Music Films

Eastern Kentucky's Morgan Sexton cut his first banjo out of the bottom of a lard bucket, and some seventy years later won the National Endowment for the Arts' National Heritage…

Alan Lomax travels through the Southern Appalachians investigating the songs, dances, and religious rituals of the descendents of the Scotch-Irish frontiers people who have made…

In the 1970s, the Highwoods Stringband’s unique blend of musical brilliance, exuberance, sparkling wit, and eclectic repertoire introduced tens of thousands of delighted listeners…

A religious drama staged by members of the Second Baptist Church in Bloomington, Indiana. Made by the late folklorist William Wiggins. The original negative for this 16mm film is…

A film portrait of blues artist Paul Geremia. Made by Geoff Adams in 1983 as a student film project. The documentary features a duo performance with Chicago bluesman Blind John…

In 1833 Mrs. Frances Silver was hanged in Morganton, North Carolina, for the ax murder of her husband Charles. Tom Davenport's film explores the case through the singing and…

A film document of three elderly residents of Orange County, Indiana. Featured in the film are musician Lotus Dickey, clock builder and tinkerer Elmer Boyd, and self-taught artist…

THE SHAKERS traces the growth, decline, and continuing survival of this remarkable religious sect through the memories and songs of Shaker sisters in New Hampshire and Maine.

Pete and Toshi Seeger, their son Daniel, and folklorist Bruce Jackson visited a Texas prison in Huntsville in March of 1966 and produced this rare document of of work songs by…

The story of the Woottens of Sand Mountain, Alabama, one of the key singing families who have helped Sacred Harp music survive and flourish for more than 150 years. The video…

In the late 1970s Alan Lomax traveled to Mississippi with filmmaker John Bishop and folklorist Worth Long and made this film about the African American music he found there.

Accordions Rising offers entertaining, conversation-style interviews, anecdotal commentary, and both formal and informal music performances by celebrated accordionists, composers,…

This video examines the tradition of unaccompanied ballad singing in Madison County, North Carolina and how both documentary work and the power of family and community have…

The legendary Hackberry Ramblers served up a spicy blend of Cajun music mixed with western swing, classic country, blues and rockabilly, with a dash of Gulf Coast swamp pop.

Born in the coalfields of eastern Kentucky, Gunning suffered a life of bitter poverty which became the fuel for dozens of moving songs about working people, the mines, and the…