Immediate Family

No, it’s not going to win any Oscars for stylistic innovation (the format is mostly chat, song, chat, song, chat, song, repeat). But with subjects this inspirational and music this renowned, who cares?

This is a music documentary for the connoisseurs and the heads.

“Immediate Family” keeps hustling along like a soft-rock freight train, relying not just on the then-and-now chemistry between the four core players but also on our eagerness to jump with them to the next celebrity-session story.

A fantastic array of archival clips, and testimonies from the likes of Phil Collins, Carole King, Don Henley, Keith Richards, the late David Crosby, Linda Ronstadt, Neil Young and Jackson Browne...

Serves as both a warm and undeniably tuneful nostalgia bath for those who grew up listening to their work and an effective oral history of a particular place and time in the history of American popular music.

Tedesco is the son of the West Coast guitar great Tommy Tedesco, and he clearly has a knack for getting musicians to open up.

It succeeds at its most important job: making viewers aware of a group of talented people they otherwise probably never would have known.

The doc is also a kind of sonic rolodex, linking some of their greatest material to their long standing professional legacy.

For anyone with more than a passing interest in rock and roll history, “Immediate Family” is a worthwhile indulgence.

My only complaint abut The Immediate Family is that it feels too short, and I would have loved to hear more music, both original tunes from the band and examples of their studio work over the years.