''Heartworn Highways'' is a documentary film by James Szalapski whose vision captured some of the founders of the Outlaw Country movement in Texas and Tennessee in the last weeks of 1975 and the first weeks of 1976.

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entry for
Heartworn Highways
'. The film was not released theatrically until 1981.

Plot

The documentary covers singer-songwriters whose songs are more traditional to early folk and country music instead of following in the tradition of the previous generation. Some of film's featured performers are

Guy Clark Guy Charles Clark (November 6, 1941 – May 17, 2016) was an American folk and country singer-songwriter and luthier. He released more than 20 albums, and his songs have been recorded by other artists, including Jerry Jeff Walker, Jimmy Buffet ...

Townes Van Zandt John Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997) was an American singer-songwriter.

Steve Earle Stephen Fain Earle (; born January 17, 1955) is an American singer-songwriter, record producer, author, and actor. Earle began his career as a songwriter in Nashville and released his first EP in 1982. Initially working in the country music g ...

David Allan Coe David Allan Coe (born September 6, 1939) is an American singer and songwriter. Coe took up music after spending much of his early life in reform schools and prisons, and first became notable for busking in Nashville. He initially played mostly i ...

Rodney Crowell Rodney Crowell (born August 7, 1950) is an American musician, known primarily for his work as a singer and songwriter in country music. Crowell has had five number one singles on Hot Country Songs, all from his 1988 album '' Diamonds & Dirt''. ...

Gamble Rogers James Gamble Rogers IV (January 31, 1937 – October 10, 1991) was an American folk artist musician and storyteller known for the recurring theme in his songs and stories about characters and places in a fictional Florida county. He was a 1998 i ...

Steve Young Jon Steven Young (born October 11, 1961) is an American former professional football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 15 seasons, primarily with the San Francisco 49ers. He also played for the Tampa Bay Buccane ...

, and

The Charlie Daniels Band Charles Edward Daniels (October 28, 1936 – July 6, 2020) was an American singer, musician, and songwriter. His music fused rock, country, blues and jazz, pioneering Southern rock. He was best known for his number-one country hit "The Dev ...

. The movie features the first known recordings of

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

award winners Steve Earle and Rodney Crowell who were quite young at the time and appear to be students of mentor Guy Clark. Steve Earle was also a big fan of Van Zandt at the time. The beginning of the movie shows

Larry Jon Wilson Larry Jon Wilson (October 7, 1940 – June 21, 2010) was an American country singer, guitarist and musician. He recorded "Through the Eyes of Little Children" and "I Betcha Heaven's on a Dirt Road". Biography Born in Swainsboro, Georgia, Wil ...

in a recording studio, awakened for the movie after an evening of post-gig debauchery. The film maker goes to Austin and visits Townes Van Zandt at his trailer (at what is now 11th and Charlotte in the Clarksville neighborhood of downtown Austin) and his girlfriend Cindy, his dog Geraldine, Rex "Wrecks" Bell, and Uncle Seymour Washington (born 1896; died 1977) at his place, who is also called "The Walking Blacksmith", and who gives his great worldly advice to the viewers and represents a very important aspect of the atmosphere that these songwriters living in the South are surrounded by and involved in. The movie shows Charlie Daniels completely fill a big high school gymnasium. Then the camera man, sound recorder and director join David Allan Coe and film him playing a gig at the

Tennessee State Prison Tennessee State Prison is a former correctional facility located six miles west of downtown Nashville, Tennessee on Cockrill Bend. It opened in 1898 and has been closed since 1992 because of overcrowding concerns. The mothballed facility was seve ...

where he admits to being a former inmate and tells a story of being there and seems to bring out friends of his onto the stage who still are inmates there and they perform a gospel number "Thank You Jesus" that they used to sing in the yard. The end of the movie shows a drinking party that starts Christmas Eve and ends sometime Christmas Day at Guy Clark's house in Nashville with Guy, Susanna Clark, Steve Young, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Jim McGuire (playing the

dobro Dobro is an American brand of resonator guitars, currently owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally ...

), along with several other guests. Steve Young leads the group in a rendition of Hank Williams' song "

I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" is a song written and recorded by American country music singer-songwriter Hank Williams in 1949. The song has been covered by a wide range of musicians. Authorship and production Various writers quoted Williams a ...

" and Rodney Crowell leads everyone in "

Silent Night "Silent Night" (german: "Stille Nacht, heilige Nacht", links=no, italic=no) is a popular Christmas carol, composed in 1818 by Franz Xaver Gruber to lyrics by Joseph Mohr in the small town of Oberndorf bei Salzburg, Austria. It was declared an ...

Reception

Pauline Kael Pauline Kael (; June 19, 1919 – September 3, 2001) was an American film critic who wrote for ''The New Yorker'' magazine from 1968 to 1991. Known for her "witty, biting, highly opinionated and sharply focused" reviews, Kael's opinions oft ...

wrote highly of the film and its lyricism, but lamented the loose structure and lack of contextualizing information:

Szalapski is an attentive and scrupulous cinematographer; he loves his subjects, and the imagery is so warm and finely detailed that I had a hard time believing I was seeing a blow-up from 16-mm. But in this film he isn't yet a director—not fully, anyway ... It's fairly clear that during the (underfinanced) shooting he caught whatever he could; he couldn't plan a structure, and he probably wasn't looking for anything as vulgar as a hook or an angle. Which is too bad, because although there is very little in the film that isn't friendly or funny or really soul-stirring, it has no unifying energy. Watching it is like being carted off to a good party by people who told you where they were taking you so casually that the names of the people who were going to be there didn't sink in.

Janet Maslin also noted the unfocused ambience:

The camera periodically (and somewhat unpredictably) drops in on a tavern where the regulars play pool and grouse about what country music is coming to. A woman is seen singing here - a homely elderly woman with long teased hair, a too-tight shimmering jumpsuit and a voice not even Smith or Wesson could admire. The movie presents her almost matter-of-factly, though, or at least it offers no discernible attitude toward her. Here, as in many places, the directorial haziness becomes a problem. But for those interested in the particular performers to whom the film is devoted, ''Heartworn Highways'' at least offers ambience, if not much more.

Contemporary critics, such as Doug Freeman, see the lack of structure as a strength:

Yet in many ways, Heartworn Highways refuses that historicizing assessment, even resists it. The film would certainly not have become the canonical documentary it has without the subsequent success of its subjects, but their names are never the emphasis here. While the songwriters Szalapski follows are exceptional, there is the sense that he could have just as effectively been following any number of other young artists or communities. The documentary pushes into the moment, which if not timeless, is at least removed from time. The lack of context as the camera rolls is the point.Heartworn Highways, 1976, NR, 92 min. Directed by James Szalapski. REVIEWED By Doug Freeman, Fri., Feb. 5, 2021, online.
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Music

Songs performed in the documentary: *

- "L.A. Freeway" *

- "

Ohoopee River The Ohoopee River is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map, accessed April 21, 2011 river in east-central Georgia in the United States. It is a tributary of the Altamaha River, which ...

Bottomland" *

- "Keep on Trucking" * Big Mack McGowan & Glenn Stagner "The Doctor's Blues" * Guy Clark - "That Old Time Feeling" *

Townes Van Zandt John Townes Van Zandt (March 7, 1944 – January 1, 1997) was an American singer-songwriter.

- "Waitin' Around to Die" *

- "I Still Sing the Old Songs" * Barefoot Jerry - "Two Mile Pike" *

- "Bluebird Wine" *

- "Alabama Highway" * Guy Clark - "Texas Cooking" *

- "Black Label Blues" * Peggy Brooks - "Lets Go All the Way" *

- "Texas" *

- "Penitentiary Blues" *

- "River" *

- "Elijah's Church" (partial) * Ensemble - "Silent Night" "Extras" (bonus songs on the DVD): * Guy Clark - "Desperadoes Waiting For a Train" * Townes Van Zandt - " Pancho & Lefty" *

Richard Dobson Richard James Joseph Dobson II (March 19, 1942 – December 16, 2017) was an American singer-songwriter and author. Dobson was part of the outlaw country movement and spent time in the 1970s with Townes Van Zandt, Mickey White, Rex "Wrecks" B ...

- "Hard by the Highway" * The Charlie Daniels Band - "Long Haired Country Boy" * Guy Clark w/ Rodney Crowell - "Ballad of Laverne and Captain Flint" *

John Hiatt John Robert Hiatt (born August 20, 1952) is an American singer-songwriter. He has played a variety of musical styles on his albums, including new wave, blues, and country. Hiatt has been nominated for nine Grammy Awards and has been awarded ...

- "One For The One For Me" * Steve Earle - "Darlin' Commit Me" * David Allan Coe - "Thank You, Jesus" Party at Guy Clark's house: * Steve Earle - "Mercenary Song" * Rodney Crowell - "Young Girls Hungry Smile" * Richard Dobson - "Forever, For Always, For Certain" * Billy Callery - "Question" * Steve Young - "

" * Steve Earle & Rodney Crowell - "Stay a Little Longer" * Guy Clark - "Country Morning Music"

References

External links

* * * *{{YouTube, id=btEqEtd6UXg, title=Heartworn Highways 1981 films American documentary films Documentary films about country music and musicians 1981 documentary films 1980s English-language films 1980s American films