Dangerous Blues - Joe Savage

Joe Savage is one of the four muleskinners--along with Walter Brown, William S. Hart, and Bill Gordon--that Alan Lomax interviews in the film about his experiences working as a laborer building the massive levee systems so prominent throughout Mississippi. Savage, who spent several years in the Parchman State Penitentiary, also speaks on film about the brutality he faced while serving time and sings several blues songs capturing his emotions. See Lomax's book The Land Where the Blues Began, Chapter 5, pp. 235-55; Chapter 6, pp.257.