The Reverend
Part bluesman, part holy man, all soul -- this documentary portrait of Vince Anderson shows a life where music and religion are inextricably intertwined.
“It turns out drunk people like gospel music.”
Vince Anderson doesn’t look like most clergymen.
He’s got a long gray beard and longer gray hair, wears funky hats of all shapes and variety, has a prodigious belly and hangdog look. He does wear a cleric’s frock most of the time, though usually adorned with colorful filigree and topped off with a coat.
The Reverend, as he’s known in his domain of Brooklyn, makes his pulpit on the stage of whatever seedy dive bar he’s currently playing it — and he’s played a lot.
He’s the subject of a documentary, “The Reverend,” about the long, strange trip of a figure who’s part bluesman, part holy man, all soul. It’s a portrait of a life where music and religion are inextricably intertwined.
Directed and produced by Nick Canfield, it’s an intimate look at Anderson that also pulls from prodigious video and photographic archive to show how long he’s been on this journey, with plenty of musical interludes to get your heart a-pumpin’.
The first thing you’ll notice about the Reverend is his voice: he’s got a helluva good one. Loud, proud, with a perfect twist of rock/blues rough edge to it. If I were to sing like that, I’d go hoarse in about my five minutes. The Reverend does it all night long, having played a free show every Monday with his band, the Love Choir, for the past 20 years.
Gospel-rock would be the closest way to describe their sound.
He opens every set with the same song, which he calls his welcoming prayer. Its message: Get out of my way. He’s not talking to the people, but to any roadblock or limitation that gets in the way of people and their spirituality. It can be strange, seeing crowds of hipster types swing to songs about Jesus and lifting up your eyes to God — not the most prayerful folk, to generalize (accurately) — but the mood is genuine.
The Reverend is not discriminating about your faith — even if you don’t have one, or any. There have been times in his life when his own belief in God has waned. Still, the music was always there — always will be, we sense — to carry him through.
He grew up a typical kid into rock ‘n’ roll; religion was there but in the background. Then, of all things, he saw Martin Scorsese’s movie “The Last Temptation of the Christ” and found himself moved by a depiction of a “beautifully human Jesus.” He wound up in seminary school, soon left, but the call never quite went a way. He played gigs with an accordion, got a little following, and somebody called him a reverend on a poster bill. It just stuck.
Eventually he did become an ordained minister, and runs a tiny church, Buschwick & Abbey, where he tends to the garden of flowers and vegetables behind the back door and a small flock that comes in the front.
There are plenty of testimonials from friends, admirers, musicians — including Questlove, who briefly played drums in the band. One observer and early collaborator describes him as “the Holy Spirit meets the Tasmanian Devil.” In his earlier days, the Reverend was known for getting naked onstage when the spirit moved him.
He also pursued all the normal earthly pleasures, including relationships that came and went. One of his most moving songs is a solo, “Ring in My Pocket,” about coming close to the altar at least once. We get to meet his current lady, Millicent, and their romance takes its own turn in the course of the film.
We meet the current members of the Love Choir: Paula Henderson, baritone sax; Jaleel Bunton, guitar; Dave Smith, trombone; Daniel Fabricatore, bass; and Ryan Sawyer, drums. They’ve never had a single rehearsal, and the Reverend has never held an audition. As people come and go, others will wander onto the stage. They just figure it out, musically and otherwise.
The doc takes a turn toward the political about two-thirds of the way through, and I found my interest flagging. The Reverend reacted the way a lot of people did after the 2016 election, turning their disappointment into fury that continues to fuel our dysfunction. He attends protests, leads demonstration choruses, works with BLM youths on turning their disillusionment into song.
We meet Jay Bakker, son of Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker, who as you might guess has his own long and complicated relationship with the faith. He and the Reverend were partners for awhile in something called the Revolution Church, which wound up being a transitional waypoint that they shared for a time.
I’ve met people like Reverend Vince Anderson, and gotten to be good friends with a few. I respect that their lives tend to be complicated and unconventional; they find the methods most of us live by don’t work for them and try to create their own. They tend to be very enlightened or very unhappy, and usually both at different times in their trek.
“The Reverend” is a snapshot of one such soul, creating amazing sounds as he tries to find his voice in a conversation with the Almighty… or whatever he believes is out there at the moment.
“The Reverend” is now available for streaming rental on Amazon Prime Video & the Criterion Channel.