MOVIE

Bluestown Rising

2025 · 58 min · Documentary

A documentation of Norwegian working blues town Notodden and their Blues Festival in the years from 2016 to 2021.

Steven Van Zandt finds a musical gem in Norway. We follow him closely as a town's history is revealed, a town saved by the blues. Rising from the ashes of the old factories, the Notodden Bluesfestival becomes Europe's number one blues festival. The biggest blues legends come here to play, and Steven Van Zandt establishes Little Steven's Blues School, inviting students from all over Europe to spend hectic days on stage and in the studio. We meet Steven Van Zandt, Buddy Guy, Beth Hart, Bob Margolin, Larkin Poe, Lowell Levinger, Quinn Sullivan to name a few coming to this small lakeside town to play.