Kings of Leon -- for those not yet in the know, a major American recording and touring band that first made it big in Europe -- made news in Texas recently when they cancelled a show-in-progress, ostensibly on account of the excessive heat. My curiosity about this got me to check out Stephen C. Mitchell's documentary, Talihina Sky: The Story of Kings of Leon (2011).
Cutting to the quick, it's really good. Why? Because it goes to their roots, the greater family, swirling around a sprawling family reunion in Oklahoma. The three Followill brothers (Caleb, Nathan and Jared) were raised as Pentecostalists, and a primal Christianity permeates the entire milieu. Holy Ghost, speaking in tongues -- all of it. Their parents have been divorced since before Kings of Leon formed as a band; in fact, it seems as if the divorce itself created the space in which they could form it with their cousin Matthew Followill, in Nashville, Tennessee. Mitchell gets at things from the perspectives of both parents. The father was a preacher, the mother feared hell and damnation. "We were taught that television was the one-eyed Devil," she notes. "Rock and Roll was Devil music." She seems still to think so, and so does her ex-husband. But the latter had other demons to fight, like alcohol. Out of this came the band, driven and driving. It's a remarkable story.
Bottom line: Talihina Sky is an impressive freestyle documentary with no overarching narration. It's like total immersion in another culture, another town, another family system, and it took me a little while to get my bearings. Well worth the effort.
Today's Rune: Breakthrough.
1 comment:
Not sure I've ever heard anything by them, though I recognize the name. For new music these days I tend to listen to Ozone on sirius radio. But I don't know all the band names.
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