The 2020 project, directed by Kelley St. Germain, follows the life of Gilliam Banmon Grayson, who lived from 1887-1930, from his youth in eastern Kentucky until his death in an auto accident in his early 40s. He didn’t achieve notoriety until shortly before he died, but a number of the songs he is credited with writing have become staples in old time and bluegrass music.
Though some may have been based on existing folks songs, he is believed to have been responsible for or popularizing classics like Tom Dooley, Train 45, Handsome Molly, Short Life of Trouble, Going Down the Lee Highway, Omie Wise, Rose Conley, Banks of the Ohio, and Little Maggie.
St. Germain has placed the full 39 minute documentary on YouTube, where it can be viewed at no charge.
Short Life of Trouble won a number of film festival awards for its coverage of Grayson’s music and its impact, in interviews filmed with Ketch Secor, John McCutcheon, Ralph Stanley II, Kody Norris, Josh Beckworth, and a number of Grayson’s grandchildren.
Coming to Netflix on December 31 is a new documentary celebrating Norman’s Rare Guitars, the home for vintage instruments in Los Angeles since it was opened by Norman Harris in 1975.
Titled Norman’s Rare Guitars Documentary, the film was directed by Devin Dilmore, and produced by 101 Exit with Kiefer Sutherland as executive producer. It traces Harris’s journey to becoming the go-to guy in LA for anyone looking for unique vintage instruments. And this being LA, a good many celebrities are among his regulars.
Again, being LA, the focus of the documentary looks to be on electric guitars and the rock and pop music scene, but as Norman’s is also a renowned home for vintage acoustics, with a remarkable collection of dreadnaught, large body, and arch top guitars in stock, one would expect to see plenty of interest for lovers of acoustic guitars as well.
It appears that part of the impetus for the film is the fact that Harris has been in poor health, and is past the age where most business owners look to slow down a bit.
Here’s the trailer…
Netflix subscribers will be able to watch Norman’s Rare Guitars Documentary starting on New Year’s Eve.
Are you a sucker for Hallmark Christmas movies, where a happy ending is assured, the boy always gets the girl – or vice versa – and the family farm, quaint coffee shop, or small town theater company is saved?
Well then, A Bluegrass Christmas, a new film from Imagicomm Entertainment, should be right up your alley. Available now on DVD and via streaming, it supplies all the expected variables, with a bluegrass twist!
This time it’s a family horse sanctuary, operated by Katie, the comely granddaughter of a retired bluegrass star, whose funding is in jeopardy when their chief sponsor pulls out. But the sponsor’s kind – and very handsome – son Grant happens to meet Katie for coffee at a bluegrass music spot, and sparks fly.
Can they convince Katie’s grandfather to perform again at a benefit concert to save the sanctuary, after he has sworn off appearing in public? You’ll have to watch and see.
Did we mention that Katie and Grant are also bluegrass pickers and singers?
It sounds like a bluegrass big time!
Here’s the trailer.
A Bluegrass Christmas is streaming now on Prime, where it is also available for streaming purchase, and on DVD from Amazon and presumably other online resellers.
Jim Laprad, Dave Russell, Wendy Smith, and Matt Stoddard at the Masonic Hall in Madison Heights, MI
Patty and Lare Williams of P. Williams Productions have put together a documentary outlining the career of Michigan bluegrass musician Wendy Smith. Wendy is a songwriter, musician, band leader, and festival promoter. His most famous song, Carolyn the Teenage Queen – was taken to number one on the charts by the Lonesome River Band.
At 91 years young he is semi-retired. He still makes stage appearances and led Wendy Smith & Blue Velvet for many years. He also hosted the Whispering Winds Bluegrass Festival for many years. My wife says it’s Wendy’s fault that we have such a passion for bluegrass music. He introduced us to many bands over the years – Enoch and Margie Sullivan, Lilimae & the Dixie Gospelaires, Randall Hylton, The Chapmans, Gary Brewer, and the list goes on.
This past Saturday Patty and Lare hosted a watch party for the documentary, Wendy Smith – Michigan Songwriter, at the Masonic Hall in Madison Heights, Michigan.
A bunch of family, friends, and musicians were on hand to celebrate. Wendy kicked off the evening by singing a couple tunes. Many former Blue Velvet members then joined in and jammed for the evening.
About 18 months ago we told you about an upcoming film called Paradise – A Town of Sinners & Saints, a musical comedy with bluegrass music adapted from a stage play by the same name. It features 19 new songs, played in a bluegrass style, by a band that is integrated into the cast of characters.
Now the film is in wide release via online streaming, and viewers can watch it at Amazon Prime, Tubi, or Xumo.
Paradise is filmed like a stage show, retaining the campy and hilarious group of citizens of the town of Paradise, and all the excitement that occurs when an idea is put forward for how to save the town. The characters are broad and the music is great fun, sure to appeal to lovers of bluegrass and/or musical comedy.
The stage play and the film adaptation were written by Tom Sage and Bill Robertson, former writers at The National Lampoon, and Cliff Wagner, a bluegrass performer best known as the leader of California grassers The Old No 7. Justin Ward is the director. Together they have created something unique in today’s film market, with a throwback vibe to classics like The Music Man.
It’s the prototypical story of good and evil, played out through the lens of a reality television program, showing how it affects the local townsfolk.
Here’s the trailer…
Paradise is free to watch, commercial free, for Amazon Prime members, and with ads on Tubi or Sumo.
A new film, The Watchers, directed by Ishana Night Shyamalan and set to release in June, will include music from Nashville’s bluegrass genre-benders, The Steeldrivers.
Their contribution is a collaboration the ‘Drivers recorded with Irish band Dervish in 2019 for their album, The Great Irish Songbook, which offered Dervish versions of some of the most popular songs from Ireland’s long history of folk music. It’s a popular number called There’s Whiskey In The Jar which features all the members of both groups in the studio.
Despite it being an Irish song, the combined bands give it a bluegrass treatment, sung by Kelvin Damrell of The Steeldrivers. It’s not only great fun to hear the whistles, flutes, accordion, bodhrán, and Irish fiddles along with the banjo, mandolin, and bluegrass fiddle, it’s very effective musically as well. Once they all run through the story of a brigand who robs a rich man and ends up in jail after being turned in by his wife, the arrangement is given over to a rousing Celtic instrumental.
Here’s a listen to the track.
The Watchers stars Dakota Fanning, and serves as the directorial debut for Shyamalan, daughter of acclaimed filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan, who produced the film. Unsurprisingly, given the family oeuvre, it’s a horror story written by A.M. Shine, about a young artist who gets lost in a wild forest in Ireland, and then trapped with three others who are visited each night by strange creatures who scrutinize them, i.e., The Watchers.
Have a look at the trailer.
There’s Whiskey In The Jar comes in during a scene when Fanning’s character, Mina, visits a bar in disguise and chats with the locals.
The Watchers will be in theatrical release on June 7 from Warner Bros Pictures. Steeldrivers fans will certainly want to see it.
It’s something of a teen love story, with the main character being a talented country singer right out of high school, who moves to Nashville to pursue his dreams. But will he remain true to his home town sweetheart, or fall under the sway of the beautiful young singer who takes him under her wing? You’ll have to watch to find out!
Loose Strings is an all-female band with members who, somewhat ironically, have known each other since high school, at which time the band was formed. Though largely inactive at this point due to work and family commitments, the group was chosen to both provide music in the film, and even appear in a scene, playing in the bed of a pickup truck at the school football field.
Ashley Nale Hultman is on banjo, with her sister, Lindsey Nale, on mandolin, Channing Combs on guitar, Grace Davis on bass, and Mary-Claire Hooper Cason on fiddle.
They were also asked to sing some harmony vocals for the soundtrack behind Lee Greenwood and T Graham Brown, both of whom appear as characters in the film.
The trailer offers a hint of the storyline.
A Nashville Wish is available now on Amazon Prime as a $3.99 rental. Fans and friends of Loose Strings will certainly want to watch.
A documentary film on the life of bluegrass bandleader and entrepreneur Lorraine Jordan, Living Like I’m Dying, was given the Audience Choice award at the recent Fuquay Film Festival in North Carolina.
The documentary, which premiered at the festival, was produced by Mickey Stroud, and directed by Stroud and Todd Tinkham. Running to 54 minutes, it looks at Jordan’s life in full, not only her music career. They chose the title as it is the name of a song Lorraine wrote with Donna Ulisse about her mmotherom, inspired by something her mom about her frantic pace. “Lorraine, you live your life like you’re dying.”
Starting with her troubled childhood, which included witnessing crosses burning on their front lawn (her father was involved in integrating local schools), Living Like I’m Dying next goes on to examine Lorraine’s success in business. Before she was well known in bluegrass, she had established a local driving school in Garner, NC, and has recently opened Lorraine’s Coffee House, which also offers live music both in person and online.
Of course, her work in bluegrass takes up a big part of the film, as the leader of Lorraine Jordan & Carolina Road who have recorded for many years for Pinecastle Records, plus her efforts to bring the Daughters of Bluegrass and Country Grass projects to fruition. Not to mention her annual Bluegrass Christmas in the Smokies festival going on this weekend in Gatlinburg, TN.
The trailer offers a nice glimpse at what’s in store in the full documentary.
Boosted by the success at the film festival, plans are now underway to bring the documentary to the bluegrass world. Some of the considerations are to present Living Like I’m Dying in auditorium showings to include Carolina Road concerts as fundraising events for charities, potential airing on cable and public TV, or direct online streaming.
Congratulations to Stroud and Tinkham, and to Lorraine Jordan, for the film festival award!
Fans of the Lady of Tradition should keep their eyes peeled for future announcements on how to see Living Like I’m Dying next year.
The producers of the iconic film, Bluegrass Country Soul, filmed in 1971 at Carlton Haney’s Camp Springs Festival, have teamed with Bluegrass Music TV and Man-Do-Lin Productions to bring the feature length movie, and its classic performances, to bluegrass lovers everywhere.
Bluegrass Country Soul premiered in 1972 at the Virginia Theatre in Alexandria, VA on July 7, and was very well reviewed. While building a cult following in theaters, it largely disappeared until producer/director Albert Ihde was able to raise the necessary funds to have the footage converted to a digital format from a remaining film master, and then remastered for digital use. This led to the creation of a Golden Anniversary Edition in 2022, which not only included the remastered film on DVD/Blu-Ray, but also a book about the project and a CD of audio from performances at Camp Spring 1971 that had not appeared in the film.
Interest in this movie started to grow again after it was broadcast one year during World of Bluegrass on the hotel TV channel in the old Galt House in Louisville. It ran essentially uninterrupted, over and over again, and people staying at the main hotel were fascinated with the archival footage contained therein.
On the BCS web site, Ihde recounts some of the reasons this movie touched so many bluegrass lovers.
“Many of the most notable pioneers of the music shared the stage with upcoming young artists who were leading the way to what would soon be called ‘New Grass:’
• Tony Rice first appeared with J.D. Crowe’s band, which soon became the New South • The week of the festival, Doyle Lawson became the Country Gentlemen’s mandolinist, and would soon start his own group, Quicksilver • Sam Bush started the New Grass Revival the day after the festival closed • Ricky Skaggs and Keith Whitley would leave Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys to become major stars on their own • The Bluegrass 45 would blaze the trail that spotlighted an international bluegrass community
Looking back with the advantage of a half-century’s perspective, we can watch Bluegrass Country Soul to measure where bluegrass was, and where it is today.”
Through this new collaboration with Sammy Passamano of Bluegrass Music TV and Ronnie Reno of Man-Do-Lin Productions, Bluegrass Country Soul will be available to view on Country Road TV, with 1.7 million viewers via YouTube, Facebook, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Smartphone, and Roku.
Individual audio singles of some of the great music recorded from the stage at Camp Springs in 1971 are also being offered through popular download and streaming services. The first two are Ralph Stanley & The Clinch Mountain Boys doing Man of Constant Sorrow, and J.D. Crowe & The Kentucky Mountain Boys with Train 45.
Here’s video of Dr. Ralph in ’71 at Camp Springs.
https://youtu.be/QKMediiEkLY
And Crowe, with Tony and Larry Rice, on Train 45.
https://youtu.be/dl0Z5LY7LUQ
Both singles are available now from the usual places online. More will be coming soon.
MerleFest has some big news to announce as they celebrate their 35th year in 2023, and the 100th anniversary of the birth of Doc Watson, who launched the festival in 1988 in memory of his son, Eddy Merle Watson, who had died in a tragic farm accident.
On Saturday, April 29, at 4:30 p.m., MerleFest will offer a debut screening of a new documentary film about the festival, titled My Name Is Merle. Directed by Robert Kinlaw, the film chronicles the three and a half decade history of the festival, and all the good it has done for the rural North Carolina communities around Wilkesboro, where the event is sited.
Kinlaw says that he still feels the festival’s foundational push all this time after its founding.
“What’s amazing is that after 35 years of growth, the festival is still a volunteer-driven fundraiser. The proceeds provide education for local people, directly contributing to economic mobility in the area. I hope you enjoy this exploration into the fascinating traditions of North Carolina mountain music, and the festival that continues them today!”
Following the afternoon screening, My Name Is Merle, produced by Education NC, will be released for free viewing online at either the EducationNC web site or the MerleFest YouTube channel.
Here’s a brief teaser…
Also newly announced are the bands invited to the 2023 MerleFest Band Competition:
Ashes & Arrows (Asheville, NC)
Casey Noel (Greensboro, NC)
Crystal Fountains (Charlotte, NC)
Colin Cutler (Greensboro, NC)
The Greenliners (Asheville, NC)
The Letter Show (Charleston, SC)
Red Eye Gemini (Charlotte, NC)
Reedy River String Band (Greenville, SC)
And the organization is pleased to share that the official MerleFest archives dating back to 1988, which have been donated to the Appalachian State University Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center, are now available for public viewing. While only selected items are now viewable, the complete archives are being prepared for the online archive.
