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.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Though he expects that Bach and Friends will eventually be broadcast on television, the first step is producing a 2 hour documentary on DVD. Lawrence said that the DVD is due for release in January 2010 – a 2 DVD set to include the documentary on one disc, and all of the musical performances strung back-to-back on the other.

Here’s a look at Béla’s contribution…

Click here to view the embedded video.

More video samples can be found on Lawrence’s web site.

Michael said that while his professional career now revolves around film and classical music, he still keeps up his bluegrass chops.

“I play bluegrass about once a month at a jam here in Baltimore – so I’m usually a little rusty, but it’s always fun.”

The music of JS Bach has had appeal to banjo and mandolin players for some time, with its focus on linear melodies that can be adapted well to these instruments. Hearing Bach perfomed on the harpsichord (for which much of it was written) really brings the banjo to mind, and perhaps this new film will spur a study of this lovely music by younger string players with a bluegrass bent.

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.

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.

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.

This is the album featuring music Fleck recorded on his trip to Africa in 2005 to research music played on indigenous instruments which may have been precursors to the modern banjo.

Why Old Time?

The project is still in the editing stage, and Valluzzo told us that he isn’t sure what the run time will be, but that they are hopeful of seeing it released on DVD in late April 2009.

“Like a lot of folks I found this music through Bluegrass. It spoke to me like no other genre has. It seemed so comforting and real.   As I read the new river valley old time listserv and the passionate folks on there commenting on all things Old Time, and being relatively new to Old Time, I thought to myself… ‘Why?’

Why are they so passionate. What is it about this music that that they love so much. So instead of just asking folks and getting an answer, I decided to answer that question with a documentary. It’s my way of honoring this music that I’m new to, but love so much.”

Chris and Sean visited a number of prominent old time music conventions and festivals in 2008 to shoot, with an eye on capturing people’s perception of the music, and why they loved to play it. They made stops at Union Grove and Mt. Airy in North Carolina, Clifftop in West Virginia, and Elk Creek in Virginia where they shot hours of footage of jams and conversations.

They also interviewed Mike Seeger, David Holt and Mark Campbell along with members of several old time bands they met during their 2008 festival crawl.

The producers are currently shopping the film to PBS stations, and hope to see the initial interest they have received pik up once they have a completed video to screen for them. It will also be entered into film festivals, and promoted to independent theaters in the Appalachian region, and hopefully nationally as well.

Valluzzo said that he expects the DVD will run 70-90 minutes, and will include both the “TV edit” and some DVD-only content.

“Additional special features include ‘cutting room floor’ which will be individual segments that didn’t make it into the film but are interesting and entertaining none the less.  Also there will be a musical performance section where folks who played for us as part of their interview will have their musical performance shown uninterrupted.  There will be interviews with the crew and producers. And maybe a couple other items.”

They have created a trailer which is posted on YouTube (view below), and a higher resolution version can be found on the Why Old Time web site.

Horse Archer intends to make a number of other films about Appalachian old time music. They are currently editing a film about fiddler Henry Reed of Giles County, VA and plan to embark on others once the current batch are completed.

In fact there is much more than just a concert in store for the Ruby celebrations. A documentary DVD, audio CD/LP and a coffee table book are all scheduled for a fall ‘09 release centered around The Bluegrass Hotel, an informal bluegrass rooming house for L’ville grassers in the 1970s.

The Hotel is a large Victorian-era home in the Cherokee Park neighborhood, not far from downtown Louisville. The house is and was then owned by Harry Bickel, who offered rooms at attractive rates to bluegrass musicians in the area.

One of those who stayed there in the ’70s was Bill Millet, former banjo picker with The Bluegrass Alliance who works now as a music producer. In addition to touring widely, this group served as an internship for young, progressive bluegrass pickers at that time. Other members during that period include Sam Bush, Tony Rice, Dan Crary, Vince Gill, Curtis Burch and Courtney Johnson.

In fact, Newgrass Revival got its start when the four original members (Bush, Johnson, Burch and Ebo Walker) left Bluegrass Alliance to launch the Revival after a simmering feud developed between the four of them and band leader Lonnie Peerce.

Millet grew up in Texas, but found himself living in Louisville when he took the Alliance gig.

“I was the first resident of The Bluegrass Hotel in 1975, and Vince Gill was it’s 4th in the same year when he took my invitation to join The Bluegrass Alliance, replacing the outgoing Glenn Lawson (going to J.D. Crowe).

Harry Bickel bought a huge house and initially needed boarders to offset expenses. They were mostly comprised of members of The Bluegrass Alliance and other related pickers that Harry knew and trusted. Harry Sparks had an instrument repair shop set up in the basement which attracted Sam Bush, J.D. Crowe and others, because Sparky was their luthier/repairman of choice.”

Bill recalls paying $45 each month, plus a share of utilities for his room. Other notable pickers who stayed during the 70s include Tony Rice, Bela Fleck, Jerry Douglas, J.D. Crowe, Doyle Lawson, Tony Williamson, and Jack Lawrence.

The home is now a private residence, as Harry’s wife Ann chased off all the pickers when they married in 1981.

When the 40th anniversary of newgrass drew near in 2008, Millet and others started the preparations to mark the milestone. Footage was shot during IBMA 2008 of the various Bluegrass Hotel alumni recalling stories of their time in Louisville, plus some impromptu jamming and plans were laid for the March 2009 concert at The Galt House – the former home of the annual IBMA convention on “the banks of the Ohio.”

This concert will also be filmed for the DVD, co-produced with Kentucky Educational Television (KET).

The March 20 concert is open to the public, and will be centered on an all-star band performance featuring Sam Bush, Curtis Burch, John Cowan, J.D. Crowe, Tony Rice and Dan Crary. A great many former members of Newgrass Revival and The Bluegrass Alliance will also make appearances on the show, including Danny Jones, Buddy Spurlock, Tony Williamson, Jack Lawrence, Al White, Harry Bickel, Steve Cooley, Glenn Lawson, Marshall Billingsley, Chuck Nation, Bob Briedenbach, Thayne Bradford, Danny Wiley, Keith and Darrell Sanson, Bill Millet, John Jump, Robert Pool, Marty Townsend, Dennis White, and others.

All proceeds from the concert will go to benefit the American Cancer Society. Special package rates are available through February 20 for tickets and accommodations at The Galt House.

Following the concert, Millet and fellow former Alliance member and Bluegrass Hotel resident John Jump will produce an audio CD with the all-star hotel pickers. Details are scant at this time, but Bill says that it will consist of new songs written by John Cowan, Dan Crary, J.D. Crowe, Sam Bush and Curtis Burch.

Jump is also a successful record producer and former exec at MCA. Sam Bush will also be a co-producer. The recording will be released on a Universal Music Group imprint.

Both the finished CD/LP and the concert DVD are expected to hit during this year’s IBMA World Of Bluegrass convention in Nashville (9/28-10/4). As will a coffee table book written by Harry Bickel, who has also compiled photos from the years he ran his rooming house.

Bickel was interviewed in December by Elizabeth Kramer of WFPL, Lousiville’s NPR station:

 "When I bought the house in 1975 and guys from the Bluegrass Alliance started living here, then this became the center of the whole thing," says Harry Bickel, a Bluegrass fan and banjo player.

He owns the house, and "the thing" he’s talking about is a time when something called "New Grass" music was taking root. The Bluegrass Hotel was an informal boarding house for musicians, including members of the Bluegrass Alliance, a band that helped launch the careers of Vince Gill and mandolin player Sam Bush. They’d jam in the cavernous rooms on the first-floor and in the smaller bedrooms upstairs.

"This is where guys would practice their music," he says in an upstairs room. "And there was a big sideboard over there, and we had all the stereo equipment there, and headphones and all that kind of stuff. So guys would sit here all day long practicing sometimes with tapes. And we’d jam up here some."

Bickel says there were always musicians coming and going. Many paid upward of $35 a month — plus utilities. Others came with bands on tour and would crash for a few nights. There was a lot of beer flowing in those days and several eating contests involving White Castle hamburgers. Bickel says some mornings he woke up to find a dozen musicians sleeping on his living room floor.

Sam Bush says he remembers playing at the house day and night.

"To this day I don’t know if I’ve ever seen any healthier or, you know, more outgoing music scene than Louisville used to have," Bush says.

You can hear the entire interview at WFPL.org.

The Bluegrass Hotel Project will donate all the royalties from the sales of the book, DVD, CD and LP to the IBMA Bluegrass Trust Fund, and to establish a permanent Newgrass-era collection and exhibit.

We’ll have more about these various Bluegrass Hotel projects as the release date draws near. Details will also be posted on The Bluegrass Hotel web site.

One of these sets features the earliest surviving show, from 1956 (the band began doing these shows in 1955). Curly Seckler is featured on tenor vocals and mandolin on both volumes and on one of them he sings one of his trademark solos, What’s the Matter Now.

Other members of the Foggy Mountain Boys at about that same time were Buck Graves, Paul Warren and Jake Tullock.

Flatt and Scruggs are one of the most popular bluegrass bands of all time. Along with Bill Monroe, they developed bluegrass music into a widely successful and artistically praised musical format. The Best of the Flatt and Scruggs TV Show series contains the best musical performances from a long lost TV show taped in the 1950s and 1960s.

Never available before, this footage in this series features Flatt and Scruggs in their prime with their group the Foggy Mountain Boys playing many of their most famous songs as well as many other bluegrass classics. The first two DVDs in the series were released in March 2007.

These two DVDs will be available wherever music DVDs are sold, from Curly Seckler at his show dates and from his web site. Each volume contains two shows.

The DVD, Preachin’, Prayin’, Singin’,  features the likes of Mac Wiseman, Earl, Gary and Randy Scruggs, Del, Ronnie and Rob McCoury as well as Sharon, Cheryl and Buck White as guests. It features songs from Daniels’ Grammy nominated bluegrass gospel release, Songs From The Longleaf Pines, sung at a 2005 concert in the Ford Theater, at The Country Music Hall of Fame And Museum.

Most of the songs are Gospel ones, the exceptions are Salty Dog Blues, 1952 Vincent Black Lightning and Uncle Pen. However, the set is kicked off with a rendition of Walking In Jerusalem, with Mac Wiseman assisting Daniels and The Whites providing background vocals.

The atmosphere in the auditorium is very relaxed and informal, to such an extent that the audience is soon clapping along to the music, as on I’ve Found A Hiding Place.  I’m Working On A Building and The Old Crossroads are given a heavy blues treatment with Daniels’ raspy voice bringing an additional edge to both of those songs.  Contrastingly, The Old Account and What Would You Give are low-key duets with Mac Wiseman.

For a break from the performances Daniels is shown with US troops in Iraq from where he had just returned and he offers a prayer to all the US forces wherever they may be.

Mid set the Scruggs family ‚Äì Earl, Randy and Gary ‚Äì join Daniels, initially for Salty Dog Blues, although they stay around for the remainder of the show.  Salty Dog Blues and the closing number, an instrumental version of I’ll Fly Away allowed for extended instrumental breaks such as banjo and guitar breaks from Earl and Gary Scruggs, respectively.

There is a mistake in the sequencing of the songs on the accompanying leaflet, which lists Uncle Pen after 1952 Vincent Black Lightning when it is in fact the other way round.  On the latter Del McCoury sings solo while on the former he is aided by Daniels.

The support band consists of Ronnie and Rob McCoury, Jason Carter, Andy Hall, Tim May and Mike Bub, all top professionals with choice of notes and sympathetic back up being just two of the strengths that are apparent here.

Background vocals are supplied by Sharon, Cheryl and Buck White and Cyndi Wheeler.

In addition to the performance footage, Preachin’, Prayin’, Singin’ features commentary and behind-the-scenes footage of Daniels as he reflects on the early days of The Charlie Daniels Band, playing with The Earl Scruggs Review and the music of close friend, Mac Wiseman.

Other features include interviews and behind-the-scenes conversations with Daniels, Scruggs, Wiseman and others who were an integral part of the evening’s entertainment.

The main part of the film is shown in mono-chrome with a sepia tinge with only the beginning, end and interludes in full colour.  The variations don’t detract from the enjoyment of the film.

Daniels will host an in-store event at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum Store in celebration of this DVD release on November 19 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.

The film includes a mixture of archival footage and photos, interviews, recently shot footage and music. It is not only about Mike Seeger, John Cohen, Tom Paley and Tracy Schwarz, but also includes footage of many of the traditional musicians with whom they have performed, recorded, filmed and are otherwise documented — including Maybelle & Sara Carter, George Landers, the Balfa Brothers, Libba Cotten, Roscoe Holcomb and Hazel Dickens. Some of the recent footage was shot in Berkeley, CA, either at the Freight & Salvage or at the Berkeley Old Time Music Convention.

This hour-long film has been made on a shoestring budget of $200,000, but it transpires that there is an additional $25,000 in unanticipated finishing costs needed and Ms. Thompson is seeking financial assistance for that purpose.

She suggests a couple of ways that you can help:

1) A tax-deductible financial contribution (made to the tax-exempt non-profit Arhoolie Foundation) – donors of $1,000 and up have the option of receiving a credit at the end of the film.

2) Help me to get in touch with the folks that you know personally who you think would be able and willing to support this film.

This could work one of two ways: either you contact your friends and share this information with them, OR share your contact information with me and I will contact them directly, using your name as a reference.

Please let me know if you have any ideas, suggestions or question; you can email me: suzy@ericandsuzy.com

If you would like to make a financial contribution, please make your cheque payable to the Arhoolie Foundation and enclose a note saying that your donation is earmarked for the NLCR film.

The phone number is 510-525-7471 and the contact person is Tom Diamant.

It is hoped that the film is completed and ready for release by spring of 2009, just in time to coincide with the 50th Anniversary NLCR box set to be released by Smithsonian Folkways.

A great many musicians who have emerged from this area of the US cut their musical teeth at Everett’s, included Jeff Autrey, and Ray and Jeff Deaton.

We heard recently from Andrew Iden, an independent film producer in Atlanta who is finishing up a documentary about Everett’s, Pick A String, which he hopes will be completed by early in 2009. It is expected to run between 20-30 minutes, and Iden plans to enter it into a number of film festivals next year to generate some attention.

A two minute video trailer for Pick A String is available to give you a taste of what the finished project will be like.

One we especially missed seeing was Sierra Hull, teen aged mandolin sensation and budding vocalist whose debut CD, Secrets, was released earlier this year. She was across town that evening, attending a red carpet event of her own.

As if her senior year of high school wasn’t busy enough, Sierra has the opening of a major independent film on her plate as well. She had a small speaking role in Billy: The Early Years, a biopic on the life of ?ºber evangelist Billy Graham. She also is featured as a singer in the film, and on the soundtrack as well.

“I did have the chance to go walk the red carpet at the movie premier and meet with the press. It was a lot of fun, and my first time doing anything like that. I had my first chance to see the movie the night before, and it was really a wild experience. Although I’m totally a small part of the film, it’s definitely still a cool and somewhat frightening thing to sit in a theater and see your face on the screen, and hear your voice singing with everyone in seats around you taking it all in!

I feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to be a part of such a meaningful movie. Billy Graham is a well respected man who stood for God even through the lowest times. It’s an honor for me to be linked to a movie like this, even in the smallest way, and I hope people will enjoy seeing it.”

Sierra had to high tail it back to The Ryman after taking her red carpet turn, as she was scheduled to present an IBMA award with Ron Block. She sent along a few photos from the Billy premier.

Sierra had another honor come her way recently – the Best Bluegrass Band of 2008 in the French Country Music Awards.

“I read a congratulations mention about the nomination in the IBMA newsletter that comes out every couple months and was kinda like.. ‘really? Are they sure?’ So I decided to do the almighty Google, and sure enough, there was my name along with Dailey & Vincent, Donna Hughes, Becky Schlegel and Rhonda Vincent. So I was kinda like.. wow.. how nice! I then read online about the awards and that they would be announced on my birthday.

Sure enough, on September 27th I received notification through email that I had won, which was really cool to find out on your birthday!”

The film was directed by B?©la’s brother, Sasha Paladino, and has already won awards from Silverdocs and SXSW in 2008.

It follows B?©la through Uganda, Tanzania, The Gambia, and Mali, and depicts how music can overcome barriers of language and culture.

Here is a trailer that has been posted on YouTube.

Sierra is also featured in a singing role, performing the hymn Just As I Am, reported to be one of Graham’s favorites, in the scene where he experiences his conversion to Christian faith.

The film opens in theaters on October 10, and the gala premier is scheduled in Nashville on October 2 during the Nashville Film Festival.

Owing to a frustrating schedule conflict, Sierra is afraid that she may have to miss her red carpet turn, though she will already be dressed for the occasion.

“The Billy premier is in Nashville, but the same night as the IBMA Awards! What a bummer! I would like to maybe attend what little of the premier I could before the awards, but I can’t just miss the awards. It’s a special one for me, and I think I’m supposed to present an award. I hate having to miss it though!”

Sierra is nominated for the IBMA’s Mandolin Player of the Year award, the first female nominee in this category, and this while she is beginning her senior year of high school!

Using both archival footage and newly shot performances during Monroe’s final years, together with lengthy interviews, the film tells the story of Bill Monroe in his own words, with his own music. There are musical segments from Bill and The Blue Grass Boys along with a reunion performance featuring Del McCoury, Chubby Wise and Bill Keith.

Interviews on the impact of Bill Monroe’s music are included with artists as diverse as Jerry Garcia and Roy Acuff, as well as legends like Lester Flatt, Paul McCartney, Dolly Parton and John Hartford.

Bill Monroe – Father Of Bluegrass Music has been remastered for DVD and was re-released by MVD Entertainment in July of 2008, and is available now for purchase.

The 90 minute film was the brainchild of Steve Gelbhardt and Larry Nager, who wrote, produced and directed it as a labor of love while both held down full-time employment outside the music or film worlds. We had a chance to get some details from both of them about this film and how they came to create it.

Nager, who will host a screening and a panel discussion during IBMA week at The Country Music Hall Of Fame and Museum (10/2), shared a bit about his involvement.

“The film’s inception came through director Steve Gebhardt, who approached me about writing it (and writing a lot of the grant application materials). It was 1988 or 1989.

I was then music editor of the Cincinnati Post and before that, had played upright bass with Red Allen, the Harley Allen-Mike Lilly Band, the Katie Laur Band. At the time I was playing sporadic shows with former Blue Grass Boy, Tony Ellis (we were the first bluegrass group to play in Belarus). So the Bill Monroe project seemed a perfect fit, bringing together both my worlds. And Mr. Monroe was the reason I started playing in the first place, through an album I happened to pick up in 1969 when I was 15 – 16 Bluegrass Instrumentals.”

Gebhardt had developed a passion for filmmaking while a student of architecture and design at the University of Cincinnati in the 1960s. After receiving graduate training, he taught in the UC film department before making the move to New York which led to an association with John Lennon and Yoko Ono and their film production company, Joko Films.

Steve directed 18 films during his time with Lennon, including the One To One Concert at Madison Square Garden which was broadcast on ABC, Lennon’s last public performance before his death.

He also produced the Ladies and Gentlemen concert film for The Rolling Stones in 1972 and – among other projects – spent several years working on a biographical documentary, Twenty to Life – The Life & Times of John Sinclair, which was released in 2007.

Not much in that background suggests that Gebhardt might embark on a Bill Monroe documentary, but he tells us that he had been a grasser from way back.

“I was an old bluegrass lover (listner not player) from college and went to Beanblossom in the late-60’s with like-minded people. I saw the Stanley Brothers at a club a couple of weeks before Carter died, and filmed at Beanblossom in 1968, ‘69 and ‘70. When I moved to NYC, I saw Monroe at the 23rd St. YMCA (as I lived on 22nd St, a block away).

When I returned to Ohio my deep interest caused me to write the NEA for an American Masters grant for a Monroe documentary. Then I met Larry Nager and with his writing I got the grant (and a bunch of others) that enabled us to make the film.

The fact is that doing a project like this takes more than grants ever provide. I worked as an architect all through this period to pay my bills and allow me to do the film. Larry Nager wrote for the afternoon newspaper to earn his keep. It took 3 years to do this project.”

When the film was completed, the version that was aired on television was a shortened edit. Steve said that could not release it to theaters because of a technical issue.

“We were not able to release it to theaters because one of the early cameramen shot his footage at 30fps (frames per second) while the others shot at 24fps. That alone prevented a simple blow-up to 35mm.

However my ambition was to make this for ‘television’ and ‘home video,’ which we did. My interest was in propaganda – reaching a larger audience for Monroe through his crossover influences like Jerry Garcia, Paul McCartney, Emmylou Harris, etc.

The original source was 16mm ECN film which was transferred to D2 digital format and cut on an Avid suite (3rd Avid out there in 1990). This was one of the first ‘battles’ of the digital age. The audio was recorded on multi-track at Beanblossom twice, at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, and at Frontier Ranch near Columbus, OH – as well as other ‘performance’ locations – and in stereo by Geoff Maxwell from Cincinnati. Geoff mixed all the audio.”

This new DVD release includes the full 90 minute documentary, plus some material never released on the earlier VHS or DVD packages.

“We added I’m Working On A Building as a bonus track to this edition. We also have the earlier bonus material including ‘Never Leave the A-String.’ “

Bill Monroe – Father Of Bluegrass Music is available widely online (Amazon, etc) as well as specialty resellers who carry music-related DVDs. Orders can also be placed one the MVD Entertainment Group web site.

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.

Very soon after that conversation I realize I had suggested something that was much more involved than the initial idea. I didn’t want to just follow Crowe around for a little bit and put something together on the fly. I needed to do something that was worthy of this legendary banjo man from the great Commonwealth of Kentucky. Something that would show not only J.D.’s life but would touch on the life of all the artists who have rubbed shoulders with J.D. or been a member of Jimmy Martin’s Sunny Mountain Boys or with J.D. through The Kentucky Mountain Boys and for nearly forty years, The New South.

After having retired from Kentucky Educational Television in 2003, I had been searching for an independent project to do and knew KET offered grant money through the KET Fund For Independent Production to produce Kentucky oriented programs. I thought, what the heck. You don’t get any more independent than me, and you don’t get any more Kentucky than both me and J.D. Crowe. So in October, 2006, I applied for a grant from the KET Fund For Independent Production. To my surprise I was awarded the full amount of their grant and given pretty much carte blanche to do what I wanted. The Grant was awarded in February of 2007, and I went to work.

Frank and Marty Godbey are fixtures in the national bluegrass music scene and good friends of mine. Both have spent their life writing, photographing and living with bluegrass music. Frank is an accomplished five string banjo picker and mandolin player(Frank and I are in a local bluegrass band called Ruby & ‘Em). Marty quickly became interested in the project as we were both doing similar tasks. She is presently working on a biography of Crowe and many of the artists I wanted to interview, she also needed to interview. I very soon realized Frank and Marty were a wealth of information and photographs.

Both Frank and Marty volunteered to be a part of the production and soon became my “go to” people when there was something I needed to know. Marty and I would pool all our questions combining them into a list we wished to have the artists answer. It was a good system for both and proved to be a productive one. Frank and Marty both are near professional photographers and many of the photographs used in the project come from their archives.

Through the summer and fall of 2007, Frank, Marty and myself would travel a great deal to interview different artists. Doyle Lawson was our first interview and it went well. We followed that with Ms. Bessie Crowe, J.D.’s mom who, at 94 years young, still works the record table at local bluegrass festivals. We also interviewed J.D.’s sister Rosa that same day. Soon there would be over 20 interviews finished and they ran the gambit from Ricky Skaggs, a 1975 member of the New South, to Paul Williams who was with Crowe during the Jimmy Martin days.

I traveled to Tallahassee, Florida to interview Gordon Scott who was a University of Kentucky college student during the Kentucky Mountain Boys days and became a mandolin player in that band. Also to Okeechobee, Florida to interview Bob Joslin, one of the founding members of the Kentucky Mountain Boys.

On and on we interviewed folks who seemed not only pleased to be asked but really honored to be a part of the project. Earl Scruggs was quick to say yes. Jerry Douglas not only said yes but thought Alison Krauss, a huge fan of J.D.’s might be interested. She was, and we interviewed Jerry and Alison the same day. I asked Sonny Osborne for his comments, and although having suffered great illness this past couple of years, Sonny was willing and extremely able.

During all this time I was doing research on photographs, video and film. I knew a lot of video existed since I had done a lot with J.D. during my days at KET. I met J.D. the first time in 1975, when one of the producers at KET brought The New South into our studios to videotape a program for our annual fund raiser, Festival ‘75. I knew I had that and many other pieces of video through the years, but there were lots of video I didn’t have and I really didn’t know what existed and what didn’t.

There were disappointments through the months of research. For example; I thought I had traced down the performance of The Kentucky Mountain Boys on the old Dick Cavett Show only to contact Cavett’s production company and find out it no longer existed and had not been among those programs archived from that time period. I was sorely disappointed.

On the other hand, there were great achievements. I found that The Bluegrass Album Band had performed live on TNN’s Nashville Now, which was hosted by Ralph Emery. I was also told it was nearly impossible to obtain license for any video that came out of TNN. Most of that video is now owned by CMT whose parent company is Viacom and no licenses were being issued. Well, with the help of Dan Hays, Executive Director of the IBMA, and a couple of folks at CMT, I was able to not only trace the footage down but obtained a license for that video and it is included in the documentary.

Most interviews were finished by the first of this year, 2008 and with a July KET deadline looming, I began the editing process in January. Most of it flowed very easily. Other parts were more difficult but I found out really quickly it would take more than the original hour I had planned on to tell the story. With a quick call to KET and approval for a ninety minute program, I was able to breath a little easier.

The rough-cut of the project was finished about the last of March which gave me time to send out segments which needed approval from the participating artists. Once those were all back and approvals had been given, I could start the final edit and the tightening and sweetening of the program.

With two weeks to spare before my July 1 deadline, I was able to have the man himself drop by my house and spend the afternoon watching a program about himself. I don’t think that is an easy thing for J.D. to do but he was extremely patient with me and watched every moment.

When it was finished he looked at me and said, “You did good Russ, you did good.” That’s all I wanted to hear. (J.D. spent the rest of the afternoon just talking and picking on my old double pickup electric guitar. Can you believe it. I have photos to prove it.)

Shortly thereafter I submitted the finished product to KET and they were extremely pleased with the project. I don’t believe they expected anything less since most of those folks I had worked with during my thirty year career in television. Hopefully they were pleased enough to fund future attempts at producing an independent project around Kentucky Bluegrass Treasures. There are enough Kentucky artists out there to keep me busy for a long time. I look forward to producing their stories.”

Marty Godbey added some observations from her perspective ……

“I did the off-camera interviews, and Frank located pictures and helped my faulty memory, and we acted in an advisory capacity, as well. Russ has been around bluegrass a good while, doing his Jubilee series for KET, but Frank and I have been deeply involved since we were in (but too young to be in) horrible hillbilly bars in the 1960s. And I’ve interviewed J.D. numerous times since 1976.

When Russ first broached the idea to J.D., he was told (according to Russ) ‘Talk to Marty; she knows more about me than I do.’ That was a fine compliment, but I’m still making lots of discoveries, and never expect to know it all. I do know that everyone I have talked with, without exception, has said what a fine individual J.D. is, in addition to his acknowledged musicianship. That makes it difficult to do a ‘Warts and all’ biography, in the words of the late, unlamented Oliver Cromwell. J.D. has no ‘warts.’

I think Russ did a great job, especially since there is so little movie or television footage available for much of J.D.’s career; he managed very well with still photographs, and the end result is not static at all.”

KET, who are responsible for the grant money which enabled Farmer to work on this this project, will broadcast the 90-minute film sometime in November. It will be transmitted nationally sometime after that.

The program is not available on DVD and there are no plans at this time for that to happen. However, it may well be that the program will be offered as a premium for contributing to your local PBS station.

The J D Crowe Bluegrass Festival, now in its 8th year, takes place from 28 through to 30 August at the beautiful 111-acre Ichthus Farm, Wilmore, Jessamine County, Kentucky.

The showing is scheduled for 9:00 p.m. (approx.), 28 August.

Footnote:

As Russ Farmer mentioned, Marty Godbey is presently writing a biography of J.D Crowe’s life and music. It is expected that it will be a future edition in the Music In American Life series published by the University of Illinois Press.

Marty tells us that “There’s still the review process at the University of Illinois Press, and (assuming they like it) a couple of years to get it printed.”

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.

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.

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.

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.