Three Films by Digger Kohler: Willie Murphy + John Beach + "Spider" John Koerner at the Logging Camp Ranch

Filmmaker Q&A to follow the films.

ABOUT Willie Murphy film • 2012 • 55 min

The beautifully shot film presents Willie Murphy's inimitably gritty rock 'n' roll and blues singing and piano pounding in an unlikely but complementary setting: The Mystic Theater, a 1914 vaudeville house. The film's "co-stars" are the rugged Badlands, its Enchanted Highway and the town itself (population: 140). –Dan Emerson

ABOUT John Beach film • 2009 • 33 min

This film focuses well-deserved attention on a longtime musical treasure who is largely taken for granted. John Beach is the closest thing our area has to a Professor Longhair-- a rollicking barrelhouse piano ace whose blues are doggedly idiosyncratic, deeply felt, organic and timeless. –Tom Surowicz

ABOUT "Spider" John Koerner at the Logging Camp Ranch film • 2014 • 55 min

"Spider" John Koerner. His music-- inventive originals and innovative interpretations of classic folk/blues have amazed and impressed, and his collaborations with masters like Dave Ray, Tony Glover, and Willie Murphy are legendary. Though there is ample vinyl and CD compilations, preserving the visual alchemy of John's performances are hard to come across. I convinced John to drive for 13 [long] hours to The Logging Camp Ranch , in a remote but spectacular corner of southwestern North Dakota, to tune up and let the cameras roll.