The recently completed film about banjo ace J.D. Crowe is to have its first showing shortly at the J.D. Crowe Bluegrass Festival on Thursday night, 28 August.

The film entitled A Kentucky Treasure: The J.D. Crowe Story, has been produced by Russ Farmer with the invaluable help of long time Crowe fans Frank and Marty Godbey, both of whom provided their interviewing skills, photographs and general knowledge.

As we reported in March last year, Farmer is a former producer and director employed by Kentucky Educational Television (KET) and this is the first film that he has made since his retirement from that organization.

The film includes interviews with about twenty five former New South band members. Additionally, many others including Sonny Osborne, Mark Schatz, Ricky Skaggs, Bela Fleck, Tony Trischka, Earl Scruggs and Alison Krauss have provided comment about Crowe.

Farmer spoke about the origins of the film and shared information about some of the trials and successes that have taken place along the two-year long path to completion …….

It was Labor Day weekend 2006, I was sitting at a table having cornbread and beans with the master of the five string banjo, J.D.Crowe. Thursday evenings at the annual Labor Day, J.D. Crowe Bluegrass Festival and jamming, cornbread and beans are mandatory. As we were sitting there talking mostly about golf, an idea popped into my head and it came out my mouth really before I had even thought it through.

“Would you mind my following you around with a camera for awhile,” I asked, “and maybe editing something together later as a ‘day in the life’ of J.D. Crowe?”

J.D. though for a minute and said, “yeah, I think that might be OK.”

Little did I know the next year and a half of my life would be pretty much consumed by all things J.D. Crowe. (more…)

The Sparrow Quartet will be kicking off this year’s Woodstock Film Festival with a concert. The concert will take place at the Bearsville Theater west of downtown Woodstock, on October 1, 2008.

The Sparrow Quartet is lead by Abigail Washburn and features banjo master Bela Fleck, along with Casey Driessen and Ben Sollee.

In addition to the concert, Bela’s documentary, Throw Down Your Heart, will also be featured with a special screening during the film festival.

Throw Down Your Heart won the Fan’s Choice Award at the South by Southwest film festival in Austin, TX earlier this year.

We’ve posted several times previously concerning the latest offering from McCoury Music. The CD Moneyland, is a collection of songs previously released by various artists, along with 4 new songs, and a couple of newly recorded versions of old songs.

The label has just announced a video contest for the album. The contest is open to all, pros and amateurs alike. Contestants are encouraged to create a video short for one of the tracks from the CD. The video can take the form of a music video, a documentary, narrative, or collage of still photos set to the music. Videos are limited in length to the length of the track, plus two minutes. This additional time is allowed for video to adequately tell its story.

A winning film for each song will be selected with a cash prize of $250 dollars being awarded for each. An overall winner will also be selected with a cash prize of $2500 being given to this contestant. The winners will all have press and media coverage, though details of broadcast have yet to be released.

McCoury Music has described the CD as “a hard-hitting look at today’s economic injustice” through song. My guess would be that the vast majority of entries will be from people who agree with the assessment that “economic injustice” exists. Any entries which run contrary to that idea should be interesting though.

The website quotes Del as stating that the CD is not about “party politics” but suggests that it is a timely call to action, “especially in an election year.” Del goes on to say that his hope is that the

music moves you to find a place where you can help–even if it’s just at the voting booth.

The news page on the site features quotes from various media, including this one from incoming IBMA board member Craig Havighurst.

McCoury, one of my musical heroes, is stepping forward boldly with a message that sounds exactly like what Obama (whom I continue to support incidentally) was trying to say…

Full contest rules and details are available at LivingMoneyland.com.

Here’s a recent video interview with Del McCoury and his manager, Stan Strickland, concerning the CD and the contest.

From time to time the banjo makes an appearance in a movie. Opening this Friday, June 20, 2008, The Love Guru, starring Mike Myers, is the latest movie to contain a scene with some bluegrass music and a banjo present.

The song of choice is Foggy Mountain Breakdown. From what I understand, Myers would have used the original Flatt & Scruggs recording, except the demands of surround sound production ruled out that option. They needed a new recording, but one that sounded like the original.

Myers is a fan of the indie powerpop group The Apples in Stereo. Robert Schneider, a member of the group, has a brother-in-law, Craig Morris, who is involved in the Kentucky music scene. When Craig heard of the need for a new recording of Foggy Mountain Breakdown, he suggested The McKendrees, a native Kentucky, bluegrass family band. Schneider stepped in to engineer the recording at Morris’ studio in western Kentucky.

The players on the recording are Josh Coffey (of Bawn in the Mash) on fiddle, Justin McKendree - mandolin, Jason McKendree - banjo, Ricky McKendree - guitar, Ron Barnett - upright bass. Jason told me this inside story about the kick off.

I had to go back in after the initial recording because they wanted a “sneaky 3 note banjo intro” which was very interesting. Craig and I went in one day and recorded about 30 different 3-note intros being as sneaky as we could, so I guess they used one of them. We’re intersted to see how it all turned out.

I guess we’ll have to wait and watch the movie to see just how “sneaky” Jason was able to be. The song is featured during a bar fight scene in the movie, with Schneider making an appearance on screen, as the banjo player. The McKendrees are not visually present in the movie though. From the preview I’m guessing there are no close ups of the banjo/band. It looks like the band is far in the background during the scene, and the music is surely overlaid with dialog, so we’ll have to be intentional about hearing Jason’s contribution.

Still, getting to perform for a movie soundtrack is something of a thrill I’m sure. Jason seems to feel that way.

I’m not sure how close we got it to the original (probably not very…hah), but we recorded the song and they got it back to Mike and the music people for the movie and they loved it, so it all worked out really well and we were thrilled to be a part of it.

How many of us would look favorably on the notion of returning to high school after having reached adulthood. Not many, I would guess. For most of us, our teen aged years were busy, confusing and often highly-stressful times.

For one Sierra Hull - oft-mentioned here on The Bluegrass Blog of late - high school years are combined with a growing celebrity in the bluegrass and acoustic music world, a debut CD on a major independent label, and an acting debut in a film on the life of noted evangelist Billy Graham.

While her CD, Secrets, is winning rave reviews from the critics and she is playing weekends at large festivals all over the US, Sierra managed to carve out some time from school and performance commitments to shoot scenes in the upcoming film, Billy: The Early Years. She will play Graham’s sister, Catherine, in the production, which calls on her to act as well as sing.

Primary roles in the film include Lindsay Wagner as Graham’s mother and Martin Landau as Graham’s associate, Charles Templeton. Country singer Josh Turner also appears as George Beverly Shea, a popular singer in the 1940s who was tapped to head Graham’s radio ministry.

A number of other bluegrass artists appear in the movie and sing on the soundtrack, including Ronnie Bowman, Ronnie McCoury, John Cowan and Randy Scruggs, all of whom were involved in some scenes shot on April 20 near Nashville.

Sierra sent along a number of photos taken that day by her mom, Brenda. They give a nice impression of how well the filmmakers capture the look and feel of rural North Carolina in the 1920s.

     

If you’ve ever read the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, you’ve run across these stories he would tell called parables. They are stories meant to teach a lesson.

Sometimes modern day readers might find difficulty connecting with the cultural context of the stories themselves though. Introducing Modern Parables. These are Jesus’ stories retold on film in modern day settings.

They are produced as teaching tools and are accompanied by lesson plans, teacher guides, student books, and more. Available as both DVD hard copies, and digital downloads at three resolutions, these are very well produced films. The digital downloads are available as standard definition (DVD quality) files, High Definition, or a free version that is iPod compatible and for personal use only.

As I was looking them over the other day I notice one of the films is based on Jesus parable of The Shrewd Manager in Luke 16:1-8. The “cover” art looked interesting so I pulled up the trailer and was surprised to hear a bluegrass soundtrack. I subsequently downloaded the free iPod version of the film and watched it in its entirety.

Each film they produce has a different cinematographic influence. Here’s what they say about The Shrewd Manager.

Our ironic comedy, The Shrewd Manager tips its hat to Woody Allen with its long takes, simple zooms, and dry humor. We shot the film in Adairville, Kentucky and used a number of townspeople for extras. (Film length - 17 minutes)

I got in touch with Thomas Purifoy, the producer of the films, and asked him a few questions. Of course, my first question was about the choice of bluegrass music for the soundtrack.

I felt that bluegrass would give this short film the right feel. I am a personal fan of it, and the singer whose voice I used on Samaritan (Vanessa Batts) is really a bluegrass/Appalachian singer/songwriter. She was the one who advised me as to the type of music to use, introduced me to the Clack Mountain String Band, and worked with me in finding the right piece.

One of the important aspects of the song was that it communicated a lot about the story simply through the feel and the words. The whole film is based on irony, and the song is an important part of that. Obviously the farming/rural community played into it as well. To me, a film works organically in all its parts, with music playing a key role in the organic whole. It should just seem right, and Penny’s Farm gave me that feeling immediately.

Penny’s Farm is the tune that functions as a theme song for the production. (more…)

For The Infamous Stringdusters, things just couldn’t get much better. The band’s debut CD, Fork In The Road, was very well received, as have been their live performances. The band walked away from IBMA’s 2007 award show with three awards. With their sophomore album about to be released, 2008 is shaping up to be a good year for the Dusters as well. And it just got better.

We have word that Lionsgate Muisc has signed a deal with The Infamous Stringdusters. The name should be familiar to you if you’ve been in a movie theater in the last 10 years. Lionsgate Entertainment is a production/distribution company that is considered to be the most successful independent film and television distribution company in North America.

Lionsgate Muisc is the division of the company that handles music publishing administration for film and television soundtracks. Most recently, Lionsgate Music was responsible for the score to the move 3:10 To Yuma.

The deal between the Dusters and Lionsgate is a three year, worldwide, publishing administration agreement. This means Lionsgate will be administering the band’s original album, Fork In The Road, as well as their upcoming self-titled release, for a period of three years, for use in movie and television soundtracks.

The deal came about as a result of Lionsgate Music President Jay Faires’ reaction, after hearing the band perform live.

I was in Nashville for the Americana Music Conference last year and a friend dragged me to the Station Inn to see The Infamous Stringdusters. Everything about them reminded me of why I got into this business: phenomenal songs, great musicianship, and crowd reactions. It gave me goose bumps.

It appears that bluegrass music has already gained one new fan as a result of the Dusters’ music. Perhaps many more will join the family after discovering them at the movie theater sometime in the next couple of years. I can’t think of a better band to represent bluegrass in the film industry. Congratulations guys!

Sierra Hull, the prodigious young singer and mandolin player, who has a debut Rounder album, Secrets, set for release on May 6, has landed a part in the film about Billy Graham’s early life, currently being shot on location in middle Tennessee.

The part came about following an article in The Tennessean newspaper and the submission of Ms. Hull’s name by Claire Armbruster of Nashville’s Keith Case & Associates, the firm responsible for booking Sierra’s personal appearances.

From the article…

“I sent it in without (Sierra) knowing. When I read what Anastasia [Brown] said about needing an 11- or 12-year-old that sounded like Alison Krauss, I thought of Sierra, even though she’s 16, because she’s so petite. They do miracles in the movies.”

The newspaper reports, on Thursday (March 27), Sierra recorded Just As I Am and I’ll Fly Away with producer John Carter Cash at his famed log cabin studio in Hendersonville. Participating in the session were top-notch musicians Randy Scruggs, Harry Stinson, John Cowan, Ronnie McCoury, Ronnie Bowman, Sarah Peasall and John Wesley Ryles.

“Just As I Am was being sung when Billy had his conversion and walked the sawdust trail to the altar”, Anastasia says. “Her voice will be extremely highlighted during this climax of the film.”

Sierra had this to say about how the part came about, what her reaction was to learning of her role and of her early involvement in work for the film …..

“I’m really excited to be a part of the upcoming Billy Graham film. It should be a really wonderful experience and I’m excited to see how the movie will all come together in the end. I first received a call from Claire Armbruster at Keith Case and Associates (the folks who do my booking) one day after school informing me that she had sent my new record, ‘Secrets’, to Beverly Keel - a columnist for the Tennessean - who then passed it along to Anastasia Brown. She just wanted to let me know that she had sent them the CD, but wasn’t sure if they’d respond or not. A few days later Claire got a call from Anastasia letting her know that they would like me to be part of the project. I was told that I’d be singing Just As I Am for a scene in the movie. However, it wasn’t until about a week ago that I realized that I would actually be playing the role of Catherine Graham.

I’m so thrilled to have the chance to do something like this. This past Thursday was spent recording the music for the film at John Carter Cash’s studio in Hendersonville. What an honor it was to get to sing with some of my favorite singers like Ronnie Bowman and John Cowan. I’m anxious to hear how it all ends up sounding. Acting in this movie will be quite a new experience for me, but one I’m really looking forward to. My first couple days on set will be in Mid-April and then again sometime in May.

I feel so blessed to be a part of this, and I think it will be a really wonderful movie that will hopefully touch the lives of many people no matter whether you are a Christian or not.”

Beverly Keel’s full story can be read at The Tennessean website.

Earlier this month, Bela Fleck’s documentary film, Throw Down Your Heart, was premiered at the South by Southwest (SXSW) film festival in Austin, TX. SXSW is a 5 day festival that is a combination of trade show and festival for music, film and interactive media. The festival includes all the workshops, panels, mentor sessions, etc. that you would expect from a trade show. In addition, over 250 independent films were screened during the course of those five days.

Throw Down Your Heart was entered in the Documentary Feature category. While it didn’t win the jury award for its category, it did win the fan’s choice award called 24 Beats Per Second. This award is for the fan’s favorite music-themed filmed at the event. The award title is taken from the number of film frames displayed in one second of film footage, 24.

Bela’s brother Sascha Paladino, who served as the film’s director, commented on the warm reception the film received at the festival.

[An] amazing thing that happened during our premiere was that after some of the musical performances within the film, the audience burst into applause. It was really exciting, like everyone was at a live concert. I don’t think that would have happened at another festival… We’re thrilled that we premiered at SXSW.

Bela stated in an interview with Variety magazine that he hoped the win would lead to more people seeing the film.

We’re hoping that by the end of the festival season, we’ll have somebody who wants to put it, acquire it and put it out, get into the public eye, because we think it’s worth seeing.

For more information about the film (and to watch the trailer), you can read our original post, or visit the film’s website at ThrowDownYourHeart.com.

Cross-genre and cross-cultural banjo icon Béla Fleck journeyed through several African nations last year in an effort to learn more about the music and people from whence the banjo originated. He visited Uganda, Tanzania, Gambia and Mali and met and performed with many African musicians along the way.

An album is planned for the future based on the music recorded on this trip, and a documentary film will debut next month about this musical adventure as well. It is entitled, Throw Down Your Heart, and was shot by filmmaker Sascha Paladino (Béla’s brother), who also produced and directed the film short that was included with The Flecktones’ CD/DVD, The Hidden Land.

The new film will premier at the 2008 South By Southwest Film Festival on March 9 in Austin, TX, and a short clip has been posted on YouTube.

News is expected soon about the African journey CD’s release, and about whether Throw Down Your Heart will be picked up for theatrical release, or perhaps on DVD.

Rob and Alan Fennah are brothers with an interest in music and performance arts. Living in the UK they formed the band Alternative Radio in 1981. Their sound is most definitely not bluegrass. But recently the duo have been pursuing both fact and fiction surrounding one of the primary instruments found in bluegrass music, the banjo.

In 2005 the brothers’ musical play ‘Twopence to Cross the Mersey’ was a smash hit in the UK, holding the number one slot in ticket sales for a while. The pair have now undertaken to write a screenplay. Twopence was based on an autobiography. The new screenplay is based on fact and fiction surrounding the first instrument given to John Lennon by his mother Julia.

The banjo was the first instrument Lennon learned to play, but it has since been lost and it’s whereabouts are unknown to this day.

Lennon’s banjo is the holy grail of pop memorabilia and it is a total mystery as to where it has gone.

So says brother Rob. He tells this story of how he came to be interested in Julia’s Banjo while attending a Beatles Convention in Liverpool a few years ago. (more…)

The many fans of IIIrd Tyme Out can now order their live concert DVD from the band’s web site. Entitled Round III at the MAC - Live, it was filmed at the same concert performance in November 2005 as their recent live audio CD, Round III at the MAC.

In the DVD, you’ll see the live stage performances of the same 16 songs as the CD, plus backstage footage and interviews with the members of the band.

Orders can be placed in the band’s online mall.

A few of Hollywood’s stars were rubbing shoulders with bluegrass musicians recently. The Mill Creek Boys played, last Friday night, at the Philadelphia Navy Yard. The gig was an end of shooting party for M. Night Shyamalan’s new movie, The Happening.

Shyamalan himself was there and the band tells me he is a “real nice fellow.” In addition to Shyamalan, the cast of the movie were also present and the female lead, Zooey Deschanel, joined the band on a number.

We were scheduled to play at 8 p.m., arrived at 6, and didn’t actually start picking until shooting ended around 10 p.m. We got to back up the female lead, Zooey Deschanel on an old country song. (She was quite good.)

Zooey has a background as a vocalist. She has performed vocally in several movies in which she acted, and apparently has a CD of country and rock songs in the works. You can read more about her musical endeavors on this wikipedia page.

The Mill Creek Boys, one of them is a girl, have been playing bluegrass in the Philadelphia area of Pennsylvania since 1998. Normally a four piece featuring bass, guitar, banjo and fiddle, they did hire Danny Stewart for this particular gig to play mandolin and do a little singing.

Ed Pollak, who plays fiddle in the band, described the scene as being a rather seedy section of the shipyards, but said the vibe was cool with a huge ship as a backdrop and “top flight catering.” I think the band enjoyed themselves.

The long-awaited concert DVD release from IIIrd Tyme Out is finally available. The video is the companion to their recent live CD, Round III at the MAC, filmed during the same concert performance in November 2005 at the Mountain Arts Center in Prestonburg, KY.

You can pick up the DVD at any of their live shows, but the band doesn’t yet have it in their online store. If you would like to order one directly, they ask that you contact them from their web site for ordering details.

There will also be a IIIrd Tyme Out compilation CD from Rounder Records in the near future, Footprints, which will include tracks from their several Rounder releases, and a couple of new ones as well. Among them, unsurprisingly, will be Russell Moore’s rendition of Bill Monroe’s Footprints In The Snow, the song he performed on last Thursday night’s IBMA Awards show.

The complete track listing for Footprints includes:

Earlier this evening John and I had the opportunity to attend the official screening of the 30 minute video Four Days Of Infamy. The video was produced by Craig Havighurst of String Theory Media and takes the viewer on the road with The Infamous Stringdusters.

The event was hosted by Sugar Hill Records and even though we’d seen the video here, I must admit there is just something about seeing a video on the big screen.

We’ve posted it before, but with the excitement rekindled, we decided to post it again for those of you who missed it the first time around. Just click the play button and join The Infamous Stringdusters on a 4 day Colorado tour, for Four Days Of Infamy.

Located in Rochester, NY, the George Eastman House is a museum of photography and film housed in the mansion of the late George Eastman, the founder of Eastman Kodak Company. The museum is an independent non-profit, dedicated to educating people in the history of photography and motion pictures. The building itself, built between 1902 and 1905, is a National Historic Landmark.

Beginning this Friday, September 14, 2007, and running through the weekend, the museum will present a three day music and film festival called Reels and Reels. The three day event includes an exhibition of rare banjos at the museum on Friday, a claw hammer style banjo workshop on Saturday, and an all day music festival on Sunday. In addition to these activities, Friday and Saturday the museum will be showing ongoing film screenings featuring traditional American String-band performers, with a focus on the banjo, in the Curtis Theatre.

Sunday morning before the concerts get underway, Bob Carlin will present a lecture on his new book The Birth of the Banjo. Carlin will be headlining the concert event later that evening.

The concert is being produced jointly by the George Eastman House and Bernunzio Vintage Instruments.

More information is available, and tickets can be purchased, online at the museum’s website.

As promised, here is the full 30 minute documentary on The Infamous Stringdusters, Four Days Of Infamy.

It was created by Nashville filmmaker Craig Havighurst of String Theory Media, and shot during a four day Colorado tour he took with the band in March. Craig shot the band on stage, backstage, in rehearsal - and traveling in the van - to compile a revealing look at this dynamic young bluegrass group.

You’ll see them perform at several CO venues, and catch interviews with each of the band’s members. John Cowan narrates, and we hope you will watch the whole thing.

Thanks to Sugar Hill Records and The Dusters for choosing The Bluegrass Blog to debut this video online.

In addition to the new Charlie Sizemore CD we highlighted yesterday, there are several other notable bluegrass projects released on August 14 that are worthy of your attention.

New from Rebel is Lovin’ Pretty Women from The Steep Canyon Rangers. We have mentioned this project a number of times recently, and now that it is available widely, we expect it will get a lot of attention. Clever songwriting and crisp execution mark this CD as a keeper.

You can hear audio samples on the band’s MySpace page, or check out their video bio with both live clips and CD audio.

Sugar Hill has SCENEchronized, the first new set from Seldom Scene in quite some time. Both long time fans and followers of a newer vintage should enjoy this CD. Even with Ben Eldridge as the lone original member, the song selections, arrangements and performances all bear the hallmarks that have set this band apart for more than 30 years.

More details on SCENEchronized can be found in our earlier post, and audio samples can be found in iTunes.

Also from Sugar Hill comes Sam Bush’s first live concert DVD, On The Road. It was recorded last August in Colorado, and features The Sam Bush Band in their element - live on stage. Featured are Scott Vestal on banjo (and banjo synth), Byron House on bass, Stephen Mougin on guitar, Chris Brown on drums, and Bush on mandolin, fiddle and lead vocals.

I could not find any video clips online, but there is a full track listing on Sam’s web site.

The Lewis Family is planning a family reunion on video - live concert video that is.

The Andy Griffith Playhouse in Mt. Airy, NC will be the scene for two days of live concerts September 28-29 featuring The Lewis Family, Jeff & Sheri Easter, and The Easter Brothers. Both shows will be recorded on video for a DVD release.

Jeff Easter grew up singing with his family, and Sherri sang with The Lewis Family. The three groups will also collaborate on a joint CD project, We Are Family, due for a fall ‘o7 release.

Find more details on The Lewis Family web site.

The Country Music Hall Of Fame And Museum in Nashville has announced that the next two volumes of the Best Of Flatt & Scruggs TV Show will be released on DVD October 9, 2007. Like the first two volumes which came out this past March, each of these new DVDs will features a pair of Flatt & Scruggs TV shows, originally aired in 1961 and ‘62.

From the August 2 press release:

Until the late 1980s, it was believed that no copies of this groundbreaking series had survived. In 1989, however, advertising executive Bill Graham discovered and donated to the Museum 24 intact shows. Soon after, 12 more were acquired from another source. The shows were innovative on several levels: Each show’s mix of uptempo tunes, comedy bits, spotlight instrumentals and occasional guest performances was a template that subsequent country variety shows would follow. Additionally, the Martha White in-show advertising and accompanying cooking demonstrations were precursors to modern product placement.

Titled Flatt & Scruggs Grand Ole Opry, the show ran from 1955 until 1969, when the pair ended their partnership to take separate musical paths. These shows illustrate the band’s greatness as a well-oiled performing unit. “Those were good years,” Scruggs said of the era captured on these programs. “Basically, we had a good time with each other…There’s nothing like that on the air now, I don’t reckon.”

Volume 3 promises two guest performances by Ricky Skaggs at seven years old, trading licks with Scruggs on Foggy Mountain Special, and singing his version of The Osborne Brothers hit Ruby. Volume 4 has the television debut of Randy Scruggs, performing on autoharp.

Of course, both DVDs are bursting at the seams with classic Flatt & Scruggs performances. A detailed description of each volume can be found on the CMHOF site.

They will be released jointly by Shanachie Entertainment and the Country Music Hall Of Fame, who have also announced that the four final sets of shows will be available in 2008.

The first two volumes have been warmly received by bluegrass lovers all over the world, and these next ones are not likely to disappoint.