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Films of American Rural Life and Music by John Cohen
For years John Cohen has devoted much of his energy and talent to the cause of traditional music, first as a member of the New Lost City Ramblers and also for over thirty years as a documentary filmmaker. The films presented in this video capture the life and music of rural America and eloquently convey the vanishing landscape of traditional music and the source of its power.
The High Lonesome Sound weaves a portrait of a region and way of life with the story of Roscoe Holcomb, the extraordinary singer-guitarist whom Eric Clapton once called "his favorite musician." Images of Roscoe singing on his back porch or working a hoe against stubborn soil are intercut with scenes of coal miners, passionate church services, a riverside baptism, Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass Boys singing on the Hazard, Kentucky courthouse steps, and stark, intense visions of life in eastern Kentucky.
Filmed in the mountains around Ashville, North Carolina. The End of an Old Song creates a moving portrait of Dillard Chandler, one of the last unaccompanied ballad singers. Dillard has little money, no family, and few friends, but his strength comes from his music. Although the proud heritage of his music shines through the film, in one telling scene Dillard's hauntingly sad unaccompanied song is drowned out by the sounds of modern country music on the jukebox as the world around him embraces the future.
The Carter Family recorded over 250 songs between 1927 and 1941. In Sara and Maybelle, two of the original Carter Family are reunited. Sara reminisces about the historic Bristol, Tennessee session that launched their career and helped give birth to the country music industry. Rare footage of Sara and Maybelle performing their classic songs "Sweet Fern" and "Solid Gone" is woven around a tour of A.P. Carter's store in Hilton, Virginia where memories of the Carter Family live and breathe.
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