FILMS
Roscoe Holcomb: From Daisy Kentucky
2pm Saturday May 19th
A film by John Cohen.
Winner for “Best Documentary Short” at the 2010 Woodstock Film Festival.
“John Cohen explores the life, philosophy and music of Eastern Kentucky banjo player, coal miner and construction worker Roscoe Holcomb. Holcomb has been injured on the job and forced into early retirement. He discusses his life and music and plays a number of traditional songs from his region. Using intimate footage of Holcomb at home as well as footage of his family, community and region, Cohen presents a remarkable and visually beautiful portrait of Roscoe Holcomb, a man who despite economic hardship and changing times has maintained a powerful and authentic personal music and philosophy.”
John used old footage from the early 60′s that he couldn’t use for “The High Lonesome Sound” because the technology didn’t exist at that time to put the film footage and audio into sync. But now that is possible and was accomplished in expert fashion. For this new film John also used really awesome color footage that he took of Holcomb and his family in the 1970’s. It’s a beautiful film and a wonderful tribute to Roscoe Holcomb.
Talking Feet
3pm Saturday May 19th
About American solo flat foot and Buck Dancing – a film by Mike Seeger.
The Land Where the Blues Began
3pm Sunday May 20th
A film in the American Patchwork series hosted Alan Lomax.
READINGS
Scott Alarik Reads From Revival: A Folk Music Novel and Performs Songs From the Book
Saturday, May 19 – 12pm
There has never been a novel like this, a love story set in the subterranean world of modern folk music. Talented, charismatic songwriter Nathan Warren lost his chance at stardom years ago, and now sees his life as waste and ruin. Kit Palmer is young, beautiful, and explosively gifted, but her dreams are also doomed unless she can keep from falling apart on stage. They travel the Boston folk scene as lovers and artists, through basement clubs and funky jam sessions, rowdy open mikes and sprawling festivals, seeking stardom for one and redemption for the other.
Scott Alarik covered folk music in the Boston Globe for over 20 years. Pete Seeger calls him “one of the best writers in America” and the Library Journal called his first book, Deep Community: Adventures in the Modern Folk Underground, “an essential primer of the continuing folk revival.” Alarik is also a singer-songwriter who toured the national folk circuit and performed regularly on A Prairie Home Companion.
Click here for more information about Scott Alarik, the novel, and to listen to the playlist of traditional folk songs highlighted in Revival.
Ray Allen Reads From Gone to the Country: The New Lost City Ramblers and the Folk Music Revival
Saturday, May 19 – 12pm
Gone to the Country chronicles the life and music of the New Lost City Ramblers, a trio of city-bred musicians who helped pioneer the resurgence of southern roots music during the folk revival of the late 1950s and 1960s. Formed in 1958 by Mike Seeger, John Cohen, and Tom Paley, the Ramblers introduced the regional styles of southern ballads, blues, string bands, and bluegrass to northerners yearning for a sound and an experience not found in mainstream music.
Ray Allen interweaves biography, history, and music criticism to follow the band from its New York roots to its involvement with the commercial folk music boom. He explores how the Ramblers ascribed notions of cultural authenticity to certain musical practices and performers and how the trio served as a link between southern folk music and northern urban audiences who had little previous exposure to rural roots styles. Highlighting the role of tradition in the social upheaval of mid-century America, Gone to the Country draws on extensive interviews and personal correspondence with band members and digs deep into the Ramblers’ rich trove of recordings. Library Journal notes, “Allen has chosen the perfect example through which to document this watershed in American cultural and musical history.” For more information about the book, click here to visit the University of Illinois Press website.
Ray Allen is professor of music at Brooklyn College and the CUNY Graduate Center. In addition, he directs the American Studies Program and serves as a senior associate at the Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music at Brooklyn College. He teaches courses on American folk, popular, and concert music, and American cultural studies. Allen is also the author of Singing in the Spirit: African-American Sacred Quartets in New York City and has co-edited the volumes Ruth Crawford Seeger’s Worlds: Innovation and Tradition in Twentieth Century American Music and Island Sounds in the Global City: Caribbean Popular Music and Identity in New York.
The readings will be followed by a Q & A session with the audience and a book signing.
Click here for tickets and to see the complete Brooklyn Folk Festival schedule of performances and events.