Music Films

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Tough, Pretty, or Smart

Tough, Pretty, or Smart

Tough, Pretty, or Smart

The portrayal of rural Indiana group, The Patoka Valley Boys, a six-person string band comprising one of America's finest old-time and bluegrass musical groups.

Almeda Riddle

This video tells how and where Arkansas ballad singer Almeda Riddle began her 10 year stint of singing old ballads all over the country. In an informal manner, folk musician Starr…

Catching the Music

Catching the Music

Catching the Music

An hour-long WETA-TV documentary on musician Stephen Wade. Catching the Music describes the passing of the banjo from one player to the next. The film includes footage of Kirk…

Popovich Brothers of South Chicago

Popovich Brothers of South Chicago

Popovich Brothers of South Chicago

Filmmaker Jill Godmilow (with folklorists Ethel Raim and Marty Koenig) made this film in 1977 when there was a community of 1100 Serbian-Americans families in South Chicago. They…

Remembering The High Lonesome

Remembering The High Lonesome

Remembering The High Lonesome

Profiles filmmaker, photographer, artist, and musician John Cohen. The film examines the birth of a new artistic ethic and counterculture through John Cohen's involvement with the…

Dry Wood

A glimpse into the life, food, and Mardi Gras celebrations of black Creoles in French Louisiana, featuring the stories and music of "Bois Sec" Ardoin and Canray Fontenot. Dry Wood…

Texas Style

"Texas Style" is an intimate look at rural Texas culture and the traditional fiddle music played on its back roads. With spirited rhythms and guitar accompaniment, Texas fiddling…

Gravel Springs

Othar Turner, a fife-maker and musician, owns his farm in the Gravel Springs community in northwest Mississippi. The rhythmical music he and his friends play is called "fife and…

Jumpin‘ Night in the Garden of Eden

Jumpin‘ Night in the Garden of Eden

1987 | 1h 15mins

Jumpin‘ Night in the Garden of Eden

1987 | 1h 15mins

A Jumpin' Night in the Garden of Eden was the first film to document the klezmer revival, tracing the efforts of two founding groups, Kapelye and Boston's Klezmer Conservatory…

Give My Poor Heart Ease

Give My Poor Heart Ease

Give My Poor Heart Ease

A 1975 account of the blues experience through the recollections and performances of B.B. King, James "Son" Thomas, Shelby "Poppa Jazz" Brown, James "Blood" Shelby, Cleveland…

New England Fiddles

New England Fiddles

New England Fiddles

This 1984 film by John Bishop and Nicholas Hawes presents seven of the finest traditional musicians as they play in their homes and at dances and contests, passing their styles to…

Gandy Dancers

Musical traditions and recollections of eight retired African-American railroad track laborers whose occupational folk songs were once heard on railroads that crisscross the South.

Jazz Parades

Alan Lomax's overview of the Jazz scene in New Orleans with interviews and performances by Majestic Band, the Preservation Hall Band (Willie Humphrey, James "Sing" Miller, Emanuel…

Dreams and Songs of the Noble Old

Dreams and Songs of the Noble Old

Dreams and Songs of the Noble Old

Alan Lomax\'s examination of the talents and wisdom of elderly musicians, singers, and story-tellers, who perform not for fame or fortune but to preserve and share their culture.

Every Island has its Own Songs

Every Island has its Own Songs

Every Island has its Own Songs

Nikitas Tsimouris (1924 - 2001) brought the complex music of the tsabouna, a type of Greek bagpipe, to Tarpon Springs. In 1991, Tsimouris became the first Floridian to receive a…

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