His films will never make Spielberg money, but Eight Men Out, Passion Fish, Lone Star, Silver City and now Honeydripper prove his talent for opening up windows into times past and people rarely seen.

Alabama, 1950, cotton season. Debt-ridden and losing business to a rival bar with a dreaded jukebox, Tyrone Purvis (Glover), a one time piano-playing somebody, books the legendary Guitar Sam to play at his Honeydripper lounge and revive his fortunes.

Tyrone’s wife Delilah (Hamilton) is looking for salvation at revival meetings, while his best friend Maceo (Dutton) backs Tyrone's scheme to bring live music back into vogue.

Wandering guitarist Sonny (Clark), unable to get work at the Honeydripper, is picked up for vagrancy by the rattlesnake-mean town sheriff (Keach), and sent to work in the cotton fields.

But, when Tyrone starts having trouble securing his top man for a night of blues, Sonny’s newfangled homemade electric guitar might ring in the sound of change.

Sweet-natured and calm on the surface, Honeydripper is a deceptively sharp film about the first steps of rock n’ roll and civil rights, and would make an unlikely but enjoyable double bill with John Waters’ Hairspray.

Depicting a time of black maids and cotton pickers, Sayles’ feel for character and dialogue never trips over PC condescension and resists demonizing Keach’s sheriff, who is happier creaming off the status quo than stirring up racist locals.

Sayles bourbon smooth direction, leisurely laying out his believable small town, and Dick Pope’s rich photography (this is the sunniest film you’ll see all year) are a treat to behold, but the trump card is the blues, soul and rock music Sayles packs in, with minimal lip-synching.

Upcoming guitar prodigy Clark is big-screen friendly as the stand-in Guitar Sam, but the film boasts the usual across the board high calibre Sayles’ film performances, most notably from Glover whose face can simultaneously convey pride, disappointment and frustration and should be given characters this meaty more often.

A treat from start to finish, this may only be rock n’ roll but you’ll like it.

Rob Daniel