Garland Jeffreys: The King of in Between

This is a fascinating and educational film that takes us through the life and career of an often unfairly overlooked singer songwriter. Told through intimate interviews, footage and of course the amazing music of Garland Jeffries, the film portrays a struggling artist who searches and clearly finds his place in the musical world. Although that place might not be at the top of the charts, it is a heartwarming to see the love and support of family and the musical community clearly proving that it is a life and musical career well played! Moving and beautifully told, the film will introduce many to the talent and creative genius of The King of In Between. Kudos to Garland's wife Claire for lovingly crafting and weaving together this amazing film!

What an interesting story...Garland Jeffreys is an amazing musician who's written a lot of great songs in a lot of different genres. (Hell, Bruce Springsteen and a lot of other fantastic people say so in this documentary, so it must be true.)

So learning about Garland's life and music is really cool. But what elevates this doc to something more is the exploration it does into the question: What does it mean to be "successful"? How famous do you have to be, how rich do you have to be? Or is it possible to NOT achieve all your dreams and goals, and yet still be successful?

Yeah, that's a question that I think most of us can legitimately ask ourselves. And this doc shows us that success means a lot of different things. I left this thinking that Garland Jeffreys, despite not becoming a household name, was very much a success. He had a great career, wrote songs that mean a lot to a lot of people...and at the same time was able to be a loving dad to his daughter. THAT'S success.

So, in short...while I'd specifically recommend this doc to music lovers, I'd really recommend it to anyone, since the questions it asks are relevant to everyone.

Claire Jeffreys' powerful documentary about her husband Garland's career expertly plays with your expectations and turns them inside out to create a moving portrait of a rock star that should have been.

Luckily we have his recordings as proof of his immense talent and Claire delivers lots of examples on screen. That alone would have been enough.

As the documentary started, my heart sank as one talking head after another extolled Garland's talent. We were only 10-15 minutes in - would the rest be more of the same? Then Claire threw out all the standard rock-doc cliches and instead told us the heart breaking and emotional story of her life with Garland and what they both had to overcome. If you don't already know you will need to watch it to find out.

Seek it out.

Garland Jeffreys is a tremendous artist but this documentary does more than show that. It shows a working artist's life. An honest depiction of a beautiful man who struggled. Struggled in the best sense of the word. He committed to being in this life, reckon with success and failure. Reckon with family and commitment. Reckon with his issues. His continued commitment to being a father, husband, community member and musician is beautiful. This movie is intimate. You see his marriage and family for real. Deeply moving. His story is an American story. One that is often left out. So grateful for this movie.

This film deserves an Academy Award. It is a poignant and compelling film about an American original - singer songwriter Garland Jeffries. An artist's artist with fans all over the world Jeffries story is the story of an artist 50 years ahead of his time. An artist who combined doo wop, rock and roll as well as an early proponent of Reggae even Bob Marley was a fan. He was a brave rock and roll. Warrior using music to speak about race and justice in America .If you love him this film will vindicate that love -if you never heard of him this film will make you love him. I have seen the film 2 times already and plan to own it when it comes out!

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