Who amongst us hasn’t had a dream of being a rock star? Those who are saying “not me” are probably only doing so because they dreamt of being a pop/country/reggae/folk/soul/jazz star. Music is one of those things that resonates with nearly all of us. It has such a wide range that it is almost impossible to find someone who doesn’t like some genre or other. I remember being hopelessly addicted to prog rock as a teenager…I still have a soft spot for Gabriel era Genesis to this day. I also remember lying in bed, listening to my Sony Walkman and imagining myself doing a kind of Mike Oldfield thing; making multi track recordings of me playing all my favourite songs.
Like most of my friends I bought a guitar. Unfortunately I am terminally tone deaf and never even managed to get the damn thing tuned let alone learn how to play it. During lock down I thought I’d have another go and actually bought a digital tuning aid…didn’t work. After I’d managed to snap the third (G?) string six or seven times I gave up and the latest guitar in my life is standing forlorn and forgotten in the corner of the bedroom. Maybe, one day, one of my grandchildren will show some modicum of musical talent and blow the dust off it.
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He Got A Call Yesterday
Donnie (Casey Affleck) and Joe ( Walton Goggins) Emerson were a bit different. They had some talent. More importantly, they had a supportive father (Beau Bridges) who recognised their abilities and set about encouraging them. He didn’t just cheer them on and support them with words. He actually gave them financial backing to buy instruments and built a state of the art recording studio. That sounds a bit like hyperbole but he spent $100,000.00 back in the late seventies. That is near enough to half a million dollars nowadays so it demonstrated a considerable faith in his sons talent.
Donnie and Joe did a lot more than most teenage boys would have done in their position. They self-produced and self-released their first album, Dreamin’ Wild, in 1979 on their own Enterprise & Co. label. It was an eclectic mix of rock, soul, R&B, country, and funk music. And the rest, as they say, is history. Well, it would have been if they’d actually managed to sell any of them. During the recordings, Joe had been on the drums while Donnie played everything else. Afterwards Joe dropped out of the music business but Donnie went on to make another couple of solo albums with little success.
From A Guy At A Record Company
That is until nearly thirty years after the release of Dreamin’ Wild. The film opens with Donnie dreaming about his teens and how he hoped he’d make it big. Instead he wakes up to a scene of desperate normality; wife, kids, the school run. He is working in a small recording studio which is struggling and playing gigs to small wedding parties in three quarter empty dining rooms with his wife Nancy (Zooey Deschanel) on drums. As Les McQueen used to say about his time with Creme Brûlée…“It’s a shit business”. But then, in 2008, Dreamin’ Wild was rediscovered.
And NOW the rest is history! And this is the main thrust of the feature before us. Finding fame late in life and long after they had given up on their dreams. Bill Pohlad’s direction is deliberate, allowing the story to unfold at a measured pace that emphasises character development and emotional depth. Some might find that pace a wee bit too slow and the understated cinematography might be too muted for some but complements the rural setting and contemplative tone. Dreamin’ Wild gets a digital release on 14th April 2025 courtesy of 101 Films.
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