Bottle Up and Go 1980

Directed by Bill Ferris

This film follows Louis Dotson, a farmer and musician in Lorman, Mississippi, as he constructs a “one-string guitar” on the wall of his front porch. Dotson also “blows the bottle” using a Coca-Cola bottle partially filled with water. Both his bottle blowing and his one-strand-on-the-wall are important links between African musical roots and the blues. The one-strand marks the beginning of the “slide guitar” style which heavily influenced 20th-century blues, rock and roll, and rock music.