Film Review: Deep Roots: The Art and Music of Bill Steber and Friends

Documentarian Robert Mugge started making films in the early 1970s. Focusing primarily on music, Mugge’s subjects have included everything from reggae (1983’s Cool Runnings: The Reggae Movie) and zydeco (2015’s Zydeco Crossroads: A Tale of Two Cities) to label histories (Pride and Joy: The Story of Alligator Records, 1992) to films about cultural phenomena (2007’s Deep Sea Blues). What Mugge has only occasionally done is to devote an entire film to a profile of an individual. He did it in 1984 (Gospel According to Al Green) and 1985 (The Return of Ruben Bladés) and again in 1999 with Hellhounds on My Trail: The Afterlife of Robert Johnson.

Mugge has taken the profile approach once more with his latest motion picture, Deep Roots. On one level it’s the story of a man, Bill Steber. But in truth it’s the story of Steber’s passions, his creative pursuits, and the manner in which those elements come together to create a body of work and a mission much larger than the individual who embodies them.

Some directors insert themselves into the film, making their presence or perspective an integral component of the work. Mugge isn’t that sort of director. Handling all of the camera work himself on Deep Roots, the filmmaker doesn’t appear – nor is he heard – at all during the slightly more than two hour runtime of the film. One suspects that Mugge believes that his perceived presence would shift the emphasis and tone of the film. Whatever his reasons, the approach suits Deep Roots quite well. Mugge’s camera work keeps the emphasis squarely on Steber himself, who is seen and heard in nearly every frame. Mugge captures the onscreen images and sounds in a way that’s deeply authentic, presenting the images and sonics without commenting upon them.

Crucially, Bill Steber has the presence and force of personality to carry the film himself. A modern-day renaissance man (and notably a very humble one), Steber channels his passions through a myriad of creative outlets. He’s a historian, storyteller and folklorist par excellence. He’s a multi-instrumentalist (guitar, blues harp, saw and more) and powerful, expressive vocalist. He’s a visual artist, working in the media of photography (small-, medium- and large-format) and sculpture. Steber creates triptychs that are very pointedly the result of collecting and staging detritus from sources relevant to each work.

It wouldn’t be accurate to label Bill Steber a blues historian. While his extensive knowledge on (and appreciation of) the blues is beyond compare, that’s merely part of the picture for him. With his band the Jack Leg Stompers, Steber explores the entirety of American music. He’s no snob, freely admitting that one of his entry points into the blues was a record by British band the Yardbirds. In Steber’ view, most all roads in the popular music of the 20^th century and beyond trace their roots to field hollers and to the race and hillbilly music of the 1920s.

Weaving together his art, photography, storytelling skills and historical expertise, Steber connects the dots to celebrate the larger story of music. He comes to that mission from a perspective that looks primarily – though not exclusively – to Mississippi. And he brings to the mission the fervor of a religious zealot, the warmheartedness of a treasured friend, the scholarship of a learned academician and – most importantly – the honest appreciation of the women and men who created the musical forms he reveres.

There’s no narrator in Deep Roots, and one isn’t needed. Steber tells his stories; bits of commentary from others fill in the spaces, and the music – as real as it gets – completes the picture.