Garland Jeffreys: The King of in Between

I have been a fan of Garland since the 1970's. This film is long overdue. The editing is wonderful and the only thing wrong with this film is I wish it was longer. Garland's influence is widespread. He is the songwriter's songwriter and the musician's musician. A must see if you love music. He has impacted and influanced rock, rap, punk, new wave, you name it. This film documents his years in the music industry, mostly under the radar but noticed by those in the know. The interviews are all very interesting and his peers give him great accolades. The film includes rare video and photos unseen before now. So see this documentary where everyone you can.

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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Garland Jeffreys is such an great talent that not enough people know about. Hopefully, this documentary will help change that. Running a University program this will be a great resource for our music history course. I look forward to turning many more people onto Jeffreys. The documentary gives a great overview of his career and life. Also touching on the cultural history of the era he grew up in and started his career. It was interesting to see why he was on so many different record labels. Also, I didn't realize how "Matador" was such a worldwide hit for him. It's interesting to see how many artists are fans of his work and admire Jeffreys.

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.