Clinch Mountain Echo

V/A - High Lonesome: The Story Of Bluegrass Music

(Shanachie ???) 1994. Reissued on DVD Shanachie 604) 1999


High Lonesome: The Story Of Bluegrass Music (VHS)
Rear Cover DVD Jacket
Wind Gap Festival June 1989 LR: Bobby Ray Honecutt, Ralph II, Ralph, Sammy Adkins and Jack Cooke
Ralph Stanley Curly Ray Cline (In the middle?)
Curly Ray Cline Ralph Stanley
Ralph Stanley Ralph, Sammy Adkins and Jack Cooke
Jr. Blankenship, Bobby Ray Honeycutt, Ralph II Stanley Ralph II. Bobby Ray Honeycutt and Ralph Stanley
Wind Gap festival advert 'Bluegrass Unlimited' May 1989 Film advert 'Bluegrass Unlimited' May 1994

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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

 


Go To Top Of Page [1] 'Lonesome No More: The Film High Lonesome' by Kurt Wolf, 'Bluegrass Unlimited' June 1994. (p.50-53)
[2] Neil Rosenberg and Charles Wolfe's book 'The Music Of Bill Monroe' (p.237-238)
[3] https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/showthread.php?72147-High-Lonesome-The-Story-of-Bluegrass-Music