WAY OF THE BLUES is more than just a well-researched historical sequence of events. It is an examination of the human spirit, a deeply felt emotional experience steeped in the culture, the places, and the people who lived the music and still live it today. It carries a message of survival, a distinctly American story with beginnings as relevant in today’s times as it was when it started in the cotton fields of the Delta.

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This emotional lens on American history is both disturbing and uplifting; both painful and beautiful.  Producers hope that all who view this series have been so engaged as to be brought to a new place of understanding of the African American experience, the boundless life force of human creativity, and the resilience of the human spirit;  further, that such understanding may lead to a greater acceptance of our American diversity, our uniquely American music, and greater sense of unity in the shared American identity. 

  

WAY OF THE BLUES differs from prior productions about The Blues in that LeVar Burton is a personal guide for the viewer, offering an opportunity for vicarious emotional and sensory experiences that are, quite simply, entertaining.  Emulating the curiosity and engagement of Anthony Bourdain, combined with the archival imagery and narrative style of Ken Burns, WAY OF THE BLUES’ magazine format will provide rich imagery and constant music.  Cooking an authentic meal in a slave shack over a wood stove with an African American chef; hearing the poetry of enslaved women put to music by contemporary musician Rihannon Giddens; learning how to make a cigar box banjo or diddleybow; hopping a train car north, or a riverboat south just as early Blues musicians did -- such segments blend in to the program content with a sense of curiosity and a feeling of being immersed in the times and places and with people of The Blues. Viewers will be engaged and involved in the many dimensions of The Blues in a curious, creative and unpredictable journey with travel companion and friend, LeVar Burton.  

 

Of course the series will also depend on historical images, archival recordings and old film clips; interviews with Blues greats, past and present; celebrity appearances and live performances; dramatic re-enactments – all will be artfully combined to tell the story of our nation’s greatest indigenous music and the extraordinary musicians behind it.  Starting in the Delta and spreading up and down the Mississippi, LeVar will explore THE BLUES cities:  Clarksdale, MS, Memphis, St. Louis, New Orleans, Chicago, New York and many hoots and hollows in between. A special animated mapping technique will be used consistently throughout the series to help viewers understand  the “where and the how” of The Blues evolution and its influences on who we are as a musical nation today.