SXSWORLD

BIG EASY EXPRESS Captures Th ree Bands' Ongoing Musical Journey by Mike Snider Members of Old Crow Medicine Show, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, and Mumford & Sons perform at the screening of the Big Easy Express. Award. A packed, raucous crowd tapped their feet and clapped after nearly all of the song performances in the hour-long fi lm. "It felt like the crowd was watching a live show the way they were reacting," Malloy says. Th e cheers grew loudest during the scene in which Mumford & Sons visited Stephen F. Austin High School in Austin. After playing hit song "Th e Cave" with the school's marching band at the school, Marcus Mumford invited the astonished band to play the song onstage at that night's concert. When that happens in the fi lm, Malloy says, "the looks on the students' faces (in the movie) are priceless." Each of the bands off ers its own variation of folk rock, and the band members became friends as they crossed paths during tours. Th ey cooked up the train trip last year as a way to see parts of the U.S. that they typically miss. "Getting on a train is like a child's dream," says Alex Ebert, lead singer for Edward Sharpe & Th e Magnetic Zeros. Ebert knew Malloy and asked him if he would like to come along and document the trip. "When you stepped onto these 1950s train cars that these people had refurbished and really made into these beautiful col- lectors' pieces, you got transported to another time," Malloy says. "And 42 SXSW ORLD / M AY 2012 In a concert-like event at the historic Paramount Th eatre, members of the bands Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & Th e Magnetic Zeros and Old Crow Medicine Show saw for the fi rst time the fi nished fi lm about their ride from Oakland, California, to New Orleans, Louisiana, on a restored antique train. After watching the movie, the musicians came on stage and performed a half-hour set of favorites as well as new songs inspired by the journey. "It was a beautiful night," says director Emmett Malloy, who in 2010 brought the documentary Th e White Stripes: Under Great White Northern Lights to SXSW. "What this had diff erent is that the bands came and the participation was there. Th e fi nale of the fi lm really takes place in Austin … and the fact that it was a fi lm about music and to be at SXSW, it was just a perfect fi t." Deservedly so, as the fi lm won SXSW Film's Headliner Audience T he train-trip documentary BIG EASY EXPRESS is still running on the energy generated at the fi lm's world premiere during the closing night of SXSW. then rolling through the country in the parts that we did, you really felt at times you were in another era." As the train made its way to the six concert stops between Oakland and New Orleans, the musicians jammed all day and all night. Th e trip and the interplay infl uenced each group, especially Mumford & Sons, which at the time was exploding on the music scene after its Grammy Awards performance earlier that year. "We were pretty inspired," Mumford said at the premiere. "It has aff ected our songwriting." In addition to playing adult rock staple "Roll Away Your Stone," his fi lm "was the best thing we've ever done." Th at spirit is what Malloy hopes will help the fi lm get some exposure. "I do want to see it end up in some theaters and I want to see the bands be able to come out and give people, at least in a few spots around the country, what everybody got in Austin," he says. "Th en hopefully from there, the energy will be in place to go out and let people, in whatever way they prefer to be able to, take it home with them." ■ Mumford said. "It felt like a big family moving across the country." Th e SXSW audience response convinced Malloy that the fi lm has tapped into something beyond the traditional rock & roll documentary. "It seemed like people had an emotional stake in this fi lm, which cer- tainly I tried for but you can never assume you are going to get there," he says. "Th ere is an emotional and a poetic journey that is as much about the trip itself and about discovering and seeing these untouched parts of America as it is about any of the music ... It seemed people really enjoyed the journey and felt a part of it. " At the premiere, Mumford also said he felt like the band's part in the band broke out a new song, "Where Are You Now?", during the post- premiere jam session. Mumford & Sons, along with members of Old Crow Medicine Show, also joined Th e Magnetic Zeros in a live version of "Train in the Sky." Th e fi lm's fi nal scene captures Ebert and the group writing that par- ticular song about their on-board experience. While the train trip is "that kind of thing that can't be transcribed or communicated in any other way than being there," Ebert told the crowd, "this song was written in that kind of form." "We were just a bunch of friends riding along making music," MICHAEL BUCKNER / WIREIMAGE

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