Los Angeles Film Festival 2012

Ballads, Blues, and Bluegrass

(USA, 1961, 37 mins)

World Premiere

Producers: Alan Lomax, George Pickow, Jean Ritchie
Cinematographer: George Pickow
Editor: Anna Lomax Wood
Cast: Clarence Ashley, Roscoe Holcomb, Doc Watson, Jean Ritchie, Jack Elliott, Peter LaFarge, the New Lost City Ramblers, Memphis Slim, Willie Dixon

Shot during a late night afterparty in famed ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax's Greenwich Village apartment in 1961 but unseen until now, this film is a treasure trove of performances by some of the most influential blues, bluegrass, country and folk artists of the day, including Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Roscoe Holcomb (the inspiration for the term "high, lonesome sound"). More a "fly on the wall" piece than a concert film, this intimate get-together also features some incisive and entertaining interviews as Lomax quizzes the players about their music in the midst of a party that would have been a hoot(anany) to attend.

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