Wim Wenders looks at the dramatic tension in the blues between the sacred and the profane by exploring the music and lives of three of his favorite blues artists: Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and J. B. Lenoir.

Wim Wenders looks at the dramatic tension in the blues between the sacred and the profane by exploring the music and lives of three of his favorite blues artists: Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and J. B. Lenoir. Part history, part personal pilgrimage, the film tells the story of these lives in music through an extended fictional film sequence, rare archival footage, present-day documentary scenes and covers of their songs by contemporary musicians such as Shemekia Copeland, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Garland Jeffreys, Chris Thomas King, Cassandra Wilson, Nick Cave, Los Lobos, Eagle Eye Cherry, Vernon Reid, James "Blood"Ulmer, Lou Reed, Bonnie Raitt, Marc Ribot, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Lucinda Williams and T-Bone Burnett.

Says Wenders, "These songs meant the world to me. I felt there was more truth in them than in any book I had read about America, or in any movie I had ever seen. I've tried to describe, more like a poem than in a 'documentary,'what moved me so much in their songs and voices."

Film Credits
Written and Directed by: Wim Wenders
Produced by: Alex Gibney
Producer: Margaret Bodde
Director of Photography: Lisa Rinzler
Edited by: Mathilde Bonnefoy
Associate Producer: Belinda Clasen
Featured Performers: Lou Reed, Lucinda Williams, Cassandra Wilson, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Shemekia Copeland, Eagle Eye Cherry, Vernon Reid, James "Blood"Ulmer, Los Lobos, T-Bone Burnett, Bonnie Raitt, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Marc Ribot, Garland Jeffreys, Chris Thomas King, Nick Cave, T-Bone Burnett
Archival Performances: J.B. Lenoir, Skip James, John Mayall

CAST
Skip James, Keith B. Brown, Blind Willie Johnson, Chris Thomas King