BT-11. Austin to Boston

USA/Australia, Feature Documentary, 2014, 72 min

Five old VW vans. Four bands. Three thousand miles. Two weeks. One gloriously retro cross-country band tour. The adventure begins at Austin’s SXSW Music Festival where the bands (Ben Howard, The Staves, Nathaniel Rateliff, Bear’s Den) pile into their rides and head northeast. Sounding like the track of a Coen brothers? movie, they play small-town venues from bars to barns, wowing crowds all the way to Boston. This raggedy tour is a far cry from the heavy, high-tech logistics of these bands? normal tours, and their biggest tech problems are a stalling Microbus and how to relight a campfire after a rainstorm. Featuring Mumford & Sons? Ben Lovett and narrated by Gill Landry of the Old Crow Medicine Show, this documentary is about the absolutely boundless joy of getting back to your roots.