Since 1976, Robert Mugge (pronounced “muggy”) has created three dozen documentaries including memorable films on a diverse array of musical genres including Rev. Al Green, north Mississippi blues, Jamaican reggae, zydeco, jazz musicians Sonny Rollins and Sun Ra, and many more.

In his new memoir, Notes from the Road: A Filmmaker’s Journey through American Music (The Sager Group LLC), Mugge takes the reader behind the scenes (literally) of two dozen of his films and describes all the obstacles, struggles and eventual triumphs.

“Mugge both thrills and exhausts us as he describes the process of making his films. He shifts his camera lens deftly from classical music to bluegrass to jazz to Tex-Mex to gospel to reggae to Hawaiian slack-key guitar. A gifted filmmaker and a fine writer.” – Dr. William R. Ferris, Grammy winner, Voices of Mississippi

“The prevalence of documentaries about musicians is a curse, one rare exception is the work of the director Robert Mugge.” – Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Born James Louis Johnson in Darling, Mississippi, James “Super Chikan” Johnson got his nickname from working with chickens on his family’s farms, moving around the Mississippi Delta until they settled in Clarksdale.

Writing songs during long hauls as a truck driver, he cut his debut album, Blues Come Home to Roost in 1997 for the Rooster Blues label. Other CDs include, Chikan Supe, Sum Mo Chikan, and Chikadelic which was named the Best Traditional Blues Album of the Year in 2010.

Chikan makes his own guitars (“Chiktars”) from auto mufflers, rifle butts, and plumbing parts as well as cigar box guitars.

A past recipient of a Mississippi Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts, Chikan is the subject of the upcoming documentary film, Somebody Shoot That Thing: James ‘Super Chikan’ Johnson – A Life in Blues

Blues harpist Richard “Rip Lee” Pryor is the son of the late Snooky Pryor, but he’s his own man – in fact his own one-man band. He wields a guitar while singing and playing harp and keeping a big beat with his feet.

His releases include the albums, Pitch a Boogie Woogie, and Nobody But Me. Rip Lee’s harmonica style recalls his dad’s as it overflows with warbles, flutters, crisp tongue-stops, and vocal whoops.