"I dropped into the Ten O'Clock Scholar, a Beat coffeehouse. I was looking for players with kindred spirits. John Koerner was tall and thin with a look of perpetual amusement on his face. We hit it off right away... he was soft spoken, but when he sang he became a field holler shouter. Koerner was an exciting singer, and we began playing a lot together." - Bob Dylan

MIFF has screened practically every music documentary that Don McGlynn has made over the past decade and a half - no mean feat given the director's prodigious output of sensational biographies of towering musical legends such as Glenn Miller, Dexter Gordon, Charles Mingus, Louis Prima and Howlin' Wolf. Once again, McGlynn has combed the kind of vaults that it seems only he has access to in order to dig up sublime performances.

Spider John Koerner may be the greatest American folk musician you've never heard of. Appreciation of his music and his influence has swept up musicians as diverse as The Beatles, Rolling Stones, The Kinks, The Doors, David Bowie and Beck. This documentary gives us a full picture of the special nature of this paradoxical musical giant, among the first white musicians to seize upon blues and folk, and introduce it to a new audience.