Béla Fleck and his filmmaker brother, Sascha Paladino, were interviewed recently on the ReelzChannel, a web site for serious movie buffs. They discussed their new film,  Throw Down Your Heart, the documentary film about the making of Béla’s new CD by the same name.

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? is a new film from Chris Valluzzo and Sean Kotz of Horse Archer Productions that seeks to answer that musical question in a documentary film format.

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.

Another major benefit concert is scheduled for March 20 in Louisville, KY. The show is intended to mark 2009 as the 40th anniversary of newgrass music, and the crucial role that Louisville played in its birth and development.

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. (more…)

Volumes 7 and 8 of the fantastic series of DVDs of the Flatt & Scruggs TV Shows from the 1950s and 1960s will be released by Shanachie Records on February 24.

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.