City seemed like the perfect subject for a blues song. But first, he must find out for himself if the legends are true.
Join Big Mike and his guide, a cigar-chomping ex-Marine named Jason Neese, as they ride their Harleys through Tennessee's backwoods into a place that even cops fear. You'll meet a collection of unforgettable characters as you witness the creation of a blues song about the most notorious town in the South. Welcome to Iron City…. Watch your back.
You'll get a kick out of this flick. It's a professionally shot and edited documentary, with a romantic spin laced into the rumors and interviews with locals and even the twitching-eye major of Iron City. The footage is clean, the story-line straight from Mike's desire to research this crazy town in the south, through the interviews, right into Mike's Studio where he ultimately cuts the song.
No guns are drawn, women abused or kids abducted, but the rumors fly as Mike researches his next blues tune. It will give you some insight into Mike's desire for blues excellence and soul. You'll hear some backwoods tales of moonshine runnin' and drug dealing in a part of he country that's fading away as urban sprawl spreads across the land.
Run-time 52 minutes plus bonus. 2-Disc Set: Includes DVD plus Soundtrack CD
http://www.bigmikegriffin.com/ironcitybluesdvd.htm
