Unsung Music Icon Gets Fitting Tribute

You’d be forgiven if you had absolutely no clue who Swamp Dogg is before diving into Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted. By the end of this unconventional and truly entertaining music documentary, the legendary “convention-defying” singer/songwriter/record producer will find his way into your heart. Do a Google search. You’ll be mystified.

This compelling documentary may even provoke a look back to the days before TikTok turned us into swipe-and-stop addicts – that Aussie father/daughter lip-syncing duo is pure fun, no? – or even further back, before 21st-century music industry spin masters won us over with countless earworms and snazzy Grammy performances that lean heavily into showmanship.

That said, there’s something refreshingly raw, real, and dynamic about Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted, which takes audiences into the eclectic creative world of Jerry Williams, a.k.a. Swamp Dogg. Williams is the enigmatic-yet-humble 20th-century cult figure whose singular voice and ideas helped reshape and redefine the history of not just soul music, but hip-hop, country music, and so many other genres. And in this doc, directed by Isaac Gale and Ryan Olson, the legend is given a passionate and moving homage that leaves us a bit nostalgic for purer times.

It’s Time To Dive In

Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted

Release Date

March 8, 2024

Runtime

97 minutes

Director

Ryan Olson

It all begins with the pool. Swamp Dogg’s pool, in fact. We’re dropped into an average day for a not-so-average gent – Swamp Dogg is overseeing the process of his pool getting painted. Soon enough, the filmmakers’ fizzy creative style whips us around the cosmic kaleidoscope of the legend’s life, from the present day to the past and back again, to explore his future ambitions.

We meet the artist in his “bachelor pad of aging musicians,” a single-story home in the L.A. Valley. There’s Guitar Shorty, the famed American blues guitarist/singer/songwriter, who is well known for his inventive guitar style and wild stage antics – nothing like performing somersaults in between chords. Moogstar, kind and quirky, is steering through a suddenly frenetic music industry. He doles out the heart in this doc and delivers some keyboard pizzazz along the way. Swamp Dogg himself emits grace and humility. Get him talking, though, and a vibrant world is revealed, illuminating the man’s rich history and incredible talent.

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What would happen, then, if the Dogg invited his fellow musicians – we’re talking John Prine and Jenny Lewis, and even mega-fans like Johnny Knoxville, Mike Judge, and Tom Kenny – to not only play around in his musical sandbox, but to also help paint Swamp Dogg’s pool? Yeah, it’s like that. And boy, is it both fun and interesting.

An Icon Finally Basks Under the Spotlight

Some Swamp Dogg 411: Flashback to 1954, when Jerry Williams made his first recording. He’d go on to write and produce songs for the likes of Patti LaBelle and Gene Pitney. Then, in 1970, he released a creative masterpiece, an album dubbed Total Destruction To Your Mind. This is when he started using the Swamp Dogg moniker. The doc does a fine job of dipping into these moments without drowning in them for too long. Like the artist’s music, the story zips around with spunk and style.

Remember the group, World Class Wreckin’ CRU? The Dogg helped mold that R&B/hip-hop sensation. Swamp Dogg also reveals how the icon launched his own label and recorded countless Beatles songs – a great bit in the doc, in fact. And, what’s this with Jane Fonda’s brazen anti-war Free the Army Tour? Decades ago, Dogg and Fonda found common ground in their activism, both demonstrating against the Vietnam War.

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When the Music is the Driving Force

Surfing through the seven decades that followed his initial music launch, we discover how Swamp Dogg became a cult figure, and how real breakout “stardom,” at least in the traditional sense, always eluded him. He seemed adjacent to “fame” – always there, always creating, always being signed to record labels, always able to perform in a variety of genres, but never fully basking under the spotlight.

All that, plus details about his devoted and shrewd business partner/wife, Yvonne Williams, and tidbits from his daughter and other music folk, make for a thoroughly engaging doc. Take note: Now in his early eighties, Swamp Dogg’s recent album, Blackgrass, finds the icon crooning bluegrass. He’s still at it. Dive in and enjoy. This guy is a rare treat.

Magnolia Pictures will debut Swamp Dogg Gets His Pool Painted in limited release May 2, and expand to more theaters thereafter.

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