Heartworn Highways Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Heartworn Highways Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 8, 2021

There's a joke that's been going around for a while that with the advent of self driving vehicles it's only a matter of time before some country music artist writes a tune about his truck leaving him. The joke may obviously assume a certain "template" for the country music idiom, or at least perceptions of it, but that very assumption and/or perception may bring to mind the salient question, "What is country music?" That's part of the subtext of Heartworn Highways, an interesting if kind of aimless documentary that offers a bunch of often spontaneous performances by a group of musicians, some of whom were largely unknown when the film was shot, but who have gone on to careers of considerable renown. Ironically, as the "baby faced newcomers" in the film, these folks are contrasted with older (if no wiser) sorts who have been around the block several times and have survived to tell the tale. Some of the relative elders, like Charlie Daniels, were obviously already at least fairly successful in the film's production era of the mid- seventies, while others had never totally grasped the brass ring. Another participant, David Allan Coe, is a perhaps unspoken paradigm of one of the film's presumed focal points, the so-called "outlaw country" subgenre, which is overtly dealt with in a segment documenting a performance at a prison where Coe discusses his own incarceration. In that regard, it's interesting to note that the film's marketing materials sometimes tout country music's "new wave" as its focus instead of "outlaw country", as if even the creative crew behind the documentary wasn't quite sure what "country music" means, but there is occasional perhaps humorous certainty at times, including a vignette featuring a performance venue owner who laments that "country music" doesn't mean what it used to (whatever that means).

There's a "loosey goosey" quality to much of this footage, some of which can come across as downright comical as a result. For example, an early scene documents a recording session by Larry Jon Wilson, who is evidently not quite recovered from the previous night's partying. As someone born and bred in Utah, I personally had a good laugh at his song "Ohoopee River Bottomland", since his lyric mentions the fact that Wilson wasn't especially welcomed in Salt Lake City, and so was returning to his homeland in Georgia. A number of other "fly on the wall" performances like this also inform the film, and give it its real staying power, including a really touching moment where (in other moments) an often hilarious Townes Van Zandt performs the first song he ever wrote, "Waiting Around to Die", while elderly neighbor Seymour Washington, nicknamed the "walking blacksmith", looks on emotionally in the background.

Van Zandt's "tour" around his somewhat dilapidated farm is another comedy highlight, with the legendary singer and songwriter appearing holding a bottle of whiskey, a can of Coke, and a shotgun, just for good measure. Hilariously, he introduces his dog before he introduces his girlfriend, and then goes on to pretend he has mutant rabbits burrowing on his property, which made me wonder if he was referencing the then recent release of Monty Python and the Holy Grail . Some of the bits here may not resonate all that well, including what amounts to some open mic performances, but on the whole, Heartworn Highways is kind of refreshing in how it details a number of artists from that era who were not willing to be chewed up and spat out by the country music industry in general and perhaps legendary locales like Nashville in particular. Those iconoclasts include some future heavyweights like Rodney Crowell and Steve Earle.

For those with an interest in regional musical artistry such is featured copiously in Heartworn Highways, there are some really interesting documentaries included on the Criterion release of Les Blank: Always for Pleasure which I reviewed some time ago, some of which would make for pretty appealing double features with this film. Like Heartworn Highways' director James Szalapski, Blank was often content to just let the performers do the talking (and/or singing, as they case may be), without any seeming point of view imposed by the filmmaker other than to memorialize things.

Heartworn Highways Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Heartworn Highways is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Kino Classics, an imprint of Kino Lorber, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Neither information on the cover nor the insert booklet contain any real technical data, but the newly done trailer included as a supplement on this release mentions a new restoration culled from the original camera negative. The presentation here is commendably organic looking, and the palette in particular looks rather richly suffused, with primaries like reds and blues popping extremely well. Detail levels are somewhat more variable, some of which can be attributed to differing filming conditions. There is quite a bit of recurrent if minor damage afflicting the presentation, with quite a few small but noticeable white flecks repeatedly showing up (some of them can be spotted in some of the screenshots accompanying this review when viewed in full resolution). Grain is occasionally on the chunky side, but resolves without any real issues.

Heartworn Highways Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Heartworn Highways features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track that provides completely capable support for the film's spoken, sung and played moments, though certain slack needs to be granted in terms of the vagaries of some of the live recording situations, notably the open mic and even sequences set in a high school gym and a prison, where things like overall amplitude and encroaching crowd noise can sometimes alter the ability to hear the performers. Fidelity is very good to excellent within that context, and the variety of voices and instruments is typically presented with clarity and precision. Optional English subtitles are available.

Heartworn Highways Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Producer Graham Leader and Editor / Assistant Director Phillip Schopper can be accessed under the Audio Menu. This sounds like it was done by phone and suffers from some fidelity issues.


• Bonus Footage from Heartworn Highways (HD; 1:02:24) offers a glut of stuff, including more location footage of various sites utilized and additional interview and performance segments.


• Heartworn Highways Trailer (HD; 2:10) is a newly done piece highlighting Kino Lorber's restoration.


• Heartworn Highways Revisited Trailer (HD; 1:36)

Heartworn Highways Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If the emphasis here is kind of understood implicitly to be "rule breakers" of one kind or the other, then Heartworn Highways succeeds in offering a gaggle of people who would certainly fit that bill. Perhaps it's understandable, then, that James Szalapski was something of a rule breaker himself, offering a documentary that kind of wanders to and fro without any perceived destination, but coming off as an amiable if occasionally raucous road trip as a result. Technical merits are generally solid, though the source element does show some recurrent if pretty minor damage. The supplements are also very enjoyable. Recommended.