Roots music fans will want to check out the first-ever release of Ballads, Blues, and Bluegrass. The film––directed by the legendary Alan Lomax––is a remarkable portrait of a brief, fabled era that was widely documented in recordings but all too under represented in moving image. In the early 1960s, when Greenwich Village was bursting with a folk-music revival, Lomax invited a who’s who of the folk revival back to his West Third Street apartment for an impromptu song-swap. Filming was arranged on the fly with some of the biggest names of the era, old-timers and revivalists alike, including Doc Watson, Gaither Carlton, Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon, Jean Ritchie, Ernie Marrs, Peter LaFarge, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, the Greenbriar Boys and the New Lost City Ramblers. The footage of Doc Watson is his first known film appearance. See that special performance below.
Ballads, Blues, and Bluegrass Film Preview
