(Shanachie ???) 1994. Reissued on DVD Shanachie 604) 1999
This is probably the finest bluegrass documentary film that has ever been made. Detailing the history and development of bluegrass music and it's Appalachian roots, it weaves togther a seamless mix of artist interviews plus archive & newly filmed footage with a superb narrative by Mac Wiseman.
Rachael Liebling told 'Bluegrass Unlimited': "I wanted the film to be cinematic. I wanted people to experience the music the way I had. So I used images and sound and voice-over and sound effects in a way that all converged and evoked what the music was about."
"What got me interested in the music, even though I don't come from that background, is this kind of wistful longing for something that has past. Maybe for me it's a childhood memory; I think for the musicians it's their childhood. But it's also the childhood of this country, in some way - this rural farm upbringing that we've gotten so far from. Maybe that's why I could relate. But the way they sing about that has a certain sentiment. I also feel just about my life - looking back at what is lost. And I think a lot of people can relate to that."
"The film was really structured by song - finding the song that would convey an element of the story. For instance 'Jesrusalem Ridge', I knew that what I felt that song was about was something that needed to be told in the film, almost like a chapter - so I'd listen to it and think, what images go with this? Well, this song's about the land being destroyed... so then I would look at the archival footage, over and over again. And that's how the whole film worked. It took two years to edit."[1]
As Mac says early on in the film, "In 1911 Bill Monroe was born in Western Kentucky, the story of bluegrass is the story of his musical legacy". As one would expect, there is plenty of coverage of Monroe, including the Big Mon's visit to his old home in Rosine prior to it's restoration. Excerpts of sixteen of Monroe's recordings can be heard, along with archive footage from 1955, the Fincastle 1965 festival and an Opry performance from 1969. Rachael also filmed four of Monroe's songs at his Bean Blossom festival in June 1989, followed by a visit to Rosine where he played Going Across The Sea, a tune Monroe had learnt from his Uncle Pen, but hadn't previously recorded. Another three Monroe tracks were also filmed later on at the Bell Cove Club in Henderson, Tn.[2]
Although Bill Monroe music and it's development form the core of the film, Ralph and the CMB's are featured on two live extracts from the Wind Gap festival on 10th June 1989, with part of I'm Willing To Try and Room At The Top Of The Stairs. Additionally, Ralph pops up as one of the interviewees, and sings Village Churchyard & picks a bit of clawhammer on his Cuttin' The Cornbread. Curly Ray Cline also talks briefly about his country upbringing and plays a bit of Sourwood Mountain.
Archive footage of Ralph from the 1971 Camp Springs festival film Bluegrass Country Soul is also used with a snippet of Man Of Constant Sorrow.
The Stanley Brothers are also represented with part of Worried Man Blues from the Pete Seeger Rainbow Quest show.
Other Stanley related material includes incidental use of sections of: Gloryland from Ralph's Something Old, Something New LP; John Henry from A Man And His Music; Nobody's Love Is Like Mine from The Stanley Sound Around The World; The Fields Have Turned Brown from the I Want To Preach The Gospel LP; and The Stanley Brothers Meet Me By The Moonlight (aka Meet Me Tonight) which is a live recording from the 3rd June 1956 show at Shenandoah Valley Bowl, Edinburg, Va. That had also been issued on the Together For The Last Time LP and Stanley Series, Vol. 2 No. 1 LP/CD.
Other artists featured included Jim & Jesse, Jimmy Martin, The Osborne Brothers, Mac Wiseman, Seldom Scene, Nashville Bluegrass Band, and Alison Krauss.
The film was first premiered at the Anthology Film Archives in New York in Nov. 1991 and at the IBMA's 'International Bluegrass Music Museum' in Owensboro in '92 - Sat. Sept. 26th[2, 3] It got further showings at a number of festivals and won six awards, including a Gold Plaque Award at the Chicago International Film Festival, Best Feature Documentary at the Atlanta Film Festival, a Silver Award for Independent Feature at the Houston Film Festival, a Red Ribbon at the American Film Festival, an Indie Award from the National Association of Independent Record Distributors and Manufacturers, and a CINE Golden Eagle Award. In 1994 it got limited distribution at some art theaters and was released on VHS in August 1994.[2]
Although some of the archive footage isn't as good as later DVDs, such as the Pete Seeger show and the Camp Springs 1971 festival, this is so well put together and will please any life long bluegrass fan, or bluegrass newbie alike.
To accompany the VHS release there was soundtrack CD High Lonesome with Ralph's Gloryland, The Fields Have Turned Brown and The Stanley Brothers Meet Me By The Moonlight (aka Meet Me Tonight).
CMB Personnel on the Wind Gap festival 10th June 1989:-
PS: The Wind Gap performance by Ralph includes an extra guitar player, Bobby Ray Honeycutt from North Carolina. He later played in the Lonesome Mountain Boys who appeared on the Cumberland Highlanders show with a young Landon Fitzpatrick. You can find a few of their numbers on youtube, which are very much in the Stanley vein and feature Landon's cracking 'Stanley style' banjo work. Landon tells us that Ralph used to let Bobby tag along with the band on occassions.
Track: |
Title: |
---|---|
DVD: |
(1:34:59) |
1 |
???? |
2 |
A Voice From On High - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe / Bessie Maudlin |
|
3 |
I'm Going Back To Old Kentucky - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
4 |
Chick A-Li-Lee-O - Almeda Riddle |
P.D. |
|
5 |
Scotland - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
6 |
I Wonder How The Old Folks Are At Home - Mac Wiseman |
A.P. Carter |
|
7 |
Bonaparte's Retreat - W.M. Step |
P.D. |
|
8 |
Goin' Across The Sea - Bill Monroe |
P.D. |
|
9 |
Uncle Pen - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
10 |
I'm Willing To Try - Ralph Stanley |
David Marshall / Bob Fleming |
|
11 |
Village Churchyard - Ralph Stanley |
P.D. |
|
12 |
Gloryland - Ralph Stanley |
Addra McClellan |
|
13 |
Shape-Note Scales - The Old Harp Singers |
P.D. |
|
14 |
Danny Boy - Bill Monroe |
P.D. |
|
15 |
Jerusalem Ridge - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
16 |
Rock Island Line - Group at Cumins State Farm |
P.D. |
|
17 |
Hammer, Ring - Jesse Bradley & Group |
P.D. |
|
18 |
Little Log Cabin In The Lane - Uncle John Scruggs |
P.D. |
|
19 |
Tomorrow - Eddie Thomas & Carl Scott |
??? |
|
20 |
Jelly Roll - Butch Cage & Willie B. Thomas |
P.D. |
|
21 |
Sugarloaf Mountain - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
22 |
Muleskinner Blues - Bill Monroe |
Jimmy Rodgers |
|
23 |
Angeline The Baker - Nashville Bluegrass Band |
P.D. |
|
24 |
Sourwood Mountain - Curly Ray Cline |
P.D. |
|
25 |
John Henry - Ralph Stanley |
P.D. |
|
26 |
Nobody's Love Is Like Mine - Ralph Stanley |
C. Stanley |
|
27 |
I Want To Be Loved But Only By You - Jim & Jesse |
Johnny Bailes / Walter Bailes |
|
28 |
Sunny Side Of The Mountain - Jimmy Martin |
Harry C. McAuliffe / Bobby Gregory |
|
29 |
Sally Goodin - Bill Monroe |
P.D. |
|
30 |
Brown County Jamboree Barn - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
31 |
Cuttin' The Cornbread - Ralph Stanley |
R. Stanley |
|
32 |
Travelin' Blues - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
33 |
Cheyenne - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
34 |
Twenty Twenty Vision - Jimmy Martin |
Joe Allison / Milton Estes |
|
35 |
I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby - Bob Wills |
Dorothy Fields / Jimmy McHugh |
|
36 |
Prisoner's Song - Mac Wiseman |
Guy Massey |
|
37 |
Over The Hills - Ted Daffan |
Ted Daffan |
|
38 |
Do Your Duty - Bessie Smith |
W. Wilson |
|
39 |
Che Gelida Manina - Louis Graveure |
Puccini |
|
40 |
My Kind Of Love - Bing Crosby |
J. Trent |
|
41 |
Black And Tan Fantasy - Duke Ellington |
Bub Miley / Duke Ellington |
|
42 |
Last Night I Dreamed Of Loving You - Nashville Bluegrass Band |
Hugh Maffatt |
|
43 |
Muddy Water - The Seldom Scene |
Phil Rosenthal |
|
44 |
I'm Blue I'm Lonesome - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
45 |
The Fields Have Turned Brown - Ralph Stanley |
C. Stanley |
|
46 |
Wayfaring Stranger - Bill Monroe |
P.D. |
|
47 |
???? |
48 |
How Many Biscuits Can You Eat This Morning - Coon Creek Girls (?) |
49 |
???? |
50 |
Square Dance |
??? |
|
51 |
This World Is Not My Home - Bill Monroe |
P.D. |
|
51 |
Opry recording |
??? |
|
52 |
That Old Carolina Home - Uncle Dave Macon |
P.D. |
|
53 |
Opry credits |
??? |
|
54 |
Blue Moon Of Kentucky - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
55 |
It's Mighty Dark To Travel - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
56 |
Run, Rabbit, Run - Stringbean |
Ben Weisman / Fred Wise |
|
57 |
Randy Lynn Rag - Flatt & Sruggs |
Earl Scruggs |
|
58 |
Bluegrass Breakdown - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
59 |
Bluegrass Breakdown - Flatt & Scruggs |
Bill Monroe |
|
60 |
Blue Grass Stomp - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
61 |
Travelin' This Lonessme Road - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
62 |
When The Golden Leaves Begin To Fall - Bill Monroe |
Albert Price (aka Bill Monroe) |
|
63 |
Heavy Traffic Ahead - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
64 |
Roanoke - Bill Monroe |
Joe Ahr (aka Bill Monroe) |
|
65 |
Foggy Mountain Breakdown - Flatt & Scruggs |
Earl Scruggs |
|
66 |
Rainbow In The Valley - Mac Wiseman |
P.D. |
|
67 |
Shenandoah Waltz - Jimmy Martin |
Clyde Moody / Chubby Wise |
|
68 |
Meet Me By The Moonlight - Stanley Brothers |
Joseph Augustine Wade |
|
69 |
Worried Man Blues - Stanley Brothers |
A.P. Carter |
|
70 |
Wish You Were Here - Eddie Fisher |
Harold Rome |
|
71 |
Roll Muddy River - Osborne Brothers |
Betty Perry |
|
72 |
Heartbreak Hotel - Elvis Presley |
Mae Bourne / Tommy Durden / Elvis Presley |
|
73 |
???? |
74 |
Johnny B. Goode - Jim & Jesse |
Chuck Berry |
|
75 |
???? |
76 |
Still - Bill Anderson |
Bill Anderson |
|
77 |
One Way Ticket To The Blues - Porter Wagoner |
Jack Keller / Hank Hunter |
|
78 |
White Lightning - George Jones |
J.P. Richardson |
|
79 |
The Kind Of Woman I've Got - Osborne Brothers |
Danny Walls |
|
80 |
With Body And Soul - Bill Monroe |
Virginia Staufer |
|
81 |
You Were On My Mind - Ian & Sylvia |
Sylvia Fricker |
|
82 |
Mrs. Robinson - Country Gentlemen |
Paul Simon |
|
83 |
Little Georgia Rose - Seldom Scene |
Bill Monroe |
|
84 |
Foggy Mountain Breakdown - Flatt & Scruggs |
Eral Scruggs |
|
85 |
Duelling Banjos - Eric Weisberg & Steve Mandell |
Arthur Smith |
|
86 |
Ballad Of Jed Clampett - Flatt & Scruggs |
Paul Henning |
|
87 |
Crazy Vietnam War - Stringbean |
Dave Akeman |
|
88 |
Rocky Top - Osborne Brothers |
Boudleaux Bryant / Felice Bryant |
|
89 |
Going Up Caney - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
90 |
Parking lot jam from Bluegrass Country Soul |
91 |
Love Potion Number Nine - New Deal String Band |
Jerry Leiber / Mike Stoller |
|
92 |
Dueling Banjos - Bluegrass 45 |
Arthur Smith |
|
93 |
Freeborn Man - Jimmy Martin |
Mark Lindsay |
|
94 |
Man Of Constant Sorrow - Ralph Stanley |
R.D. Burnett |
|
95 |
Ruby - Osborne Brothers |
Cousin Emmy |
|
96 |
Rawhide - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
97 |
Southern Flavor - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
98 |
Don't Follow Me - Alison Krauss |
John Pennell |
|
99 |
Room At The Top Of The Stairs - Ralph Stanley |
Randall Hylton |
|
100 |
Keep On The Sunnyside - Mac Wiseman |
A.P. Carter |
|
101 |
I Know You Rider - Seldom Scene |
P.D. |
|
102 |
Dog House Blues - Nashville Bluegrass Band |
Peewee King / J.L. Frank |
|
103 |
There's An Old, Old House - Bill Monroe |
George Jones / Harold Bynum |
|
104 |
I'm On My Way To The Old Home - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |
|
105 |
Sugarloaf Mountain - Bill Monroe |
Bill Monroe |