Less than 7 years after I made this documentary, I got to make a 90 minute documentary on the great banjo picker Earl Scruggs. Here is that complete film available for the first time. If you love bluegrass/mountain/country, you will like this - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-OlneqC0mVsk.html
Have you ever seenclogging that is the type of dancing that was at first look was way long about a fiddle and banjo we used to dance around the house anyplace that give us a little space😊😊😊😊😊
I am an Australian and I just love the Applachian music, the people are solid gold, and it is now 2021 and I'm waiting to go home to be with Jesus, and I'm just so excited about meeting all these Born Again Saints... , see yall soon Brother!!
Creepy. All you religious fanatics obsessed with death and waiting to die. Let's hope nobody puts you in control of any planes. At least some of us are committed to build a better world.
These mountains are my home and they will stay that why. This music is the sound of my ancestors and I can feel the soul played straight through this music, it chills my bones everytime.
Love the video, i'm English but it stirs something in my soul, a relative had a message from a woman in America on an ancestry site, it turns out i have relatives who settled the Appalachians.
I found my ancestors traced back to early to mid 1800’s! They’re originally from Ireland! They all moved here and lived all over the Appalachian Mountains! From Alabama and Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia, etc…
History says many that settled in Applachia were Scots & Ulster Irish (not the famine group that came later and settled in city). Some New York Dutch from Catskills thrown in.
@@hermanmunster714 That's not what the 1790 -1810 census say's, the majority of households were English, followed by Scottish, some households stating English and Scottish, 10 Welsh households some stating English and Welsh, 8 German Households, 1 French, no Irish, Scots Irish, refers to the the English and Scottish planters who went via Northern Ireland.
The Bascom episode was the reason I first watched David's Channel, I haven't missed one since. This is a Masterpiece that never was and can never be duplicated. Thank you David
I'm reminded to thank my parents for taking me through West Virginia, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina when I was a boy. That's America and it's awesome.
I wish people were that cool now. These people were cool before there was even a word for it. You are very lucky to have had the chance to experience this firsthand.
Don’t forget that there’s plenty of interesting people out there today, and even more stories worth preserving than ever. Everything current and uninteresting eventually becomes old and reverent with time!
@@UnwelcomeGuestVideos I've had the chance in the last few years to hitchhike the west coast and then as far east as Oklahoma so i can agree with you there. As of now a lot of the old greats are falling off and the young greats are being predated by gangs and brainwashed people trying to drug them with fentanyl and flokka/meth. If people realized those drugs and mind control comes from China maybe we could all agree to nuke them before it's too late and no one's left. On the streets the women that are left are haggard and schizophrenic and that includes the young ones and the men are the dominator ego brain gang member methhead types or gay transvestite methhead type. It's getting worse too and lots of human trafficking. This stuff is real i can't even believe im seeing it. Like no normal people anywhere and entire towns and cities with no one there. Seemingly. I know theres a mass exodus out of California. The illegals from somalia, haiti and the gangs from south America M13 are moving in and the violence and robberies are going up. Thank god i have family and a home in the forest now. I pray things get better for the world.
That precision clogging scene at Bascom' house is classic, and it comes up as a short so often. David did such a good job, lingering on close-ups to connect things personally, while pulling in the whole group too. I'd bet that lots of those kids are still around, and wouldn't it be great if David (or somebody) got them together to talk about what they were doing and feeling back then. I'd also bet that they've lived interesting lives.
Through mainstream culture, mountain folks have always been given a bad rap. This video tells who the fine folks really are. They are loving, caring, and have a dignity and solidity that simply cannot be matched by the refinement of city life! Thank you once again, David, for posting this!
Mister Grandpa's Bakery..Yes indeed..this is REAL MUSIC...Lots more than just BANGING on drums... No stories...No FEELINGS...No nothing. Thank you, David, for preserving this past history upon which our great country was established! 👌👏🎼🎶🎵🌹❤
The real roots of mountaineers has been hidden by mainstream history. It's a story never taught in the classroom because its just another hush crime.. The folks derided as Hillbillies today are the posterity of indentured SLAVES. Many brought to America against their will, press ganged into transport for some petty crime after European nobles enclosed the commons (Kicked tenant farmers off The kingdom's public lands and forced them into squalid city ghettos) so that they could re-appropriate the public lands into private estates for their own heirs. During their seven years of forced servitude, most faced the prospect of the taskmaster's whip at their back, while facing the Indian arrows from the front. This is because they had the most arduous duty in the colonies, - breaking the forest and clearing the rocky soil - for the plantation corporations. The attrition rate was astronomical, especially for females unused to the subtropical climate. After the land was cleared, they were unceremoniously cut loose to scratch out a living in the wilderness of the eastern mountains as a buffer against the indigenous tribes that might threaten the coastal plantations profits. They have been privately and publicly demonized by the gentry and upper class ever since. African slaves were brought in to work the cleared plantations and economically displace these folks so there would little prospect of lawful work for them. Even the fresh waves of destitute European immigrants would get in on the act to demonize them. ..Never mind that these hill folk made up the largest single portion of the continental Army (and still do). Now we have vicious bigots in the White house and Joint chiefs of staff who want to disarm them, jail them indefinitely without trial, Throw them in internment camps, or attack them with F15's and contaminate the hills with new-clear explosions . They actually say that last part out loud.
To me these people are the heart & soul of America. My dad got me music lessons when i was a kid & if it has strings I'll get a tune out of it eventually.
Mr. Hoffman thank you so MUCH for uploading these incredible works you've accumulated! I FRICKIN LIVE HERE. In WNC, and I play folk music, and this film touched me on so many levels. You're amazing, this work is amazing, thank you so much for documenting this priceless stuff! From a 28 year old musician/chef/father/history lover/fan of this stuff!
I also wanted to say is what's cooler is I was on your channel for completely unrelated reasons; checking out your other interviews and stuff that I stumbled on, when this was recommended. Just feels like such a small world that this was your early work and here I am, living right around where you filmed [which much of it looks the same today!] and just blown away. Cheers!
This is great, I watched this last night. I learned a few things here. Particularly, the part of Sam Honeycutt? My Grandpa sang a few times like that for me. I remember being totally amazed by that. Never heard anything like it. This brought me back to the memory of my Grandpa, and brought me to tears.
I am 72 and grew up in Indiana, but, I can remember my Mother singing some of these songs to my siblings and me when I was young. My Mother's Mother was a Kerr. I truely enjoy the history, the music and the people.
In 1983, i went on a vacation. Originally, we were for daytona.instead, we decided to visit my friends mother and aunt in columbia, south carolina. I had the opportunity to see south carolina as a "ground pounder" not as a tourist. Thirty seven years and counting, it was the BEST vacation i have ever had. The people i hung out with were appalachians, but they definitely wete country!!!!
I remember going to a bluegrass festival when I was a teenager. It was one of few times that my grandfather actually got out of his chair and went somewhere. He was born and raised in Knoxville and he knew this man. I will never forget my gramps listening to the hill folks music(that's what he called it) I watched him tap his feet and his hand clawed his thigh as a single tear rolled his cheek and he looked at me and said "boy ..that's real music there". It was the only emotion I ever seen from my grandpa and I won't forget that. His name was Calvin Luther McClung . for some strange reason this music strikes a cord deep inside me and I wonder if this connection is inherently distilled in my own DNA.
Thank you for your films and still photos. I enjoy your art and your affinity for Americans. Thank you to you for presenting West Virginia in a positive light.
I'm into all the old bluegrass music. Really love the sounds the Banjo,Mandolin, and Fiddle. Yes I'm the only Hillbilly out of 4 brothers. They always made fun of me talking and told me I was born on the other side of the creek. I got my ways from my Elders that they never wanted to be around. Thanks for this video. I will download it so I can listen anytime.
@Channel 6 Sorry not saying he is related to the term. Just what my family related me to for listening to his type music and enjoying the music. Not trying to offend.
Yep. Breaks my heart that Dave Macon Days festival hasn't met for 2 years now. It isn't just Covid. The older people who were running it need younger people to help, but we're still working.
Hey Hoffman Suzy here. I am a big history nerd and I always hold some documentaries close to my heart. But today only ever so few documentaries have a captivating storytelling way but Maybye because I am not interested in their subject but you documentary style is really engaging and am thankful for your archive and RU-vid channel. Stay safe Hoffman. You are still needed
David, thank you so very much .. I love this documentary enough to have purchased 2 DVD’s several years ago. I am thrilled you are making this available for the world to enjoy, what a gift you have given us. Ron /WA. State
Thanks David, he is the best! My favorite of his recorded songs - I Wish I Was A Mole In The Ground - “Let your hair roll down and your bands curl round. Oh Capie, let your hair roll down.” Italy - “I asked that girl to marry me, and I don’t give a dern, I’ll do my best to treat her right and give two kids to her. I sure’d we’s all gonna freeze to death enduring that last cold spell, had nothing but green pine cones that wouldn’t burn in Hell, I’m going to Italy before long go see that gal of mine.” Mr.Garfield - “If the worst should come to the worst, and you shouldn’t get well, would you be willing for me to marry again? He looked up with a smile on his face, and give her something sorta like this: Don’t you never let a chance go by, Oh Lord, don’t you never let a chance go by!” Dry Bones - “ I saw, I saw the light from Heaven shining all around. I saw the light come shining, I saw the light come down.” Swannanoa Tunnel - “Some of these days I’ll see that woman. That’s no dream, baby! That’s no dream!”
Reminds me of growing up and listening to my great aunt Dort play her fiddle! She and her sister used to play for barn dances and she said people would come from miles away to hear them play. Boy do i miss her, she is long gone now.
I’ve lived all over the country. What I’ve found is that no one area is more racist than any other area. Also, no race owns the market when it comes to racism. White, black, hispanic, etc are just about the same. Most are good and decent with a few outliers.
I have never been so happy to have a commercial interrupt my viewing of a youtube program! The reason being I remember you telling viewers how you wanted to support your family through your channel. Maybe the commercials are one step closer to your goal. Lord knows, your guality films and pictures are worth monetary gain.
This makes me miss the old ways. I'm a tennessean and I've never even heard of bascom. A true legend I wish I could have met him and learned the old heritage but sadly I was born in the late 90. Mr. David Hoffman is a film legend as well.. I'm so glad I came across the video and your RU-vid channel.
Great film David ! I've heard the "Mountain Dew" song played by others all my life, it was really cool to learn who wrote it. I can't wait to go through your past videos, and films, Thank you once again !
Every single David Hoffman movie is beautifully filmed and put together ❤ perfectly. Ive never seen anything like Mr Hoffman. He puts himself right there. You can tell the passion he has. Being right there at that moment in time. Ron Howard cant do with film what Mr.Hoffman can.
It’s real funny to know that Asheville has never changed, also being from buncombe county myself, I’m real proud that this Lunsford fellow was from there, gives it worth in my eyes
Fascinating foray into a key part of American history. As a European I find documentaries like this to be really interesting, how the American culture(s) came to be and became what they were, the people. The United States is so large, States bigger than many European countries. So much history created in such a short time span. When I read about Cowboys it sometimes sounds like it was hundreds of years in the past, like when reading about European history, but it wasn't! It was barely 150 years ago! My great grandfather was alive and kicking when the West hadn't yet been conquered fully. There's something very endearing about this documentary, the easy-going, wholesome and genuine feeling. People just like you and me, living a simple yet fulfilling life. I've been going through the documentaries uploaded to this channel, a treasure of human history and culture. I wonder if in 50 years I'll see the world more like they do.
Cowboy culture still exists, somewhat codified, it was still active into the 1920s in usa and parts of Canada. Trucks and railways took the drovers role, big 0astures had been ruined by thr end of 1900s through overgrazing, public wanted fat beef which were/arebest produced in feedlots not on grass.
Appalachian people are the Greatest musicians, singers, dancers and story tellers. 😂 They have the best surviving skills and can build, carve , cook and make the best moonshine. Easy going and work hard. Just a FYI the south still has the National clogging contest 💜
videos like this make me wonder if it was you who videoed my dad and me in late 60's-early 70's. I remember my dad saying a "talent scout" was coming to film us, I had gotten very good at the Scruggs style banjo and was very young and I remember a guy with a reel to reel tape recorder and video camera recording us but never heard anything from it or him again. we played square dances and barn dances all over the state. we lived in a place called Camden on Gauley in Webster county back then and never knew what ever happened to the guy that recorded us. thanks for sharing this!
Oh my gosh MOuntain Dew!Heard that song a million times, music is my passion and my lifelong lifeline. Go Mister Bascom and you too documentary guru with a heart made for the interesting story that either connects or adds to our own. Thank you Mister David HOffman ❤️
David, thank you so much for sharing this on RU-vid. I would have never seen it otherwise. Bascom was truly a great man and as a newer fiddler myself, I found this entire documentary enthralling.
I've always been drawn to the Appalachian music way of life and Southern Virginia. I often wonder if I experienced a past life in that era...beautiful documentary. Thank you so much Mr. Hoffman.
Thank you for posting this! I live in Leicester NC and can tell you that some of those houses are still there on South turkey Creek. I've heard old timers talking about Bascom before, but unfortunately most younger people around here have never heard about him. As far as I know there is still a bluegrass festival named after Bascom Lunsford in Mars Hill.
Thank you so much for posting this David. I believe this series and the doc you did with Earl Scruggs are the best you did. They are my favorites anyway. I don't have time to watch all of this atm, but will watch the rest this evening. Be well.
Thank you for sharing. The culture of my people is so rich but often misunderstood. You take me back many years remembering my grandparents and locals I grew up around in the mid-late 70's and even early 80's. Just hearing them speak in their unforgettable dialect and cadence is incredibly heart warming. Thank you so much for sharing.
Thank you for this. I am a second generation Dutch immigrant in Canada. I have tremendous respect for the people of Appalachia. The more I learn the more I love these people.
David, thank you so much for your amazing work and passion to keep this stuff alive. These songs and people are too good to let them pass by. Paul, from Melbourne, Australia
I come back to this video every once in a while to remember why I got interrested in bluegrass to begin with. This is the music that birthed bluegrass. This ought to be in the Smithsonian, along with so much that David Hoffman has filmed. I have a Facebook friendship with Linwood Lunsford,I believe his grandson.
Love that area. I was born and raised in northern Illinois, but now live in the heart of North Carolina. I feel I'm back home to a place I've never lived. I belong here, love the vibe, music and way of life.
well, scots were the early settlers in that region along with the english and welsh. this music would have its roots in scotland. fiddle reel music is indigenous to scotland.
Not Irish, but they did try to colonise here, so music moves around, l see a little free style step dancing there, that originates from here, it was called Sean nós "old style".
@@irishcountrygirl78 i,m old enough to know when irish music started in the late 50s early 60s when bands like the clancies etc appeared and adopted the scottish style and a lot of scots and english sangs. there are a few sangs in the appalachians that are of scottish origin,also fiddle tunes .the fiddles been in scotland from the 16th century. 17th century in ireland most likely with the scots who went to ulster. the earlier scots in amerikay would have brought their music with them. have a wee look at this. boxandfiddlearchive.com/scottish-fiddle-playing-and-its-irish-connections (tho it should read the other way) this irish fiddler wrote this in 1995 when he was 75 years old so he is going back a bit. you will notice where he writes scottish fiddle music has been in ireland for centuries. the ruiri person he mentions was actualy scottish. then, the part where he write one irish fiddler has 400 scottish fiddle tunes in his collection. onyhoo, you can read it yourelf. am pretty sure clogdancing originates in england or wales.
@@brucecollins4729 Seán nós dancing originated in Ireland. Original Irish dance. We actually did have our own culture here going back to the start that had zero British influence. Everyone has various dance that originated somewhere, Seán nos is not clog, it's tap and step dancing. No where did l take away from Scottish influence. Scottish here were planters. They weren't "friendly" when they came centuries ago, so forgive me if l do not allows Sean nós be given to the Scots 😉. It was very much born here out of oppression, much like our music and folk singing. BTW "when Irish music started" you'd need to be very old, infact you'd be dead, Irish trad goes back centuries old, the harp that Ireland holds so proud is actually not originally from here, Harps have been known since antiquity in Asia, Africa, long before they were introduced to us. Irish music has been apart of irish culture since we took up this island. Next you'll be telling me the brush dance isn't ours 🤣.
@@irishcountrygirl78 harps were also in scotland. the fiddles been in scotland since the 16th century. ireland in the 17th century. fiddle reels and strathpeys are indigenous to scotland. most likely taken to ireland by scots. boxandfiddle archive.weebly.com/scottish-fiddle-playing-and-its-irish-connections. as you can see i,ve corrected the link. there is another irish music historian writes ...we owe an irrepayable debt to the scottish tradition.if you look at the irish repertoire ithere are many irish sangs that are actually scottish, also english, but is one irish music compiler wrote...i list scottish sangs as irish because its mostly irish band that sing them. how hard is to say its a scottish sang.? irish stepdance may well have come from scotland. it,s been in canada for centuries.
At 27:20 the Square dance, danced to the Scottish Reel "Miss McCleod", is almost identical to the "Full Set" (8) still danced here in Ireland. Thanks for this marvellous bridge over time that brings us all together.
Mr. Hoffman, as a man who grew up in Appalachia Kentucky, I would like too thank you on behalf of all mountain folk for shedding light on our slice of heaven. As a Kentuckian we get stereotyped way too much. Whether it's how we talk or dress, we've always been a go to for making fun of. But not from you. You sir are what we in the south call, "A professional." Sincerely, Jason Ryan Wilson. You're a good man, Mr. Hoffman.
Jason Ryan an Irish name, I love the appalachia and the music because the Irish settled there too and brought the Irish music with them and over time the music evolved ,bluegrass, blessing to all my brothers and sisters in the hills of America amen 🙏
Most of Appalachia was settled by Scots Irish people (what we call them in the U.S.). In Great Britain they were called Ulster Scots, settled in Ireland by King James the 1st of Great Britain (aka James IV of Scotland. Since I have roots in Appalachia, I like to think that, rather than oppressing Catholics, my fore-bearers moved on to America. I assume there was some intermarrying in Ireland so that many are of actual Irish heritage as well, and not just Scots from Ireland. Have not done the genealogy quite that far back.
Thank you for making this documentary. I grew UP loving bluegrass, and the mountains, as well as the mountain folk. My ancestors were Irish/Scottish, and most everyone in my family plays an instrument and/or sings. We used to get together on my great grandmas front porch, and pick and sing. Not so much anymore, sure miss those days.
You're awesome man. I appreciate almost everything you've ever filmed. I say almost because I just found your work and I haven't seen it all yet but what I have seen is a treasure and a joy to watch. Thank you sir
Thank you for this video. I’m from a music playing family from Ireland and I connected immediately with these people and their music. I suspect we have a hereditary connection.
My sincere appreciation for such an informative documentary. The quality of information here rivals that of Ken Burns' history productions! Thanks for the effort.
Grew up here and still here, western North Carolina. When I was a child Bascomb Lunsford, Bard Ray, Obray Ramsey and many more was a thing. My son married Freda's granddaughter. I've watched this before and it's still good.
It’s a beautiful film about beautiful mountain people❤️💃🏻🕺🏿👯♀️ Thank God it’s preserved for all to listen and see!! Thank you David! Your the most amazing film maker!!! Take care of you! Bye for now Kathy Washington State
Thank you for aiding in keeping this music and these stories alive David! This is extraordinary stuff. Also, dude at the dinner table was right, I reckon we do have the best food. I miss my granny's red-eye gravy and angel biscuits.
