Still Bill is a terrific new documentary about R&B star Bill Withers. It makes its Cleveland debut tonight at 7 at the Cleveland Museum of Art Lecture Hall. Here’s our review of the movie.
Still Bill (U.S., 2009) This documentary about ’70s R&B star Bill Withers, who hasn’t made an album in 25 years, opens with cips from an old interview in which Withers recalls label reps telling him he was “too old” to start a recording career at 32. He was working at Webber Aircraft when “Ain’t No Sunshine” stormed up the charts, landing Withers on The Johnny Carson Show. The filmmakers follow Withers back to the West Virgina town where he grew up and they follow him as he hangs out with his old Navy buddies he met in Guam. The striking thing about Withers, who admits “I’m kind of like pennies; you have them in your pocket but you don’t know that they’re there,” is how content he is. He doesn’t miss the fame and fortune. “It would be rough to just go out there,” he says. “There was a time for that. This is not that time.” ***
This article appears in Apr 28 – May 4, 2010.
