High Lonesome - sample sequence

High Lonesome - The Story of Bluegrass Music
An excerpt from the feature documentary by Rachel Liebling.

New York Times review by Janet Maslin:

"High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass Music" is one of those enthralling documentaries that draw their heretofore-unexplored subject matter with supreme ease. You need not have the slightest interest in bluegrass music to find this film a fascinating bit of Americana, a patchwork of historical, moral and cultural influences that conspired in creating an unusually pure American folk tradition.

Rachel Liebling, who makes this an exceptionally enterprising musical portrait, communicates vast, toe-tapping enthusiasm for her material. She also displays prodigious research, as well as a deep understanding of the forces that conspired to create bluegrass...this is music to make the spirit soar

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Bluegrass
• Monroe
• Stanley
• Kentucky
• folk
• music
• banjo
• mandolin

[1934chevytruck]

@smp156

uncle john scruggs?

[smp156]

who the heck is that black dude who plays the banjo at 6:22?

somebody please Please PLEASE tell me?

[clarumley]

Such a great video!!!

[Aikenan]

What is the name of the tune that plays at 7:56?

[adamtheham]

never mind it's Jerusalem Ridge.

[adamtheham]

does anyone know the name of the fiddle song as the train appears?

[jamiblakeley108]

There is a HUGE amount of documentary evidence tying the 5-string banjo to African antecedents, including a painting from 1790 which depicts slaves playing a banjo (complete with short drone string). Joel Sweeney, the "father" of the banjo, claimed to have learned how to play from slaves.

The musical interaction between African Americans and whites is also clear. A good listen to "Black Banjo Songsters" from Smithsonian Folkways makes this readily evident.

[windasafriend]

Jerusalem's Ridge - so powerful, so moving, so true in it's message. My very favorite piece of music!

[bluegrasssingingman]

I like how everyone tries to give Africans credit for everything. they had a instrument made from a gourde. With a stick for a neck and one string. Which is not really what we call the banjo today.The idea for the banjo may be from their gourde.Which is not one in the same. Slaves did not invent folk, mountain music. They sang songs that their masters sung. So for the people trying to give the Africans the credit. They are really trying to give them credit for Bluegrass.

[willroy1488]

who cares who came up with it. This great music is close to my people from southeast kentucky to me my family came up with just as did all the other familys from ky wv tn nc did they sang bluegrass cuz that what they knew. Lets just enjoy it!