Death of the Blues

In Cleveland, 1969, a young white teenage blues enthusiast, at work at a summer factory job in the polluted Cuyahoga River Valley, meets a fellow shop floor worker named Fred Davis--who turns out to be an authentic Kansas City blues singer just-released from prison. Young Jon Levine dreams of addressing racial injustice and helping to revive Fred's career. The effort proves tragically complicated, as he finds himself drawn into the world of the Cleveland black ghetto, the conflicting desires of Davis and his wife, and finally the violence of Cleveland's streets. Based on a true story, the music of Fred Davis, actually recorded as described in the fictionized account, was ultimately released 50 years after being taped in a suburban Cleveland home and has been featured on National Public Radio and the BBC.