HIGH LONESOME: THE STORY OF BLUEGRASS MUSIC

If you're a bluegrass fan, prepare to be enthralled. If you've never given any thought to bluegrass before, be prepared to be enthralled anyway by this, the first feature-length history of that irrestible “folk music on overdrive” that fuses ancient Gaelic mountain melodies, ragtime, gospel, blues, and minstrel tunes. Living legend Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass, leads an illustrious procession of first-ranked fiddlers, pickers, strummers, and singers in performance and comment on the growth of bluegrass, combined with rare kinescopes and never-before-seen archival footage. Their sincere and natural joy in their music shines on screen, as bright as the Blue Moon of Kentucky itself. Among the 100 seperate peices heard: “Mule Skinner Blues”, “Love Potion #9”, and “Norwegian Wood”. Plus the unforgettable sight of Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs in a Doors-like psychedelic groove for hippie fans of the 1960s. -Charles Cassady