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 (Click here for Newsletter 302 in PDF format) |
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ROU-0526-DVD EARL SCRUGGS, DOC WATSON & RICKY SKAGGS 'The Three Pickers' DVD Producer Jim Brown has taken a good idea and executed it beautifully on this high-impact DVD, which has already appeared as a program on PBS Television, and is also available as a compact disc (read on). Recorded at a sold-out concert in R. J. Reynolds auditorium in Winston-Salem in November 2002, the show is presented as a somewhat informal picking session, in which the three featured artists—Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson & Ricky Skaggs—trade reminiscences and join in making some fine music. Alison Krauss joins them with some very tasteful fiddling in the latter part of the show, as do the members of Skaggs’ Kentucky Thunder Band, Rob Ickes, Glen Duncan and Richard Watson among others. In the hour long show the pickers tackle 17 pieces, mostly old standards like FEAST HERE TONIGHT, SOLDIER’S JOY, WHO WILL SING FOR ME, FOGGY MT. TOP, KATY HILL, and BANKS OF THE OHIO, and there are 22 additional minutes of back-stage interviews with the 3 key artists. It is a treat to see & hear these three giants of the music in one show so nicely presented. A real winner here. (more...) $20.00 Buy Now
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VEST-13026-DVD VARIOUS ARTISTS 'Legends of Old-Time Music' DVD A wonderful tape that enables us to see some of the heroes of old-time music in rare performances that few of us ever realized were preserved on film. Artists include Tommy Jarrell, Roscoe Holcomb, Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley, etc. Twenty-nine separate selections featured. Comes with an excellent booklet by Mark Humphrey. (color – 58 minutes) (more...) $20.00 Buy Now
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BSF-001-DVD VARIOUS 'Bluegrass Journey: A Documentary' DVD: 86 Minutes Color. Producers Ruth Oxenberg and Rob Schumer have put a lot of work and care into this 86-minute color documentary that captures a lot of the excitement & flavor of Bluegrass music and the festival scene. Though we have some reservations (discussed below), we can say that any Bluegrass fan will enjoy at least parts of this “film”, and it will have a strong appeal to many younger fans and newcomers to the music. The camera work, video & sound quality are top-notch. The interview sections with Del McCoury, Tim O’Brien, Jerry Douglas and Pete Wernick are relaxed, thoughtful and well edited. And when it comes to the music, there are superb segments that feature (among others) McCoury, Rhonda Vincent, Jerry Douglas, Tony Rice, Bob Paisley, and a fine performance by Lonesome River Band at the IBMA Awards show. What reservations do we have? Well, although the DVD’s title implies a wider scope, the project is really about the Grey Fox Festival in upstate New York, with a segment about the IBMA Convention tacked on. The Grey Fox Festival is known as one of the most popular and best run outdoor venues for Bluegrass, but it is not exactly typical of the many such festivals from coast to coast. And the projects inclusion of a Pagan Wedding during the festival many grab your attention, but is not really representative of your average Bluegrass event, and may well turn off some viewers. It would have been neat to get a glimpse of one or two of the better run Southern or Western festivals to obtain a fuller, more realistic picture, but obviously money issues could well prohibit such a luxury. All in all, this is a fine production that includes some excellent musical moments. (more...) $22.50 Buy Now
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AFV-204-DVD NEW LOST CITY RAMBLERS 'Always Been A Rambler' Presented by the Arhoolie Foundation, this is a beautifully produced DVD that is successful both as a documentary of a very important and influential group and as a storehouse of good music (there are around 50 full or partial songs & tunes, some in black & white and others in full color). It is certainly a worthy tribute to a band that took rural American music (what Arhoolie’s Chris Strachwitz calls “the real stuff”) to a new generation –not for their own aggrandizement, but because of a wish to share some amazing music that otherwise might have been lost. In addition to playing numerous concerts all over the world in a career that spanned 50 years, the group discovered and introduced such old-time giants as Dock Boggs, Tom Ashley, Roscoe Holcombe and Elizabeth Cotton to an ever growing and appreciative young audience. This well-edited film includes interviews with Ramblers’ Mike Seeger, John Cohen, Tom Paley and Tracy Schwarz, as well as other contemporary and later artists; it makes use of some rare film footage from the band’s earliest days and more recent shows, but it also provides musical performances by a lot of other folks from Doc Watson and Tom Ashley to Ricky Skaggs. Especially nice is a song by Sara & Maybelle Carter, and some precious color footage of Cajun artists Dewey & Rodney Balfa. Toward the end of the DVD (which runs over 80 minutes) there are snippets of performances by several of today’s young “old-time” groups including Rayna Gellert, The Carolina Chocolate Drops and the Stairwell Sisters (though it’s kind of amusing and incongruous to see a group of five young ladies singing about “climbing ole Sugar Hill”!). The quality of both video and sound is excellent on this fine film by Yasha Aginsky. (more...) $20.00 Buy Now
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MVDV-4577-DVD BILL MONROE 'Father Of Bluegrass' This is a very nicely done 90-minute documentary that features music as well as interviews with numerous artists and others who were close to this musical giant. There are plenty of black & white still shots from early in his career, plus a good amount of film footage (both black & white and color) of the Bluegrass Boys in action (I still can’t get over the Gannaway segment from around 1955 where Monroe tears into ROANOKE with Bobby Hicks and another fiddler, even though I’ve seen it many times: it reminds us just how powerful a musician Monroe was in his prime!). There is interview material done on Monroe’s farm, on his tour bus and backstage, including a campfire vignette with Ricky Skaggs. There is footage of Monroe in action with Lester Flatt, Del McCoury, Kenny Baker, Dolly Parton, Bill Keith, Emmylou Harris and others, as well as well selected commentary by McCoury, Baker, Marty Stuart, Mac Wiseman, John Hartford, Sonny Osborne, Chubby Wise, Roy Acuff and even Jerry Garcia. A warm, well produced souvenir, and an item that helps document the amazing musician who changed the course of many of our lives. (more...) $18.00 Buy Now
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MP-0208-DVD MAC WISEMAN "Bluegrass 1971" Here’s some more great vintage film footage rescued for posterity: this presents a show done at the Renfro Valley Barn Dance in 1971. The color is beautiful, the images sharp and the sound good, and Mac is in wonderful form. He is backed beautifully by the Shenandoah Cutups, and this is a good chance to see and really appreciate the work of a lesser known but thoroughly professional band (John Palmer, Hershel Sizemore, Tater Tate and Billy Edwards doing some fine, crisp banjo work). A main, great extra here is some super triple fiddling by Tate, Chubby Wise and Joe Greene (a superb fiddler who is rarely seen or heard in recordings). (more...) $18.00 Buy Now
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SHAN-605-DVD STANLEY BROTHERS & DOC WATSON 'Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest' RAINBOW QUEST featuring the Stanley Brothers and Doc Watson. Back in the mid 1960’s folk singer Pete Seeger hosted a TV series over New York’s public television station, bringing in guests from the folk music world. The Shanachie label has arranged to re-issue (in DVD format) the few shows in this series that remain of interest to Bluegrass and old-time music fans. All in all, this issue is the most recommended, as it presents two of the most interesting of the hour-long shows. Doc Watson, who was relatively newly “discovered” at the time, is joined by Clint Howard and Fred Price in a warm & wonderful, relaxed hour of old-time music. Then we have some precious footage of the Stanley Brothers, who had stopped briefly in New York on their way to a series of concerts in West Germany. The late Cousin Emmy was also part of this show, doing 4 numbers. This is some of the only professional film footage of Carter Stanley, who died less than a year after these shows were filmed. Chick Stripling, George Shuffler, and fiddler Don Miller made up the rest of the Clinch Mt. Boys in this highly recommended DVD. (more...) $20.00 Buy Now
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