Not sure who recommended this to me, but, man, I wish they wouldn't have.

First of all, to have Jakob Dylan host...was a terrible idea. Absolutely the most lifeless, unresponsive, uninteresting person I have ever seen hosting any form of anything, ever. It's like looking at Tom Hanks on a bad acid trip...if Tom Hanks had been lobotomized. Like, dude, you do realize you're on camera, right? There are people talking to you... at least pretend like you're listening.

The movie is about 15% interesting information and reminiscences from old rock stars - and that's the only good part. About 60% of it is random major label musicians that don't seem to have much to do with the focused genre (the California rock n roll scene in the 60's) coming together to cover songs by these 60's bands both in the studio and at a concert, always fronted by Jakob Dylan. Obviously they are all musically proficient but nearly every performance is completely vapid of any spirit or energy. Immensely uninteresting. The remainder of the the film is made up of descriptions of things with no added personal perspective or input, so you may as well just be reading a Wikipedia page instead, and awkward, forced-feeling conversational segments between Dylan, Beck, Regina Spektor, and Cat Power - where it feels like all 4 of them are trying their best to have a real conversation but none of them can seem to pull anything beyond surface level thoughts or commentary out of themselves (with the exception of Spektor in one moment, though her thought is immediately nulled and voided by Dylan's hardly relative response).

The only thing I really gained from this is learning who the band Buffalo Springfield is, realizing how much I dislike Jakob Dylan's energy, and realizing even more so than I thought that this probably really isn't my scene.

The interviews were the best part with many of the old gang looking pretty good. Roger McGuinn was especially lucent with Michelle Phillips still holding on to a small vestige of her once world class transcendent beauty, IMHO. The film bogs down with the performances by Jakob and the younger generation which were strangely lacking in energy or commitment.. Nora Jones's segment reminded me of some one there just to get a check.

"Echo In the Canyon" (2018 release; 8 min.) is a documentary about the "southern California" sound that emerged in the mid-60s with bands like the Byrds, the Beach Boyes, the Mamas and the Papas, and so on. As the movie opens, we watch Tom Petty and Jacob Dylan talking guitar shop, and Richenbackers in particular. Next we are at the "Orpheum Theater, Los Angeles, 2015", where former Capitol Records CEO Andrew Slater explains that 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the 1965 emergence of the Byrds and other bands resident in Laurel Canyon, and what better way to commemorate the occasion than to play the songs from that era? With that, we go back to an early rehearsal at someone's house, where Beck, Regina Spektor, Cat Powers and Dylan are looking at vinyl records from the 60s and trying out some songs...

Couple of comments: this documentary seems to be a labor of love from Andrew Slater (who directs and produces) and Jacob Dylan (who stars and executive-produces). The documentary does a good job switching on the one hand the concert and rehearsal footage with on the other hand interviews (by Dylan) of the big names from that era. Members from the Byrds, the Mamas and the papas, the Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield and others (such as Ringo Starr. Eric Clapton, Jackson Browne, and others) get significant screen time, and brings wonderful stories from "back in the day". As to the Orpheum Theater concert footage, something seemed not quite right with the sound, at least in the theater where I saw this film, in that the sound came across thinly. Still it was fun to see the elusive Fiona Apple again (on 2 songs), along a slew of other guests. And then, all of the sudden, the movie ends, as if they either ran out of money or out of ideas, but at not even 80 min., the end titles started rolling.

"Echo in the Canyon" premiered last Fall to good acclaim, and it finally reached my art-house theater here in Cincinnati this weekend, and I couldn't wait to see it. The Sunday matinee screening where I saw this at was, much to my surprise, PACKED. Holy cow! Who knew there was such a large interest in this film? Or were they there to escape the scorching heatwave outside? Either way, if you have any interest in the history of rock, I encourage you to check out "Echo In the Canyon", be it in the theater, on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion.