In the summer of 1970 promoters Thor Eaton, George Eaton, and Ken Walker brought together The Band, the Grateful Dead, Janis Joplin and a number of other bands for a train tour through Canada that was immortalized in the 2003 documentary Festival Express. Not only were many of the songs filmed used in the documentary but an additional batch was included as bonus footage on the DVD. However what’s been released isn’t all that was shot in 1970 by filmmaker Frank Cvitanovich.
The reels containing all of the Festival Express footage are available for license through stock film house Historic Films. Recently, Historic Films has given us a taste of what didn’t make the cut when they posted a clip of The Band performing nearly all of Levon Helm belting out Jemima Surrender. While this may have made the rounds among those “connected,” this is the first we’ve seen of this footage. Check out The Band at the peak of their powers crushing Jemima Surrender…
There’s also clips of Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever and Time To Kill that surfaced…
The Band – Loving You Is Sweeter Than Ever