Last year the like-minded bands Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Mumford & Sons and Old Crow Medicine Show boarded a vintage train for a trip from Oakland to New Orleans, intending to “see the country the way people saw it more than 100 years ago” (as Edward Sharpe’s Alexander Ebert says) and play a series of concerts together on the way. The bands invited filmmaker Emmett Malloy along—known for his White Stripes concert film Under The Great White Northern Lights—to document the journey, resulting in the new film Big Easy Express. Capturing the landscape, music and camaraderie that surrounded the eight-day tour and voyage, Malloy says “The film is very emotional, which I never could have predicted.”

Three months after receiving a standing ovation and “Headliner Audience Award” at the SXSW Film Festival, the movie has just been released on the iTunes movie store, reaching the fans directly by bypassing the distribution systems that other formats require. As of today, music fans in more than 52 countries can purchase the film on iTunes in HD or standard definition almost a month before the DVD and Blu-Ray release date on July 24. Theatrical screenings of the film are being planned for this fall, and both Mumford & Sons and OCMS have new albums coming in 2012.

Find more information at Big Easy Express and check out the iTunes release.