Doc Watch: Rock Docs

MISS AMERICANA (B) - This is generally a quite sympathetic behind-the-scenes portrait of Taylor Swift, recounting her career year by year while hanging out with her as she crafts her 2019 release, "Lover." The true appeal here is watching her write songs and apparently catching real-time inspiration for catchy choruses for bubblegum pop like "Me" and "Only the Young."

Otherwise, we meet her mom, watch her have dinner with a childhood friend, and listen to her try to make sense of celebrity and sanity. The cameras capture her coming of age politically and taking a stance against the Republican Senate candidate from Tennessee in 2018. Sometimes you can catch glimpses of the innocent little country-music prodigy still lurking in the wizened 30-year-old megastar. In the end, this is an inspiring story of a talented musician trying to speak her truth.

ZZ TOP: THAT LITTLE OL' BAND FROM TEXAS (C+) - This is a pretty lazy profile of the Texas trio on their 50th anniversary -- the longest living band of original members in rock 'n' roll. It's fun to explore the band's origins, but the documentary essentially stops abruptly after the 1983 "Eliminator" album, featuring their breakthrough videos during the early days of MTV.

But mostly this one lies flat. Dusty Hill, Billy Gibbons and Frank Beard (the one without the beard) are pretty good interview subjects, and they provide a strong sense of their underdog status coming out of Texas in the early '70s. Beard reveals that it was his need for drug rehab that led to a two-year hiatus in the late '70s (Hill worked at an airport during that time) and a retooling of the band in 1979 with more of a pop-rock feel than a blues base. A fine coda places the men back in the studio for a blues jam.

BONUS TRACKS
Swift on NPR's "Tiny Desk" series:



ZZ Top with some live "Tush":