Hi everyone. We have some excellent news!
Just a Mortal Man: The Jerry Lawson Story premiered on PBS and their WORLD Channels in selected markets on February 10th, and during the month of February in conjunction with Black History Month.
The film is available for streaming on the PBS app.
Check how to watch through your local PBS
About the Documentary
At long last, the one and only Jerry Lawson gets his due in the touching documentary, “Just a Mortal Man: The Jerry Lawson Story.” Worked on for eight years by filmmakers Miles Merritt and Gail Kempler, the 90-minute documentary serves as tribute and epitaph for the man, who passed away in 2019. Lawson was interviewed extensively for the film in various locales, including his rural home town of Apopka Florida, and at work in Phoenix, Arizona, caring for developmentally disabled adults. How do you spend forty years singing a cappella with four friends (The Persuasions), yet never receive mainstream, breakthrough success? Why did Jerry leave show business to work with the disabled? How did he manage to make a debut solo album at 71? How do you deal with discovering that your mother was not your mother? It’s all here, in moving detail. Oh, and the greatest singing this side of Sam Cooke and David Ruffin.
Here’s what people are saying about The Jerry Lawson Story
“No music fan ever discovered the great Jerry Lawson by listening to the radio. That is the elephant in the room whenever I talk about a man who, in my view, was one of the five greatest soul singers of my lifetime.“
– Chris Rizik | SoulTracks
read the full review at soultracks.com
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“I watched this today & loved it. It’s much more than a music story, it’s a love story, it’s a musical history, it’s the story of an acappella legend & much more. I’m so glad this got made. As a long time Persuasions fan & long time Jerry Lawson fan trust me Jerry – you’re much more than Just a Mortal Man.”
– Chris Steiner