What happens when a bluegrass banjo player makes a documentary film about a legendary 18th century composer?

The result with Michael Lawrence is Bach and Friends, due for DVD release early in 2010. The film looks at the timeless music of Johann Sebastian Bach through the eyes of 21st century musicians in a variety of genres. Lawrence has made a dozen or more documentaries, many focused on musical topics and personalities.

Mike told us that this Bach film began as a small project, but starting with his connections in the bluegrass world, has grown to include interviews and performances from some of the biggest names in contemporary music. Bach and Friends features several names familiar to bluegrass fans (Chris Thile, Béla Fleck and Edgar Meyer), along with jazz singer Bobby McFerrin and classical notables Joshua Bell, Sharon Isbin, Glenn Gould and The Emerson String Quartet.

“The whole idea of the movie is to bring young people – and people who aren’t familiar with Bach – to learn more about him. The project started with just an idea and my savings, and I had no idea there would be so many luminaries in the movie.

I spent about a year producing from the second floor of my house, and I just started contacting people, and they said yes.”

Lawrence runs a one-man operation (Michael Lawrence Films) and came to classical music from a bluegrass background. He played banjo as a young man, and with no options to study banjo in college such as there are today, he gravitated to guitar. He was a member of the very first graduating class at The Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Aaron Shearer, and performed as a classical guitarist.

Film scoring and original music for films was Michael’s introduction to the world of the cinema. He provided music for more than a dozen projects, most notably The Other Americans, which won numerous Emmy Awards in 1969. Lawrence soon found his place behind the camera, and as writer, producer or director, has more than 20 films to his credit, aired on PBS, HBO and CNN.

After a career close to classical music, it was his bluegrass roots that got the Bach Project off the ground.

“Béla was the first big name person who came aboard, which led to Edgar Meyer and Chris Thile. I knew of Chris from Nickel Creek, but had no idea he played Bach.”

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Charlie Daniels has worn a good many hats over his 50 years in the music business.

His first big hit came in 1973 with Uneasy Rider, a countryfied talking blues, years before the rap craze began. The hilarious song, following on the recent success of the Dennis Hopper film, Easy Rider, told the tale of a stranded, long-haired motorist who stumbles into the wrong bar looking for a phone in the deep South. It was a hit primarily in the rock music world, with a story that appealed to the “hippie” culture more than the country music world of the day, where Merle Haggard’s Okie From Muskogee had been a 1969 hit.

In 1978, Daniels’ Devil Went Down To Georgia was an even bigger hit, mixing a rock beat with an old time fiddle in a timeless story of dueling with the devil. Charlie worked the southern rock scene for many years, but always as a fiercely independent artist who went his own way. As pop and country formats moved away from his signature sound, he formed his own label, Blue Hat Records, and has released new projects annually, without regard for radio play.

In 2005, Charlie released his first bluegrass CD, Songs From The Longleaf Pines, featuring Earl Scruggs, The Del McCoury Band, Mac Wiseman, Doc Watson, Ricky Skaggs and Chris Thile. Since then, two other releases have featured substantial bluegrass content, while it is also included in his live show.

For the end of 2009, Daniels has a new CD/DVD project with a bluegrass Christmass theme. Joy To The World – A Bluegrass Christmas has an audio CD with 12 new studio tracks and a DVD with 10 live performances of the songs from the CD. The Grascals join Charlie for Christmas Time’s A Comin’, Dan Tyminski is on hand for The Christmas Song, and Kathy Mattea for O Come All Ye Faithful – on both discs.

Other guests include Aaron Tippin, Jewel, and Suzanne and Evelyn Cox.

Audio samples can be heard in iTunes, and the CD/DVD set is available from the Charlie Daniels web site and wherever recorded music is sold online.

That’s the question on the lips of almost everyone in the bluegrass world.

OK… maybe not just yet. But when this new film debuts during the IBMA Fan Fest on October 2, it is sure to be a lively topic of discussion.

Who Shot Lester Monroe is the brainchild of Tom T. and Dixie Hall, and will be released through their Blue Circle label. There will be a free screening at 1:00 p.m. (CST) in the Music City Ballroom of the Renaissance Hotel on the Friday of IBMA week, after which it will be offered for sale and distribution from Good Home Grown Music.

The lovely and gracious Miss Dixie tells us that the film follows the mockumentary style popularized by HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm.

“The movie is basically an improvisational film. Tom T. gave everyone a basic storyline for the scenes, and we all just improvised our lines. It was a lot of fun!

The general story for the movie is that Lester Monroe was killed at Fox Hollow, while staying in one of the apartments. This begins a buzz in the bluegrass community, trying to figure out just who in the world is Lester Monroe! It turned out great, and grassers will love it. It’s full of inside jokes, and things that non-bluegrass folks just won’t get.”

A movie just for us!

In addition to Tom T. as Shanghai Jim, Buddy Carter as Tallahassee Bob and Tony Wray as Lyric Lamont, dozens of bluegrass personalities appear as themselves. Dale Ann Bradley, Larry Cordle, Melvin Goins, Alecia Nugent, Josh Williams, Larry Stephenson and Don Rigsby are among those who make an appearance, as do members of the IBMA staff, Nacy Cardwell-Erdos, Jill Crabtree and Dan Hays.

Sounds like a hoot.

Apropos of Richard’s fine tribute to Mike Seeger, here is some related news.

The Arhoolie Foundation has recently released a DVD of the Yasha Aginsky film, Always Been A Rambler, an hour-long documentary on the New Lost City Ramblers, of which Mike was a founding member.

The film tells the story of this seminal folk group using archival footage of the band from their early days in the 1950s through to rehearsals, performances and interviews with the members (Mike Seeger, John Cohen, Tracy Schwarz and Tom Paley) nearly fifty years later.

Other prominent artists featured in the film include Clarence Ashley, Maybelle and Sara Carter, Elizabeth Cotton, Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard, Foghorn Duo, Rayna Gellert, David Grisman, Roscoe Holcomb, Pete Seeger, and Ricky Skaggs.

Here is the trailer…

The DVD can be purchased from Arhoolie online, and is widely available from popular online resellers.

Details about theatrical showings of the film can be found on the director’s web site.