Blues music has always seemed to exist in a state of dying and being reborn, the passage of each era threatening to bring an end to the music itself but ultimately failing to do so. Some years, however, have been darker than others. An obsession with studio perfectionism at odds with the basic rawness of the blues dominated the post-Sgt. Pepper's '60s and '70s, while the '80s saw the genre dominated by polished pros like Robert Cray and the rock-fusion of Stevie Ray Vaughan, both fine for what they are but removed from the blues' rougher roots. In search of a different sort of blues, music critic Robert Palmer and documentarian Robert Mugge (The Kingdom Of Zydeco, Hellhounds On My Trail) headed down Hwy. 61 from Memphis to the middle of nowhere for Deep Blues, an excellent 1991 documentary that's just now seeing video release. Seeking out the juke joints, backrooms, and barbershops that house the blues, Palmer and Mugge (and, in the film's early sequences, executive producer and Eurythmic Dave Stewart) come across a wide variety of mostly older musicians who share a common musical heritage but take different approaches to their craft. As much an act of preservation as investigation, Deep Blues features priceless performance footage, including the first official recording of Junior Kimbrough (the influential bluesman who wouldn't release an album until 1992), an informal session with R.L. Burnside, and a raucous barroom number by Jessie Mae Hemphill. Palmer and Mugge do a remarkable job capturing both the music and the world from which it comes, and in guitarist and diddley-bow player Lonnie Pitchford, they also find evidence of the music's continual regeneration. Pitchford died in 1998 at 43, a year after Palmer's own premature death, but Deep Blues leaves little doubt that the music itself will continue to thrive.