The Blues, executive produced by Martin Scorsese, consists of seven feature-length films that capture the essence of the blues while exploring how this art form so deeply influenced music and people the world over.

The series begins with the journey from Africa to the Mississippi Delta — where the music grew from slaves' field hollers, work songs and spirituals — then travels up the Mississippi River to the juke joints, house parties and recording studios of Memphis and Chicago, and culminates with the emotional embrace of this African-American creation by musicians and people throughout the world.

"The blues is at once American and worldly," said Martin Scorsese, who began work on the project six years ago. "It's a form of storytelling that is so universal that it has inspired people beyond our borders and continues to influence music here and abroad. We're hopeful that the series and YEAR OF THE BLUES will introduce new audiences worldwide to this music and also inspire kids, whether they like rock or hip hop, to better understand the struggles and genius that gave birth to what they listen to today."

"Our goal never was to produce the definitive work on the blues," Scorsese added. "It was, from the start, to create highly personal and impressionistic films as seen through the eyes of the most creative directors around with a passion for this music."

The Blues is the culmination of a great ambition for Scorsese — to honor the music he loves, to preserve its legacy and to work closely with talented feature film directors united in their desire to celebrate this art.

Episode Schedule:

• 101 (Sun, Sept. 28)
• 102 (Mon, Sept. 29)
• 103 (Tues, Sept. 30)
• 104 (Wed, Oct. 1)
• 105 (Thurs, Oct. 2)
• 106 (Fri, Oct. 3)
• 107 (Sat, Oct 4)

Sunday, Sept. 28, 9 p.m. - 10:30 p.m. - 1.5 hours (101) "Feel Like Going Home"
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Written by Peter Guralnick

Director Martin Scorsese (The Last Waltz, Raging Bull, Gangs of New
York) pays homage to the Delta blues. Musician Corey Harris travels through Mississippi and on to West Africa, exploring the roots of the music. The film celebrates the early Delta bluesmen through original performances (including Willie King, Taj Mahal, Otha Turner, and Ali Farka Toure) and rare archival footage (featuring Son House, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker).

Says Scorsese: "I've always felt an affinity for blues music — the culture of storytelling through music is incredibly fascinating and appealing to me. The blues have great emotional resonance and are the foundation for American popular music."

Performances in Feel Like Going Home:

• Corey Harris
• John Lee Hooker *
• Son House *
• Salif Keita
• Habib Koit*
• Taj Mahal
• Ali Farka Toure
• Otha Turner
• Muddy Waters *
• Keb' Mo'
• Willie King
• Lead Belly *

*indicates archival performance

Interviews in Feel Like Going Home:

• Corey Harris
• Sam Carr
• Toumani Diabate
• Willie King
• Dick Waterman
• Taj Mahal
• Johnny Shines *
• Otha Turner
• Ali Farka Toure
• Habib Koit*
• Salif Keita
• Keb' Mo'

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Monday, Sept. 29, 9 p.m. - 2 hours (102) "The Soul of a Man"
Written and directed by Wim Wenders

Director Wim Wenders (Buena Vista Social Club; Wings of Desire; Paris, Texas ) explores the lives of his favorite blues artists — Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson, and J. B. Lenoir — in a film that is part history and part personal pilgrimage. The film tells the story of these artists' lives in music through a fictional film-within-a-film, rare archival footage, and covers of their songs by contemporary musicians, including Bonnie Raitt, Lucinda Williams, Lou Reed, Eagle Eye Cherry, Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Cassandra Wilson, Garland Jeffreys, Los Lobos, and others.

Says Wenders: "These songs meant the world to me. I felt there was more truth in them than in any book I had read about America, or in any movie I had ever seen. I've tried to describe, more like a poem than in a 'documentary,' what moved me so much in their songs and voices."

Performances in The Soul of a Man:

• T-Bone Burnett
• Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
• Eagle-Eye Cherry
• Shemekia Copeland
• The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion
• Alvin Youngblood Hart
• Skip James *
• Garland Jeffreys
• Chris Thomas King
• J.B. Lenoir *
• Los Lobos
• John Mayall *
• Bonnie Raitt
• Lou Reed
• Vernon Reid
• Marc Ribot
• James "Blood" Ulmer
• Lucinda Williams
• Cassandra Wilson

*indicates archival performance

Cast:

• Skip James: Keith B. Brown
• Blind Willie Johnson: Chris Thomas King

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Tuesday, Sep. 30 9 p.m. - 2 hours (103) "The Road To Memphis"
Directed by Richard Pearce
Written by Robert Gordon

Director Richard Pearce (The Long Walk Home, Leap of Faith, A Family
Thing) traces the musical odyssey of blues legend B.B. King in a film that pays tribute to the city that gave birth to a new style of blues. Pearce's homage to Memphis features original performances by B.B. King, Bobby Rush, Rosco Gordon and Ike Turner, as well as historical footage of Howlin' Wolf and Rufus Thomas.

Says Pearce: "The Blues is a chance to celebrate one of the last truly indigenous American art forms, before it all but disappears, swallowed whole by the rock and roll generation it spawned. Hopefully we'll get there before it's too late."

Performances in The Road to Memphis:

• Fats Domino *
• Rosco Gordon *
• B.B. King
• Little Milton
• Little Richard *
• Bobby Rush
• Ike Turner
• Howlin' Wolf *
• The Coasters *

*indicates archival performance

Interviews in The Road to Memphis:

• Bobby Rush
• B.B. King
• Rosco Gordon
• Rufus Thomas
• Calvin Newborn
• Hubert Sumlin
• Chris Spindel (WDIA program officer)
• Don Kern (WDIA Production Manager)
• Dr. Louis Cannonball Cantor
• Cato Walker III
• Little Milton Campbell
• Sam Phillips
• Ike Turner
• Jim Dickinson

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Wednesday, Oct. 1, 9 p.m. - 2 hours (104) "Warming by the Devils Fire"
Written and directed by Charles Burnett

Director Charles Burnett (Killer of Sheep, My Brother's Wedding, To Sleep with Anger) presents a tale about a young boy's encounter with his family in Mississippi in the 1950s, and intergenerational tensions between the heavenly strains of gospel and the devilish moans of the blues.

Says Burnett: "The sound of the blues was a part of my environment that I took for granted. However, as years passed, the blues slowly emerged as an essential source of imagery, humor, irony, and insight that allows one to reflect on the human condition. I always wanted to do a story on the blues that not only reflected its nature and its content, but also alludes to the form itself. In short, a story that gives you the impression of the blues."

Performances in The Warming by the Devil's Fire:

• Big Bill Broonzy *
• Elizabeth Cotten *
• Reverend Gary Davis *
• Ida Cox *
• Willie Dixon *
• Lightnin' Hopkins *
• Son House *
• Mississippi John Hurt *
• Vasti Jackson
• Bessie Smith *
• Mamie Smith *
• Victoria Spivey *
• Sister Rosetta Tharpe *
• Dinah Washington *
• Muddy Waters *
• Sonny Boy Williamson *

*indicates archival performance

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Thursday, Oct. 2, 9 p.m. - 2 hours (105) "Godfathers and Sons"
Director Marc Levin

Slam, Whiteboys, Brooklyn Babylon travels to Chicago with hip-hop legend Chuck D (of Public Enemy) and Marshall Chess (son of Leonard Chess and heir to the Chess Records legacy) to explore the heyday of Chicago blues as they unite to produce an album that seeks to bring veteran blues players together with contemporary hip hop musicians. Along with never-before-seen archival footage of Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters and the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, are original performances by Koko Taylor, Otis Rush, Magic Slim, Ike Turner, and Sam Lay.

Says Levin: "When we were shooting Sam Lay and his band at the Chicago Blues Festival, they were playing Muddy Waters' classic, 'I Got My Mojo Workin.' I closed my eyes and was transported back to when I was a 15-year-old hanging in my buddy's basement listening to the Paul Butterfield Blues Band for the first time. My life was changed that day, and 35 years later the music's still shakin' my soul. The feel of that day in the basement is what I have set out to capture in this film."

Performances in Godfathers and Sons:

• Lonnie Brooks
• Paul Butterfield *
• Common
• Chuck D and Public Enemy *
• Bo Diddley *
• Sam Lay
• Ike Turner
• Pinetop Perkins
• Otis Rush
• Magic Slim
• Smokey Smothers
• Koko Taylor
• Sonny Terry * & Brownie McGhee *
• "Electric Mud Band": - Pete Cosey, Phil Upchurch, Louis Satterfield, Morris Jennings Kyle Rahzel and Ahmir (a.k.a. ?uestlove) of The Roots Muddy Waters * Sonny Boy Williamson * Howlin' Wolf * Willie Dixon * Blind Arvella Gray * Carrie Robinson *

*indicates archival performance

Interviews in Godfathers and Sons:

• Marshall Chess
• Chuck D
• Jamar Chess
• Phil Chess
• Koko Taylor
• Magic Slim
• Common
• Sam Lay

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Friday, Oct. 3, 9 p.m. - 2 hours (106) "Red White and Blues"
Directed by Mike Figgis

Director Mike Figgis (Stormy Monday, Leaving Las Vegas, Time Code) joins musicians such as Van Morrison, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, and Tom Jones, performing and talking about the music of the early sixties British invasion that reintroduced the blues sound to America.

During the 1960s, the UK was the location for a vibrant social revolution. London, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester and Newcastle all had their own music scenes. Musicians from Belfast and Glasgow moved to London to be part of the club scene there.

The post-war traditional jazz and folk revival movements produced the fertile ground for a new kind of blues music — entirely influenced by the authentic black blues of the USA, and, for the most part, entirely ignored by the good citizens of the US. It was new in the sense that certain key musicians took the blues and molded it in an entirely personal way to fit the new awareness of the UK in the sixties. Importantly, for the most part they continued to pay homage to the originators of the music and to make a huge global audience aware of the likes of Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Freddie King, etc.

Mike Figgis' film examines the circumstances of this vibrant period. Figgis himself participated, albeit in a minor way, in this period of history, playing in a blues band with Bryan Ferry, a band that was the nucleus for the first Roxy Music.

A series of musical interviews with the key players of the blues movement is augmented with a live session at the famous Abbey Road recording studios. Tom Jones, Jeff Beck, Van Morrison, and Lulu all improvise around some classic blues standards, accompanied by a superb band made up of younger and not-so-younger-musicians. The results are electrifying.

Says Figgis: "I'm interested in why there was such excitement about this black music among Europeans. To that end, I've put together a group of these musicians, augmenting the line-up with some younger talent as well. Hopefully the resulting recording session of some blues standards, and the discussions that follow, shine some light on why at a particular moment the blues was reinterpreted abroad and reintroduced in a new form that was universally embraced."

Performances in Red, White & Blues:

• Jeff Beck
• Big Bill Broonzy *
• Cream *
• Lonnie Donnegan
• Georgie Fame
• Chris Farlowe
• Tom Jones
• B.B. King
• Peter King
• Alexis Korner *
• Albert Lee
• Lulu
• Humphrey Lyttelton
• Sonny Terry * & Brownie McGhee *
• Van Morrison
• Rolling Stones *
• Sister Rosetta Tharpe *
• Muddy Waters *
• Lead Belly *
• Jon Cleary

*indicates archival performance

Interviews in Red, White & Blues:

• Tom Jones
• Jeff Beck
• Van Morrison
• John Porter
• Humphrey Lyttelton
• George Melly
• Lonnie Donnegan
• Chris Barber
• Eric Clapton
• John Mayall
• B.B. King
• Albert Lee
• Chris Farlowe
• Bert Jansch
• Eric Burdon
• Stevie Winwood
• Davey Graham
• Georgie Fame
• Mick Fleetwood
• Peter Green

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Saturday, Oct. 4, 9 p.m. - 2 hours (107) "Piano Blues"
Directed by Clint Eastwood

Director — and piano player — Clint Eastwood (Play Misty for Me, Bird, Unforgiven) explores his life-long passion for piano blues, using a treasure trove of rare historical footage in addition to interviews and performances by such living legends as Pinetop Perkins and Jay McShann, as well as Dave Brubeck and Marcia Ball.

Says Eastwood: "The blues has always been part of my musical life and the piano has a special place, beginning when my mother brought home all of Fats Waller's records. Also, the music has always played a part in my movies. A piano blues documentary gives me a chance to make a film that is more directly connected to the subject of the music than the features that I have been doing throughout my career."

Performances in Piano Blues:

• Marcia Ball
• Dave Brubeck
• Ray Charles
• Jay McShann
• Pinetop Perkins
• and many more!