12 years ago

Festival Express revisited

In the summer of 1970, a chartered train crossed Canada carrying one of the greatest rock bands in history namely The Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin, roots rock group The Band, blues guitarist and singer Buddy Guy, and others. They lived and partied together for five days, stopping in major cities along the way to play live concerts. This amazing journey was filmed by Director Frank Cvitanovich and put together by Bob Smeaton’s 2003 brilliant documantary film Festival Express. In April 2011 Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Nashville boys Old Crow Medicine Show and Londoners Mumford & Sons climbed aboard a similar train and visited and performed at 6 cities from Oakland to New Orleans. And inspired by it’s original another incredible pure and cinematically stunning documentary called Big Easy Express arised. Directed by music video master and HSI’s own Emmett Malloy. Malloy shows us the bands’ vibrant railway adventures, the high canyons, joyous crowds, blasted skies, late-night laughter, and a lot of great folk music! Big Easy Express also became the First Feature Film that was launched globally on iTunes. Watch-like-share.