Appalachian Bluegrass Mountain Dulcimer

To get this entire 1 hour video, go to http://www.createspace.com/204609 This scene present the Winters, a husband and wife team singing Blackjack Davey. Way back in 1964, New York filmmaker, David Hoffman was headed down with his new 16mm hand help camera (weight 49 lbs!) to spend three weeks driving the backcountry around Madison County, North Carolina, in the center of Appalachia, with the 82 year old founder of the pioneer Asheville Mountain Music and Dance Festival, Bascom Lamar Lunsford. The resulting film, "Bluegrass Roots" lets you hear and experience the hard scrabbling, dirt road real people sounds that dominated the back country of the southern mountains 40 years ago. It presents a string of the most extraordinary singers, players and dancers the BlueGrass Mountains had to offer. Many later became famous. Some were never heard from again. Most of the songs are classics, including Lunsford's own tune, "Mountain Dew."
When this film aired on Public Television in 1965, TV Guide gave it a full-page positive review, because Americans had never seen a documentary on the roots of Bluegrass and Country music. Today, the dirt roads and the moonshine counties are largely modernized, and Bluegrass Roots, stands as a record of a uniquely talented group of people at a time just before the coming of television, changed them. www.createspace.com/204609

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Bluegrass
• 1964 Music
• Mountain Folk History
• Banjo
• david hoffman
• great
• bluegrass
• fiddle playing
• lost john the fiddling man
• country music
• Bill McElreath
• clog dancing
• mountain dancer
• square dance
• Mountain music
• Appalachia
• Appalachian music
• Bascom Lamar Lunsford
• acoustic
• climbing
• flute
• mandolin

[tharleman]

I believe the mountain dulicmer player is Jean Ritchie.

[allinaday]

@tharleman Thank you for your comment. The dulcimer player is not Jean Ritchie. I do not remember her name off hand but I knew Jean Ritchie back then. She and her husband performed locally in North Carolina.

David Hoffman – independent filmmaker

[incogneato2]

What is the name of the second song that the guitar player is singing? I've never heard it before but it's beautiful. Great video of Americana.

[allinaday]

@incogneato2 - I am not certain of the name but I believe that it is called "lie down, lie down." And thank you for your comment.

David Hoffman – independent filmmaker

[Celticzephyr]

What a lovely clip and how wonderful to have it such good condition it can put here for all to see. I found it searching for autoharp clips. Didn't see any autoharps and was wondering if you meant the mountain dulcimer rather than the autoharp. One does find the nicest things NOT going in a straight line on Youtube!

[allinaday]

Yes it is a mountain dulcimer. Thank you. I will change my title.

David Hoffman - Filmmaker

[silverscreenname]

Whose the old guy?

[mtcollins64]

@incogneato2 - The song is "Henry Lee". The 1929 version by Dick Justice is on Harry Smith's Anthology of American Folk Music. Tom Paley, Bob Dylan and others recorded versions of the song and called it "Love Henry".

[jack83aq]

Wonderful! I'd love to see the whole documentary!

[thewhakka]

so awesome, the timelessness.

[MBJB07]

She has such a sweet voice!

[MegaMandrake99]

god bless the mountain men

[awbright1]

the name of the second song is little henry lee

[NormanFitzNicely]

@allinaday He is actually singing "Light down, light down" as in "alight from your horse". The shape of the tune suggests an English origin, one of the ballads that was brought to Appalachia by the settlers. I can't at the moment place which one, but I'll look around and see if I can find a more complete text to identify the ballad.

[missjanenc]

This ain't bluegrass...it's mountain music.

[try2bcool]

The title of this is kind of misleading considering she never plays her dulcimer at all during this clip. The songs are great though.