Last week it was announced here in Bluegrass Today that there was a Hallmark-esque Christmas movie (actually from Imagicomm Entertainment) with a bluegrass theme called—and I know this may surprise you—A Bluegrass Christmas. As soon as the article appeared I had friends and readers tell me through private messages or through social media posts that they thought I had either written it myself, or that the folks at Imagicomm had stolen the plot from one of these December columns from years past.
I’m here today to assure you that I had nothing to do with it, and I wouldn’t flatter myself to think that anyone would bother to steal my bluegrass Hallmarkish Christmas movie plots. If someone had plagiarized one of my plots, someone could easily accuse me of doing the same first, because isn’t there really only one plot, anyway?
Sure there are minor variations here and there: swap out an event planner for a bakery owner, change a Christmas tree farm for a quaint B&B, but the core narrative is pretty much the same: the bakery gets saved, cookies are baked, the guy and the girl get together, and a twinkly-eyed grandpa is very happy about it.
According to last week’s Bluegrass Today article, A Bluegrass Christmas goes something like this:
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?
The most unrealistic part of this is the idea of there being an actual “retired bluegrass star,” since bluegrass stars don’t actually retire; they only announce their retirement, then hit the road about six weeks later when some good bookings come in.
This is certainly not the time to quibble about realism, though. Below are some of my Hallmark-style Christmas movie plots with a bluegrass angle from a couple of years past. You can compare them with A Bluegrass Christmas and be the judge yourself:
The Christmas Fiddle Project
A fiddle-playing architect (played by Jason Carter) is engaged to a hard-nosed investment banker he has very little in common with (played by Alicia Witt), including the fact that she hates Christmas and he loves it. He gets called away to play fiddle for a Christmas festival in a small fictional town in Colorado where everyone wears thick sweaters. The woman who is producing the show (played by Danica McKellar) works for the town’s extremely jolly mayor (played by Greg Cahill), and she loves everything about Christmas and hits it off with the fiddling architect. Sparks fly when she accidentally kicks over a mic stand on the stage before sound check (she’s lovably clumsy) and they both kneel down to pick it up. Meanwhile his fiancee is furious that he took that “stupid Christmas gig” at all because she had planned a meeting with a consultant he was expected to be present for to discuss their high dollar wedding in Dubai. He stops answering her texts, especially because he’s busy with a pre-festival cookie-baking session with the mayor helping out (we are starting to suspect the mayor may also be Santa Claus). The producer loves the architect’s fiddle playing and he confesses that his fiancee always hated it because she considered it a distraction from his lucrative architecture work. The mayor turns out to be an excellent banjo player and the two play a rousing version of the Stanley Brothers’ Christmas is Near while the cookies bake. The festival producer, during a post-cookie wintry walk, convinces the architect to stay in their quaint town forever and just a make a living playing the fiddle and “doing Christmas things.” They kiss, he agrees, and it’s the best Christmas ever. The next year he also designs the town’s new city hall, which will be made of logs.
An Industrial Strength Christmas
A bluegrass singer (played by Rhonda Vincent) is struggling to make a living in Dayton, Ohio in 1958. She’s booked five nights a week at Jake’s Tavern. It’s late December, and a dashing young vending machine service man (played by Andrew Walker) chats her up one night during sound check. They discuss their shared country upbringing, their struggles with big city life, and their mutual love of Christmas. His wife back home was recently killed in a tragic snake-bite incident, and he has felt unready to open his heart again (until now). The meeting was secretly arranged by the helpful bartender (played by Joe Mullins) who we suspect may actually be an angel. Our vending man finishes installing the new pinball machine and has finished his route for the night. He hangs around to listen to the singer he’s bonded with, and during the first set is called up to sit in (he’s also a singer, but has never pursued it professionally), and they join together for a moving rendition of I’ll Be Home For Christmas. Red Allen appears to wink from a framed black and white photo behind the bar.
Christmas at Sunny Ridge
An ambitious stockbroker (played by Ronnie McCoury) has lost the true spirit of Christmas, too caught up in his successful but all-consuming career. On Christmas Eve he’s visited by an angel (played by Claire Lynch) in the elevator of his luxurious high-rise building. She reminds him that he once loved everything about Christmas and even played the mandolin quite well. Her parting words were, “Go to Sunny Ridge. You’ll recapture your spirit there.” Shaken by the experience he drives his German sports car to Sunny Ridge, in an unnamed state or province, where by chance he meets a beautiful event planner (played by Lacey Chabert) when checking into his quaint B&B. She’s not normally his type (she’s wearing jeans and a scarf she knit herself), but he’s intrigued when she invites him to the local Christmas Apple Cider Festival. She had been married to their locally famous TV weather man but they had parted ways over his dislike of snow and Christmas. The two bond over cider and gingerbread cookies and she reveals that she plays some rhythm guitar and knows all the words to Christmas Time’s a-Coming, her favorite song. She asks the stockbroker if he plays the vibes, so they could possibly play the song together, and he says no, but says that he happened to bring his mandolin along. Love and the Christmas spirit blossom as they jam and drink more cider (the hard variety now) in the reception area of the B&B, with the wry but kindly innkeeper (played by Larry Sparks) looking on and winking at both of them.
