For this entry I am going to review and analyse the Concert DVD Down from the Mountain (Doob, Hegedus and Pennebaker 2001). This film centres on the musicians who performed on the predominantly bluegrass soundtrack to the Coen Brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Coen 2000), who congregated for a concert at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, famous in the bluegrass and country world as the home of the Grand Ol Opry. The concert and accompanying documentary, which interviews the performers and observes them rehearsing and preparing for the concert, features most notably Ralph Stanley, Gillian Welch, Allison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, The Fairfield Four, The Cox Family, The Peasoll Sisters, The Whites and John Hartford, who acts as master of ceremonies.
The interviews with the artists revolve predominantly around the genre of bluegrass, how they became bluegrass performers or fans and their first exposure to the genre. Ralph Stanley, one of the forefathers of the genre, shows his disapproval for the naming of his style of music as bluegrass, favouring to call it “mountain music” or “old time mountain style”, referring to the hills of Virginia where he was raised, as the source of the style. This is also supported by comments from a singer from the Fairfield Four, who insists that the only source for good, GOOD, music is the country churches of the south, interestingly linking bluegrass not only to gospel music, but to the religious ideologies of the performers and audience of southern United States of America. T Bone Burnett, the musical director of both O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Coen 2000) and Down From The Mountain (Doob, Hegedus and Pennebaker 2001), attempts to give musical direction to a guitar player by telling him to play it faster, “like a Rock and Roll song”, but the musician can only respond with confusion, leading T Bone to question “you can’t relate to Rock and Roll?” This, I think, is a crucial insight into the world of a real bluegrass fan. There is nothing else. They don’t listen to other music; their approach to it is much like an approach to religion, they’ve got their beliefs, no need to even look around for a potentially better or more rational belief.
The entire concert is performed without amplification, a determining factor of bluegrass music along with orchestration, which is also adhered to with banjos, fiddles, mandolins and guitars being a part of nearly every song. The concert is recorded in an obligingly minimalistic way, with the performers all singing into old-fashioned microphones. We are also introduced to a notable number of family bands, The Cox Family, The Whites and The Peasoll Sisters, showing the traditional, family-oriented content and style of the bluegrass subculture. The taste of this music and the playing of it is passed down through the generations, capable of doing so because of its ageless style and content, in observing a performance of bluegrass music, what would have been witnessed 40 years ago would be much the same as a modern performance. Gillian Welch even describes the subject matter of most bluegrass lyrics to be seemingly everyday issues, but often leaning towards the heavier, darker, more depressing issues of everyday life such as death and loneliness.
This concert provides a fantastic insight into the views of the biggest fans of bluegrass there are, the performers themselves. From their “Tenessee Tuxedos” (white shirt with blue overalls) to their orchestration and performance, the bluegrass performers all intermingle with each other backstage, discussing their love for each other’s performance and the bluegrass subculture in general. It is a once in a lifetime event in the bluegrass world to have all of the superstars of the genre come together on one stage, providing an amazing performance, which is further enhanced by the documentary accompanying it.
Bibliography:
Down From The Mountain. Dir. Nick Doob, Chris Hegedus and D.A. Pennebaker. Mike Zoss Productions, 2000.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? Dir. Joel Coen. Touchstone Picture, 2000.
