Echo in the Canyon celebrates the popular music that came out of L.A.'s Laurel Canyon neighborhood in the mid-1960s as folk went electric and the Byrds, the Beach Boys, Buffalo Springfield, and the Mamas and the Papas cemented the California Sound. It was a moment (1965 to 1967) when bands came to L.A. to emulate the Beatles and Laurel Canyon emerged as a hotbed of creativity and collaboration for a new generation of musicians who would soon put an indelible stamp on the history of American popular music.

Hosted by Jakob Dylan, the film explores the Laurel Canyon scene via never-before-heard personal details behind the bands and their songs and how that music continues to inspire today. The songs from that era provide an entry point as Dylan and some of his fellow musicians interpret and perform many of these classic songs in concert at L.A.'s Orpheum Theatre.

Echo in the Canyon contains candid conversations and performances with Brian Wilson (The Beach Boys), Michelle Phillips (The Mamas & the Papas), Stephen Stills (Buffalo Springfield), David Crosby (The Byrds), Roger McGuinn (The Byrds), their contemporaries Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Graham Nash and slightly younger followers Jackson Browne and Tom Petty (in his last film interview), as well as more recent musicians influenced by their music, such as Beck, Fiona Apple, Cat Power, Jade Castrinos, Regina Spektor and Norah Jones.

• The Echo in the Canyon Band
  • Geoff Pearlman - Guitar
  • Fernando Perdomo - Guitar
  • Justine Bennett - Backing Vocals
  • Jordan Summers - Keyboards
  • Dan Rothchild - Bass and Backing Vocals
  • Matt Tecu - Drums

Box office edit

The film opened with $103,716 from its showings at the ArcLight Hollywood and the Landmark Theatre Los Angeles, with a location average of $51,868 in three days, making it the best per theatre average opening for a documentary so far in 2019.^[2]

The film had a total domestic gross of $3,355,324.^[1]

Critical response edit

On the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 90% based on 80 reviews, and an average rating of 7/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "A thoroughly entertaining look at the Laurel Canyon scene as well as the musical history surrounding it, Echo in the Canyon is essential viewing for rock doc fans."^[3] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 70 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "Generally favorable reviews".^[4]

Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "This is a sunny, sepia-toned, nostalgic trip to the past. The protest movements of the time are acknowledged — after all, many of these songs were anthems for change and peace — but this isn't a historical documentary about class warfare and racial strife and the anti-war movement and the Manson Family murders, etc."^[5] Brad Wheeler of The Globe and Mail wrote, "That's David Crosby's take on the seminal California folk-rock scene of 1965 to '67, an era explained lovingly and with due reverence in the hashish-scented documentary Echo in the Canyon."^[6] In addition, the movie has been criticized for glaring omissions about the historical period, namely other rock music luminaries who resided in the area at that time, such as Jim Morrison of The Doors and singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell.^[7]

Here are the music credits listed at the end of the film.

• Echo in the Canyon at IMDb  
• Echo in the Canyon at Rotten Tomatoes
• Echo in the Canyon Band Website