I’ll
admit to being an uncultured newcomer with regard to the ‘Bluegrass’ subgenre
of American music which originated in the Appalachian countryside. But for the uninitiated as well as longtime
fans of anything and everything related to country, folk and mountain music, filmmaker
Rick Bowman’s affectionate, hour-long documentary film Banjos, Bluegrass & Squirrel Barkers represents a great
introduction to the ‘folk music revival’ particularly in the San Diego,
California area.
Starting
from the ground up in the 1940s with Bill
Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys before evolving into a more acoustic sound,
Bluegrass evolved into three different subgenres including traditional, progressive and
gospel. Minimalist, occasionally bluesy and typically
only reliant on acoustic instruments, the distinctive style of Bluegrass is
both singular and malleable to other forms of music.
Though
only running an hour in length, Banjos,
Bluegrass & Squirrel Barkers is an engaging and fascinating mini-documentary
you’d see on a music museum tour with numerous archival photos of early artists
in the genre including but not limited to Chris Hillman, Alison Brown, Ron
Block, Stuart Duncan and of course the Scottsville Squirrel Barkers.
Coupled
with newly conducted interviews of historians as well as tours of places like
Deering Banjos, perhaps the biggest banjo instrument production company on the
planet, Banjos, Bluegrass & Squirrel
Barkers provides for those familiar and newly acquainted to Bluegrass a
great overview with the capacity to turn the mildly interested or disinterested
into fans.
If
there are any gripes to make about this short little doc, which won the Best
Documentary Award at the Gold Movie Awards London in 2017, it’s that the travelogue
through the roots of Bluegrass could have been a bit longer. Once you start becoming engaged with the
subject, the film seems to end abruptly, leaving you satisfied but wanting
more.
That
said, this is a quick and truly interesting watch for those who do and don’t
know anything about Bluegrass. I myself
still consider myself an inexperienced novice in the genre, but after watching Banjos, Bluegrass & Squirrel Barkers I
would absolutely like to learn more!
Score:
- Andrew Kotwicki