Word has it that a direct flight will soon be running
between Nashville and Owensboro, KY, the site of the Bluegrass Music Hall of
Fame and Museum, open just over a year now with a scenic view of the Ohio
River. Saturday evening, November 2, the Hall played host to a number of
bluegrass icons and friends for the screening of the Golden Anniversary Legacy Edition of Bluegrass Country Soul.
Filmed at Carlton Haney’s Annual Labor Day Weekend Bluegrass Music Festival in Camp Springs, NC, in 1971, and considered the first bluegrass movie, the last remaining 35mm print has been restored as part of a project under the direction of Albert Ihde, one of original parties behind the film. The remastered film will be offered as part of a box set along with special video features, CD of music from the festival, a coffee table book of photographs from the festival, and more.
Hall of Fame Executive Director Chris Joslin accepted a boxed set of the project on behalf of the museum. Ihde, crediting his partners in The Washington Film Group, Robert Leonard and Robert Hennniger, asked members of the audience to encourage others interested in bluegrass to help fund the project by pre-ordering the box set (BluegrassCountrySoul.com) and spreading the word of the project.
On Saturday, may of the festival’s surviving musicians were present for the screening, including Hall of Fame members Bobby Osborne, Ronnie Reno, and 2019 inductee Bill Emerson. Also present were Alan Munde, who played with Jimmy Martin’s band, Rick Riman and Bob “Quail” White, who played with New Deal String Band at the festival.
The festival lineup in 1971 featured performances by Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs, Jimmy Martin, J.D. Crowe, and Del McCoury and their bands. Bluegrass Alliance, featuring Tony Rice and Sam Bush, sang “One Tin Soldier,” from the movie The Legend of Billy Jack, released in 1971. Not only was a young Ricky Skaggs playing on stage, but the film showed a glimpse of a young Missy Raines scurrying through the rain in a long purple dress and orange umbrella. Highlights including a performance by the Japanese band Bluegrass 45 in which all of the band members, including the bass, played their instruments behind their backs, as well as all-fiddle and all-banjo performances that brought in all the major players at the festival.
The film combined onstage performance, jamming in the field, and priceless shots of audience members from all walks of life. As the narrator noted, the short hairs were playing with the long hairs, and everybody was getting along. For regular festival-goers, bluegrass is remarkable in that on any given weekend, the current generations of musicians will still be filling the stages before a diverse crowd of bluegrass fans, keeping the timeless traditions alive.
www.bluegrasshall.org