‘River of Song’ Honors the Mississippi’s Voices

All along the Mississippi River, dozens of cultures have distinctive music styles, from a Chippewa Nation powwow and a snowbound Scandinavian fiddle club at the Minnesota source to the Cajun and Creole French and descendants of African slaves and Spanish settlers in sweltering Louisiana at the river’s end.

But throughout the four hours of “River of Song,” documenting the sounds of the Mississippi, most everyone’s singing the same tunes: Music, says one performer after another, is about community, identity and tradition.

The river itself is ostensibly the thread connecting this ambitious, lovingly made series that in reality is more like 44 separate five- to 10-minute documentaries than a single piece. But it’s those consistent themes that actually tie it all together and keep it flowing.

At his best, director-producer John Junkerman shows the music in its natural habitat of community gatherings--the Chippewa dance conclave, a Minneapolis punk club, a Southern Illinois bluegrass festival, a potluck at the house of Cajun legend D.L. Menard.

In those lively settings, the music pretty much tells its own story, and the performers’ commentary is illuminating. The narration read by folk-punk singer Ani DiFranco concisely explores the connection of the Mississippi’s place as the artery of culture and commerce and its musical richness, though river-music analogies get a bit tortured along the way.

Highlights are numerous: folk musician John Hartford singing for a group of senior citizens on a steamboat that he pilots as an avocation during summers; Merle Haggard joining former Louisiana governor and country music pioneer Jimmie Davis for a round of Davis’ biggest hit, “You Are My Sunshine,” at a celebration of his 98th birthday; the fresh faces of the St. Charles, Mo., High School marching band playing purely for love and social bonding; Mississippi blues man Johnny Billington teaching grade-school kids about their musical heritage.

The message of the project--as well as a companion two-CD set and lavish book--is clear in the opening montage, as polka dancers and punk pogo-ers alike are seen not for how different their culture and music are but how similar.

Dancing is dancing; music is music. And throughout, the series leaves no doubt that the Mississippi is just as much the essence of America today--no matter how diverse it may have become--as it was when Huck and Jim floated on that raft long ago.

* “The Mississippi: River of Song” will be broadcast on KCET on Sunday at 12:30 p.m. The network has rated it TV-G.