Echo in the Canyon | 3 out of 4 Stars| PG-13 (for drug references and some suggestive content)
By Kyle Osborne
We are living in a Golden Age of music documentaries. Maybe it’s just a function of so many streaming services needing content to fill out their programming? Maybe filmmakers are realizing that the great musicians of the past 50 years aren’t long for the world (Jagger and Richards excepted-they’ll outlive us all) and they’d better get their testaments on film while there’s still time–indeed, Glen Frey died not so long after the exhaustive History of the Eagles was released at the too young age of 69.
The latest music doc, Echo in the Canyon, focuses on only a single place and a single point in time: Laurel Canyon in 1965-67. The residents of that neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills were a who’s who of Folk Rock music. Some of them were the originators of that genre mash-up that took the chords and poetry and politics of the acoustic music that came before it in New York’s East Village, and married it to jangly electric guitars (notably Rickenbacker guitars as Tom Petty, in his final appearance, points out near the beginning of the film. Petty has his own 4 hour doc that was directed some years ago by Peter Bogdonovich, I could watch it once a week, if I had the time).
Petty’s hero, Roger McGuinn of The Byrds, is but one of many Canyon-based artists who shaped a sound and an aesthetic still fondly remembered some 50 years later. Crosby, Stills and Nash weigh in separately with important context. Jackson Browne is younger but knew the neighborhood well.
Michelle Phillips, sadly the only surviving member of the Mamas and the Papas, dishes about being a very “active” young woman back in the day. Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr, Brian Wilson and others relate broader themes about the times, and some more specific anecdotes about sex, drugs and rock and roll. There are personal regrets remembered, but mainly the interviewees are amazed by the level of creativity of which they were a part. Surprisingly, fierce but friendly competition was a driving force behind the creative surge. Albums like Pet Sounds and Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band are obvious examples. “Can you imagine influencing The Beatles?” Brown asks incredulously about Wilson’s effect.
The weakest link, and maybe this is why I’ve waited until the end to mention what should have begun this review, is Jakob Dylan, our host and guide and interviewer. Perhaps because his father is Bob Dylan and he, therefore, isn’t too impressed with celebrity, he comes across as bored, even a bit incurious. There are several revelations by his subjects where his only response is a quiet, “Mmm,” and a faint head nod. Were he more engaged, it would give the viewer a better feel for the historical significance of these pioneers.
On the other hand, and, again, maybe I should have mentioned sooner—the film intersperses the interviews with recent concert footage of Jakob Dylan performing many of the songs discussed, and he sounds phenomenal. His vocals have never sounded stronger. He’s joined onstage by Fiona Apple, Beck, Regina Spektor and other contemporaries doing excellent covers of the revered tunes. Others are shown in the recording studio, notably, Dylan’s take on Brian Wilson’s “I Just Wasn’t Made For These Times,” which sounds amazing.
Ultimately, Echo in the Canyon is a worthy addition to a growing library of music documentaries that keeps us music nerds occupied and our playlist queues ever growing.
Echo in the Canyon opens June 7 at Washington DC’s E Street Cinema.
For times and locations in your area, please visit: https://greenwichentertainment.com/film/echo-in-the-canyon/
Kyle Osborne