High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass Music (1992) - full transcript

(introductory music)

- Back in the days of my childhood

in the evening when everything was still

I used to sit and listen to the Fox hounds

with my dad in the old Kentucky hills.

(whimsical bluegrass music)

I'm on my way back to the old home

the road winds on up the hill,

but there's no light in the window

that shined long ago,

where I lived.



♪ I hear a voice callin' ♪

♪ It must be our Lord ♪

♪ It's comin' from heaven on high ♪

♪ I hear a voice callin' ♪

♪ I've gained a reward ♪

♪ On the land where we never shall die ♪

♪ I hear a voice callin' ♪

♪ I've gained a reward ♪

♪ On the land where we never shall die ♪

- Things have really changed.

They're not like they was

back when I was real young.

I'll never forget the old days,

years and years ago
when I was a little boy.



I'd like to get out, you know,

and travel around over the hills

and sing to myself you know,

and see how it would sound you know,

singing the blues or
some good gospel song.

♪ I long for you each night and day ♪

♪ When the roses bloom in old Kentucky ♪

♪ I'll be coming back to stay ♪

♪ I'm going back to old Kentucky ♪

♪ There to see my Linda Lou ♪

♪ I'm going back to old Kentucky ♪

♪ Where the skies are always blue ♪

- In 1911, Bill Monroe was
born in Western Kentucky.

The story of bluegrass

is the story of his musical legacy.

♪ Linda Lou she is a beauty ♪

♪ Those pretty brown
eyes I loved so well ♪

♪ I'm going back to old Kentucky ♪

♪ Never more to say farewell ♪

♪ I'm going back to old Kentucky ♪

♪ There to see my Linda Lou ♪

♪ I'm going back to Old Kentucky ♪

♪ Where the skies are always blue ♪

(applause)

(birds chirping)

(voice singing)

- My mother,

she used to walk through
the house singing you know,

and she could play the fiddle,

but she had to cook for you know,

eight children and her husband, my father,

and so that taken a lot of her time.

She'd go by the bed
where she left her fiddle

and pick it up and play
a number, you know,

an old time fiddle number.

And that was just wonderful.

- Across the South in
Tennessee, Kentucky, Virginia

and North Carolina,

descendants of Scotch-Irish settlers

played songs brought from across the sea.

Old tunes like "Soldier's
Joy", "Fair and Tender Ladies",

and "Billy in the Low Ground"
rang through Appalachia

as they had for centuries
in the British Isles.

For families that toiled in
cotton fields and coal mines,

music was one of life's few enjoyments.

- I remember folks gathered up

in the evenings after they had supper,

and a little radio that you'd listen to

on weekends, but no TV, of course.

And so we'd gather up
and sing the old songs

and exchange ideas and such as that.

Just a way of life really.

♪ Just a village and a
homestead on the farm ♪

♪ And a mother's love to
shield you from all harm ♪

♪ A mother's love so true a
sweetheart that loves you ♪

♪ A village and a homestead on the farm ♪

♪ You could hear the
cattle lowing in the lane ♪

♪ You could see the fields of
blue grass where I've grown ♪

♪ You could almost hear them cry ♪

♪ As they kissed their boy goodbye ♪

♪ Well I wonder how the
old folks are at home ♪

- Late in the evening about sun down,

high on the hill above the town,

Uncle Pen played the fiddle
Lord how it would ring

You could hear it talk,
you could hear it sing.

Uncle Pen Vandiver was the first man

that I ever heard play a fiddle

and I believe I was about six years old

the first time I ever heard him play.

Well he got a wonderful
Scotch-Irish sound out of it.

He was a wonderful uncle,

and he'd always bring the fiddle

and we'd get to hear the fiddle

after we'd have supper every night.

We'd sit around the fireplace

and he'd play the fiddle.

And he played numbers like
"Jenny Lynn", "Sally Goodin",

"Going Across the Sea".

Would you let me play one?

"Going Across the Sea".

(instrumental playing)

We was always glad to have Uncle Pen

he'd always come in on
his horse, you know.

Put the horse up there and feed him,

but I could hear him sit
out on the back porch

and play that fiddle.

Oh the people would come from far away,

they'd dance all night
'till the break of day

when the caller hollered "Do Si Do",

we knew Uncle Pen was ready to go.

♪ Oh, the people would
come from far away ♪

♪ To dance all night to the break of day ♪

♪ When the caller hollered "Do Si Do" ♪

♪ You knew Uncle Pen was ready to go ♪

♪ Late in the evening, about sundown ♪

♪ High on the hill, an' above the town ♪

♪ Uncle Pen played the
fiddle, Lord, how it rang ♪

♪ You could hear it talk,
you could hear it sing ♪

- Monroe combined the old time folk music

of his childhood with
the fast paced rhythms

of his world beyond his Kentucky home.

In the late 1940's,

Monroe's sound came to
be called Bluegrass.

It embodied hillbilly styles,

but with a high-pitch and fast tempo,

some called it folk-music with overdrive.

♪ Late in the evening, about sundown ♪

♪ High on the hill, an' above the town ♪

♪ Uncle Pen played the
fiddle, Lord, how it rang ♪

♪ You could hear it talk,
you could hear it sing ♪

♪ I'll never forget that mournful day ♪

♪ When Uncle Pen was called away ♪

♪ They hung up his fiddle,
they hung up his bow ♪

♪ They knew it was time for him to go ♪

♪ Late in the evening, about sundown ♪

♪ High on the hill, an' above the town ♪

♪ Uncle Pen played the
fiddle, Lord, how it rang ♪

♪ You could hear it talk,
you could hear it sing ♪

(applause)

♪ No, I may not be able to walk like him ♪

♪ I may not be able to talk like him ♪

♪ But I'm willing to try ♪

♪ I may not be able to stand so tall ♪

♪ I may not have the endurance ♪

♪ of the oldest in the wilderness ♪

♪ But I'm willing to try ♪

- Religion played a big role
in our lives growing up.

We went to the old
Primitive Baptist church

and they didn't have any
instruments or anything

so they done the singin'
without any music,

and I would just sit back and listen.

♪ In a dear ♪

♪ old village churchyard ♪

♪ I can see ♪

♪ a mossy mound ♪

♪ That is where my ♪

♪ poor mother's sleepin' ♪

♪ In the cold ♪

♪ and silent ground ♪

♪ If you have friends in Gloryland ♪

♪ Who left because of pain ♪

♪ Thank God up there they'll die no more ♪

♪ They'll suffer not again ♪

♪ Then weep not friends I'm going home ♪

♪ Up there we'll die no more ♪

♪ No coffins will be made up there ♪

♪ No graves on that bright shore ♪

(church bell ringing)

- Well, I used to hear them
sing in churches, you know

they'd have tenor singers you know,

and ladies they'd be singing the alto.

My brothers, they all went to the

singing school in the church,

but it wasn't no use me going 'cause

I couldn't see the notes
or anything, you see,

and they couldn't learn me anything.

So, I just decided that I
would learn my music by ear

and always do it that way.

I was awful bashful when
I was a kid growing up

I just wanted to sing for myself,

let me hear it.

A lot of times out by myself, you know

just walkin' 'round through
the fields you know,

doing work.

Working with horses and cattle,

and I'd be singing to myself, you know

I didn't want nobody else to hear me

because I didn't know
whether they'd like me

or not, you see.

♪ O Danny Boy, the pipes,
the pipes are calling ♪

♪ From glen to glen and
down the mountainside ♪

♪ The summer's gone and
all the roses falling ♪

♪ It's you, it's you,
must go and I must bide ♪

♪ But come ye back when
summer's in the meadow ♪

♪ Or when the valley's
hushed and white with snow ♪

♪ For you will bend and
tell me that you love me ♪

♪ And I shall sleep in
peace until you come to me ♪

(explosion)

- Oh, mercy.

They cut all the timber off
of this side of that mountain.

Back then, it just more
or less a wilderness.

There hadn't been any
timber cut in this country

anywhere when this house was built.

They built a railroad,

and they cut timber all over this country.

Hauled 'em down in here
up to there on the train.

(adventurous bluegrass music)

- Southern industry changed
more than just the land.

It brought rural whites into
contact with a new culture

and a new kind of music.

(rhythmic blues music)

As the railroad cut into
remote mountain hollers

the hills echoed with the
shouts of black laborers.

("Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane")

The banjo had been played on plantations

since the 18th century.

It was brought to America
by African slaves.

Traveling minstrels played African rhythms

with accents shifting to the off beat.

These syncopated rhythms
opened a new world

of musical possibilities.

(upbeat finish)

Camp meetings rang with gospel spirituals.

Hoedown's reel with bluesy fiddles.

Throughout the South,
African freighting styles

mixed with Gaelic mountain melodies.

- One time a good gentleman
the name of Arnold Schultz,

a Black man, come up here and visit us.

He was a most wonderful guitar man

that could play the blues
that you ever listened to,

that was Arnold Schultz.

And he could also play the fiddle.

One time he was up around Rosine,

and they wanted us to play
for a square dance there,

so Arnold played the fiddle
and I played the guitar.

Now, you might not believe
this but this is right,

we started around sunset in the evening,

and we was playing the next morning.

(energetic bluegrass music)

Later on when I was
puttin' my music together

I remember him, how he played
the blues and everything,

you know, so I was gonna
add some blues to my music.

("Mule Skinner Blues")

♪ Good morning captain ♪

♪ Good morning son ♪

♪ Do you need another mule skinner ♪

♪ Down on your new road line ♪

♪ Yodel-A-Ee-He ♪

♪ He-He-He-He ♪

♪ Working on the railroad ♪

♪ A dollar a dime a day ♪

♪ I got a woman in town
every Saturday night ♪

♪ Waiting to draw my little pay ♪

♪ Yodel-A-Ee-He ♪

♪ Yodel-A-He-He ♪

♪ A-E-He ♪

♪ Little water boy ♪

♪ Won't you bring that water 'round ♪

♪ If you don't like your job ♪

♪ Set that water bucket down ♪

♪ Yodel-A-Ee-He ♪

♪ He-He-He-He ♪

(applause)

- Peas old corn shuckin' days,

they would have bean stringings and

log rollin's and apple peelin's.

Gas was about fifteen cents a gallon then.

Hot dogs was about ten cents.

Pop was a nickel,

and we played in stores

or just anywhere we could play
for whatever we could get.

They didn't hardly have a guitar then.

We played about anything we picked up.

We used to play old tunes
like "Cripple Creek",

and "Mississippi Sawyer".

So I'm gon' play one
of the tunes right now

called "Sourwood Mountain".

Y'all ready?

(bouncy folk music)

- Old time folk music was
transformed by outside influences.

New instruments were mass
produced and available

from mail order catalogs.

Their exotic sounds offered
new musical combinations.

Tunes once played by a solo fiddler

were now accompanied by the Western cowboy

rhythm of the guitar,

the romantic plucking of the mandolin,

or the sweet sounding slide
of the Hawaiian steel guitar.

At community gatherings musicians began

to play and organize groups.

These were the first
professional string bands.

- I got my first guitar when
I was about twelve years old.

It was quite an expensive model,

the best that Sears had at that time,

$3.95 I think,

it came in a cardboard box,

and it took me a year to get it in tune

because nobody was around
that knew how to tune it

and finally a traveling
minister came through

holding a revival and he
could play the guitar a little

so he tuned it for me.

They'd have, uh, lawn parties.

Fundraisers, you know,

for the schools and churches
and things like that

and three or four of us
guys in the community

our total pay was a free dinner

if we could pick a little bit you know.

("Nobody's Love is Like Mine")

- We used to have a
talent contest once a year

and they had the prizes
for best fiddle player

and singers and so forth,

and so we entered as a duet

and we won the first prize.

I guess that was a big
encouragement for us,

although we won a bag of
flour or something like that

you know, it wasn't no big prize

but back then it was.

♪ I want to be kissed but
only by your lips dear ♪

♪ For you're the only one who'll ever do ♪

♪ I want someone to
hug and call me honey ♪

♪ I want to be loved but only by you ♪

- On Sundays, we'd gather
'round under a apple tree

on side of a dirt road

with find some boy with a mandolin

or someone with a banjo,

and we'd just sing there
for two or three hours

and people would stop by in cars and walk

and we'd sing two or three hours to 'em

and I remember many
times before they'd leave

they'd look at me say,

"well Jimmy, you boys sing us
one goodun 'fore we leave".

♪ Now don't forget me little darling ♪

♪ while I'm growing old and gray ♪

♪ Just a little thought
before I'm going far away ♪

♪ I'll be waiting on the hillside ♪

♪ When the day you will call ♪

♪ On the sunny side of the mountain ♪

♪ Where the rippling waters fall ♪

♪ My, my, Lord, Lord ♪

- Way back there when I was a boy,

music was what I wanted to hear you know,

and play it.

My brothers,

they wanted to play the
fiddle and the guitar

all that was left was a mandolin,

so I started trying to learn it.

I practiced a lot and learnt
more about it, you see,

heard other people play.

As I got older, why,

I got to where I wasn't so bashful

I could play in front of anybody.

(playful instrumental music)

(applause)

(energetic playing)

- Back in them days,

there wasn't very much to do.

About all the entertainment
that we had then was to

maybe hunt, fish, or go swimmin'.

They had a county fair once a year.

When the fair came, the
whole county turned out

and it was somethin'.

♪ My gal's been tramplin' around ♪

♪ Just about a week I know ♪

♪ Several of my friends
done told me so and so ♪

♪ She found a new man. ♪

- Traveling shows
brought a whole new world

of sights and sounds to rural Southerners.

Vaudeville singers
crooned sentimental tunes

from tin pan alley.

Musicians brought early sounds

of Jazz and Ragtime from the city.

Itinerant preacher's
offered eternal salvation

through revival spirituals.

Snake oil salesmen lured
crowds with musical performers

giving country musicians
their first professional jobs.

These amusements brought
glimpses of the outside world

and some had the magic to take you there.

(seductive drumming)

Talking pictures were larger than life.

They flickered with
images of the wild west

and the lonesome singing cowboy.

- It's the first guitar I ever had.

It had Gene Autry on it,

he was riding some big horses

and there's ran up with him

and I'd look at it many times

but I always liked his singin' in movies.

Gene Autry would start it out say,

♪ Been to the doctor ♪

♪ Says I'm all right ♪

♪ Know that he's lyin' ♪

♪ Losin' my sight ♪

♪ Should have examined
the eyes of my mind ♪

♪ Twenty twenty vision ♪

♪ Walkin' round blind ♪

How'd we do it?

(guitar strums)

♪ I been to the doctor
he says I'm all right ♪

♪ I know he's lyin' I'm losin' my sight ♪

♪ He should have examined
the eyes of my mind ♪

♪ I've got twenty twenty vision
and walkin' round blind ♪

Lot difference in us than
Gene Autry wasn't it?

- Through the magic of new technology,

all kinds of music could
be listened to at home.

It was possible to hear operatic arias,

Western swing bands,

even Hawaiian songs.

- My dad had one of the first phonographs

in that part of the country

with a collection of records

and he'd let me sit down in a corner

next to the old wood stove and play those

scratchy records, you know.

One I remember clearly, all I could hear,

I don't think he knew more
than a few lines of it

and my mother didn't
particularly like the song

for some reason,

but it was the old Vernon Dalhart,

♪ Oh, I wish I had someone to love me ♪

♪ Someone to call me their own ♪

- Good morning friends
and howdy neighbors,

starting the program off
with a little Ted Daffan

ditty here this morning
called "Over the Hill".

- The radio filled the airways
with music from far and wide

blowing into the most
remote mountain communities.

(sultry blues music)

(foreign operatic music)

(big band music)

(orchestral jazz music)

The distant voices and far
away sounds of the radio

broke the boundaries of isolation,

but more than music was transmitted.

- This great nation will
endure, will revive,

and will prosper.

The only thing we have to fear

is fear itself.

- By the late 1920's, depressed conditions

forced thousands to leave the family farm.

Those that remained faced the hardship

of sharecropping on over-cultivated land.

- My dad was a tenant farmer so to speak.

At about 29, he was doing quite well,

had a quite new Model-T truck
was hauling on the highway

he was doing very well.

I also remember just as
vividly the following year

he couldn't afford to buy tags for it,

and we had to move back to
my mother's old home place

which was quite an old house,
possibly 100 years old,

but it was home and we loved it.

And that old truck sat behind
the barn and rusted down.

I drove a million miles in it,

it's sittin' behind that barn, you know?

- 1929,

when you couldn't get a job

and if you got a job,

five or six dollars a week.

- When I was a boy growing up,

you could get a farmer
for fifty cents a day,

and now in '89,

the best you can do is about

five dollars a hour.

That's right, you've heard
your mother and daddy

talk about them days I know,

in '29 and '30,

I'd say plenty of people
in town starved to death.

- They was!

Oh yes, if we hadn't had our
own cows and milk and butter

and chicken and eggs
and honey and bees...

- My daddy was a mechanic
at a Ford dealership

and they cut the mechanic's
down to nine dollars a week

six days a week.

You could hire a man out
on the farm like this

fifty cents if you had
the money to pay him,

if you didn't have the money to pay him,

he'd take it in corn, meat,
or potatoes, or anything.

If you didn't work back
then, you didn't eat.

And us people in the country
just did and survived

and that was all.

(somber banjo strumming)

♪ Road is gone there's just
one way to leave here ♪

♪ Turn my back on what I've left below ♪

♪ Shifting lands and
broken farms around me ♪

♪ Muddy waters changing all I know ♪

♪ Hard to say just what I'm losin' ♪

♪ Ain't never felt so all alone ♪

♪ Mary, take the baby, river's risin' ♪

♪ Muddy waters taking back my home ♪

♪ Well, muddy waters taking back my home ♪

- Well a sad lonesome
feelin' or the blues,

when you're livin' out
in the country like this

old home place right here,

if you're around by yourself

that feeling can come right in there

and stay right there with you

and make you sad, the blues will.

♪ When I hear the whistle blow ♪

♪ I wanna pack my clothes and go ♪

♪ The lonesome sigh ♪

♪ Of a train goin' by ♪

♪ Makes me wanna stop and cry ♪

♪ I recall the day it took you away ♪

♪ I'm blue, I'm lonesome blue ♪

- There was an old saying in Kentucky,

the three R's;

Reading, Writing, and Route 25 North.

Young men headed north looking for work

in the factories of Detroit,
Chicago, and Cincinnati.

♪ I left my home to ramble this country ♪

♪ My mother and dad said,
"Son don't go wrong ♪

♪ Remember that God will
always watch o'er you ♪

♪ And we will be waiting
for you here at home" ♪

♪ "Son don't go astray,"
was what they both told me ♪

♪ "Remember that love
for God can be found" ♪

♪ But now they're both gone
this letter just told me ♪

♪ Four years they've been dead,
the fields have turned brown ♪

- When I left Kentucky, you know,

it was kinda sad there, you know,

my folks had passed away,
my father and mother,

but I was raised on the farm

and I like that kinda work

and I liked to live there.

So I'd never been in the cities you see,

and I didn't know what it would be like

I was really scared of it.

A lot of country people there of course.

A lot of 'em wanted to get
off the farm, you know,

'cause that was hard
work and they wanted to

come into the city where
they'd make so much each week.

My brothers, they was already up North

and they was moving down
from Detroit down to Indiana,

and they all wanted me to come up there

so I decided to go.

Soon my childhood days were over

I had to leave my old home

for dad and mother had gone to heaven

I was left in this world all alone.

♪ I am a poor wayfaring stranger ♪

♪ While traveling through
this world below ♪

♪ There is no sickness, toil, nor danger ♪

♪ In that bright world to which I go ♪

♪ I'm going there to meet my Father ♪

♪ I'm going there no more to roam ♪

♪ I'm just going over Jordan ♪

♪ I'm just going over home ♪

- There were new opportunities in the city

for uprooted country musicians.

Product manufacturers
sponsored live radio programs

directed at rural markets,

where pitch-men delivered commercials

between live musical acts.

(quick-paced advertisement music)

- Brought to you by Pet's evaporated milk,

new Pet instant non-fat dry milk,

and Pet-Ritz frozen pies!

- Radio barn dances gave
paying jobs to young musicians

who worked in factories and
played part-time string bands.

- Yes siree friends, we gonna
have to get some couples

on the floor now and
it's time for everybody

to have a lot of fun,

so get your partner and let's go to town.

♪ Everybody on the floor ♪

♪ Swing her 'round and couple's soar ♪

♪ Take your corner ladies hand ♪

♪ Swing around she's lookin' grand ♪

♪ Turn her loose and swing your own ♪

♪ Round and round and stay at home ♪

♪ First couple off and pick up Sue ♪

♪ And learn to do that- ♪

- It was beyond my wildest dream to be

in this business professionally

and I thought I owed my folks more

to try to do something business-like

than to mess around the music business

which really wasn't the
most reputable thing

to do at that time,

most musicians were regarded

as fellas tryin' to get
outta work, you know?

"When you gonna get ya a job, boy?"

- We got on some stations up there

in the Northern part of Indiana.

The Monroe Brothers,
you know, Charlie and me

worked hard at it as a duet you see.

Our first station we went on was WAE

in Hammond, Indiana, in 1930.

I was the first Monroe that
went on a radio station.

And then we went to Gary, Indiana on WJKS,

and that stands for
Where Joy Kills Sorrow,

WJKS.

We went from there onto Omaha, Nebraska.

From there to Columbia, South Carolina.

From there to Charlotte, North Carolina,

Greenville, South Carolina,

so, we done all right.

- Howdy do everybody,
from Nashville, Tennessee

the heart of the Southland,
your Grand Ole Opry.

- In 1925, WSM in Nashville
began to broadcast

a Saturday night barn dance.

The program featured a live stage show

with burlesque comedy, flamboyant costume,

and hillbilly string bands

like "The Possum Hunters",
the "Fruit Jar Drinkers",

and "Uncle Dave Macon" the Dixie Dewdrop.

♪ Well the train pulled
onto the very next stop ♪

♪ I looked around about 17 cop ♪

♪ Crawled to heel ye oughta seen me done ♪

♪ Banga, banga, banga
with my gatling gun ♪

Because of its' down-home atmosphere

and satire of formal music,

the program took on the
name Grand Ole Opry,

and became the most popular
barn dance in the nation.

A chance to play on the Opry

was the dream of every
aspiring country musician.

- Well it's time to bank the
fire and blow out the lights

so we'll be back next
Saturday at this same time

with more of your favorite
home spun fun and music.

Thanks so much for
listening, be good everybody.

- I'd heard about the
Grand Ole Opry all my life

you know, and I wanted to give it a try

see if I could get on there.

So I went in there one Monday you know,

Harry Stone, David Stone,
and the Solemn Old Judge

said they would listen to me.

So I done about a couple of three songs

and they said, "You start
this coming Saturday night,

and if you ever leave here
you'll have to fire yourself."

So I've been there, it'll be 50 years

the last Saturday in October.

- For this evening on the Grand Ole Opry,

Bill Monroe and his Bluegrass boys.

Let 'er go boys.

(down paced musical rhythm)

♪ Blue moon of Kentucky keep on shining ♪

♪ Shine on the one that's
gone and proved untrue ♪

♪ Blue moon of Kentucky keep on shining ♪

♪ Shine on the one that's
gone and left me blue ♪

- I always liked "Blue Moon
of Kentucky" about the best.

He's had it on awful good Bill Monroe has,

he's always done my favorite.

We used to set up the
little radio (indistinct)

Saturday night.

He was a good entertainer.

Everybody all around the neighborhood,

they just keep on back to radio,

we gang up the room full time,

we'd make candy and we'd have
a little party, you know?

Little supper, stuff like that.

Entertainment.

- Monroe called his band
the Bluegrass boys in honor

of his native state of Kentucky.

They were just a string band

playing traditional instruments,

but their high lonesome sound

was unlike anything heard before.

Monroe insisted that his
boys wear suits and ties

and adopt a solemn
performance style that defied

the hayseed stereotype.

- I was proud of 'em the
way that they was playing

and singing, these old fine fellers.

And they was young when
they started with me,

and they had a lot to learn you see,

and being with Bill Monroe
and the Bluegrass boys

you wanted a chance to
get in there and play.

- When Bill Monroe hired
me that was a big deal man

that was what I'd been waiting
to hear all these years.

I was on the fiddle and I
usually played all my stuff

in easy chords,

but he'd throw me into
B natural and B flat

and he figured out the
little rookie country boy

was scared to death so
he really stayed by me.

We had Lester Flatt on
guitar, the late Lester Flatt

and Lester was a good singer.

He and Bill together made
one of the finest duets

that there ever was.

This particular year that I was with him,

the late Stringbean's
was pickin' banjo for us.

♪ Hang on chillen' ♪

♪ Well rabbit jumped up
he looked mighty wild ♪

♪ Dog took after him runnin' for miles ♪

♪ Run little rabbit run
run run little rabbit run ♪

- Stringbean played the
old time banjo styles

known as two finger or claw hammer

where the fingers strummed
down on the strings.

- Bill come to me one night and he said,

"Stringbean's has turned his notice in,

we gonna have to find us a banjo picker."

I said, "I know where one of
the best in the country is,

but he don't pick anything like String."

He said, "Who is he?"

I said, "Earl Scruggs."

So we auditioned Earl in
my room just a mandolin

and banjo and fiddlin'.

Boy, did he ever pick that thing,

goodness gracious.

- Earl Scruggs grew up in North Carolina

where a different style of
picking was made popular

by minstrel performers.

Scruggs added finger picks

and plucked with a three finger rollover.

He showered the music
with syncopated notes

pioneering a sound that became
the hallmark for bluegrass.

(jumpy banjo music)

- Listening to Earl Scruggs,
Lester Flatt, and Bill Monroe,

I didn't even have a car I wouldn't go

down to town on a Saturday night,

and guy'd have his car
sittin' there I said,

"In about five minutes Bill
Monroe and Lester Flatt

and Earl Scruggs and
all them's gonna be on,"

and I said, "You care if I stand here

would you turn it on for me?"

And they said, "Yeah."

Well what's real special about it,

it was perfect.

(rapid playing begins)

- I wanted to pitch the music high,

pitch it higher than anybody
in the United States ever did.

I put the drive in the
music with my mandolin,

that's where that drive come from.

That would give the fiddle some work to do

and that would be the
most wonderful timing

for the banjo in the world,

is the time when I set
bluegrass music to it.

- Monroe combined musical sounds that were

sacred and secular, urban and rural,

hillbilly, ragtime, sentimental and blue.

His music had a driving rhythm

that was modernized and streamlined.

(rapid instrumental ends)

(applause)

- We'd travel with a tent show out of Opry

during the summer months.

They're just like an
auditorium where they,

I believe they had 4,500 people.

We had a ball team,
uniforms and the works,

it was good.

We had a good team.

We had some pretty good hitters,

Bill was a good hitter.

We'd get into town in the afternoon

and I'd go find a young man and we'd say,

"You got a ball team?"

"Well we wanna dress you real good."

Within a few minutes he
would have a gang together

and we would go at it.

- We'd played a lot of good
teams in Texas and Louisiana

and won a lot of games,

and each week we'd come
in and announce who won

and a little synopsis of
what had been going on

and announce where we was
gonna be the next week.

We'd do a little show at home plate,

maybe an hour or something like that.

Then kind of a twilight deal, you know,

and then go into the ball game.

Drew a lot of good crowds.

♪ I'm traveling down this lonesome road ♪

♪ oh how I hate to go ♪

♪ The wind and storms are raging high ♪

♪ and it's awful cold ♪

♪ My mind drifts back to you sweetheart ♪

♪ And I love you so ♪

♪ Now you've gone and left me here ♪

♪ To travel this lonesome road ♪

- I told my mother, "One of these days,

I was going to see the Grand Ole Opry,

and I was going to be
working with Bill Monroe

and singing in his quartet."

And so I decided I'd come
down see the Grand Ole Opry.

I met Bill Monroe and when he come out

told him I'd listened to him all my life,

so he asked me and I'd sing one with him.

We sung and Bill said,
"Well, if you'll go home

and get your clothes, then
just go to work with me."

So that's the way I got
hard by Bill Monroe.

♪ When the moon shines on
the Blue Ridge mountains ♪

♪ And it seems I can
hear my sweetheart call ♪

Hard work, travel many a night
through the sleet and snow

with a bass tied on top.

I remember one week we was on
the road a little over a week

I think, the time I got
home on three days vacation,

it was eleven days and nights
and I never seen a bed,

just a car and traveling
and singing bluegrass music.

♪ We traveled around from state to state ♪

♪ The Bluegrass boys are never late ♪

♪ Heavy traffic ahead ♪

♪ Heavy traffic ahead ♪

♪ We got to ramble ramble,
there' heavy traffic ahead ♪

- The late 1940's were the
hayday for the Bluegrass boys.

During these years,

Monroe shaped the talents of his musicians

into a distinctive Bluegrass sound.

- There had been so many
Bluegrass boys, you know,

I think around 65 or 75 fiddle players

and the same thing in the banjo

then a guitar and the bass.

'Course the same mandolin
player's still with 'em today.

- Monroe was the leader, but not the star.

He called upon the
Bluegrass boys to step up

and take solo breaks like a jazz combo.

Monroe encouraged each
band member to develop

their own style within
his tight structure.

- Bluegrass is like a school of music.

Learn it right, learn the timing of it.

Don't get it so fast that
there's nothing there

but just the speedin' of the music.

Keep your timing right.

The rhythm, the feeling of the music.

It's got to be there.

(energetic playing)

(cheers and applause)

- Following World War II,

the impact of Monroe's music
was felt across the South

as string bands began to
emulate his striking new sound.

In 1948, Lester Flatt and
Earl Scruggs left Monroe

to form their own band,
the Foggy Mountain Boys.

After Flatt and Scruggs departure,

a wave of country musicians
including former Bluegrass boys

formed bands and carried
on Monroe's sound.

- If I'm a leadin' a sad song like

something 'bout some woman has left

a poor old broken hearted man,

he's out some place drinking
him a beer and crying about it,

well when I sang that song to him,

I sang it lonesome,

and I'm kind of crying with him

as far as my heart's part's concerned

'cause I feel for him, you see?

And I've been down that
sad road before myself.

♪ In the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia ♪

♪ Lives a girl who is
waiting just for me ♪

Bluegrass tells a sad, sad
story I'll tell you that.

If you don't have no feeling,

there's no use of singing it

'cause it's kindly a spirit
that you have in your heart

and I would say in your soul.

♪ I miss her sweet
smile in the moonlight ♪

♪ And I know she misses me too ♪

♪ In the Shenandoah
Valley of old Virginia ♪

♪ Lives a girl and I
know her love is true ♪

- The Stanley Brothers
broadcasting from Bristol, Virginia

were inspired by the bluegrass sound

and combined it with their mountain style.

- Bill Monroe has always been my favorite

and he was brother Carter's favorite.

When we first left home

to start playing music professionally,

we used to do a lot of his songs

until we began to write,

and we just mixed it I guess

and of course our sound is
altogether different from Bill.

- Well the Stanley Brothers was kindly,

one of my first loves in bluegrass.

Back home on the farm,

about 11 or 11:30 everyday
the Stanley Brothers

would come on Farm and
Fun Time WCYB in Bristol

and I'd listen to 'em as a little boy.

The songs that Carter
Stanley wrote is just so good

that he bound to have lived
a real country hillbilly life

and loved his folks
from the songs he wrote.

♪ I went down the river
I lay down to sleep ♪

♪ I went down the river
laid me down to sleep ♪

♪ I went down the river
I lay down to sleep ♪

♪ I woke up, had shackles on my feet ♪

♪ Takes a worried man
to sing a worried song ♪

♪ Takes a worried man
to sing a worried song ♪

♪ Takes a worried man
to sing a worried song ♪

♪ I'm worried now but I
won't be worried long ♪

("Wish You Were Here" by Harold Rome)

- In the post-war era,
Americans moved to suburbia

and had the means to indulge
in the blossoming consumerism.

The record industry became big business

as radio stations replaced live broadcasts

with disk-jockeys who
promoted hip records.

- As bluegrass hit the best seller charts,

Nashville began to promote the music.

♪ Roll muddy river roll
on muddy river roll on ♪

♪ I've got an ocean you're
going to the ocean I long ♪

♪ I've got a baby in Tennesse ♪

♪ Who's long been awaiting
for little old me ♪

- Bluegrass records were a hot commodity

until a new musical phenomenon
came out of Memphis.

(Live performance of "Heartbreak Hotel")

- One day you had everything
going pretty good,

then almost like overnight,

as soon as Elvis really got
on his feet and got going,

why, everybody in the
world was Elvis Presley

and rock 'n roll crazy.

(screams and cheers)

- Elvis Presley took every
fan from every kind of music.

He took the fans away.

- I mean I'm sorry he passed away,

but I think his doings is foolish to me.

That old foolish shakin' and rollin'

and people are going to him

and throwing their babies there

and turning cars over,

and pulling her clothes off
and throwing them in his face

that is foolish to me.

- The electrifying sound of rock 'n roll

turned Nashville upside down.

The record industry scrambled
to keep pace with the craze.

- That rock 'n roll boom had come

and a lot of the old time music people

they had to quit,

I guess you might say they starved out.

- Elvis Presley was the big thing

in the recording industry at that time,

his type of music.

Everybody was so jumping
on the band wagon.

We had to keep up with
the current hit songs.

♪ He used to carry his
guitar in a gunny sack ♪

♪ He sat beneath the tree
by the railroad track ♪

♪ Oh, the engineers would see
him sitting in the shade ♪

♪ Strumming with the rhythm
that the drivers made ♪

♪ The people passing by
they would stop and say ♪

♪ Oh my what that little
country boy could play ♪

♪ Go go ♪

♪ Go Johnny go go ♪

(rock 'n roll guitar)

- To compete with the
sounds of rock 'n roll,

country musicians electrified
their instruments.

Acoustic instruments were outmoded

and regional styles were
unified into a smooth,

homogenized sound that
appealed to a wider audience.

♪ I don't know who you're with ♪

♪ I don't even know where you've gone ♪

♪ My only hope is that someday
you might hear this song ♪

♪ And you'll know that I
wrote it especially for you ♪

♪ And I love you ♪

♪ Wherever you are ♪

♪ Still ♪

- In recording studios,
vocals were emphasized

and star performers sang hit songs

backed by studio musicians.

♪ I tried to find somebody new ♪

♪ But in my heart there's
only room for you ♪

- Before amplification,

Western swing, Cajun,
honkey-tonk and bluegrass

were all thriving styles of country music.

As musicians plugged
into pop music trends,

the acoustic sound of
bluegrass became obsolete.

("White Lightning")

- In Nashville,

they had the packaged
country shows all country,

and they were electric and loud.

That's where the money was,

and so we decided that if probably,

we would go to these shows
and couldn't be heard

by the time a person's
hearing got back to normal

we were off.

We got to thinking that we could add amps

to these instruments,

and we could blow 'em away

just like everybody else is doing.

Bob even got to one point to where

he was plugging his mandolin
into the sound system itself.

They hadn't heard this before.

About 1967, we started using drums

but the bluegrass people
at that particular time

they didn't want drums, they
didn't want any part of drums,

much less electricity.

♪ You ain't the kind of woman I wanted ♪

♪ But you're the kind of woman I got ♪

- You see, if I'd have changed

the people wouldn't have liked that at all

so I was gonna stay with the kind of music

that I wanted and loved and started with

what I wanted to put together,

and to keep the bluegrass pure,

that's the way it's got to be.

It would really touch your heart.

♪ See the train coming 'round the bend ♪

♪ Carrying the one that I love ♪

♪ Her beautiful body is
still here on earth ♪

♪ But her soul has been called above ♪

♪ Body and soul, body and soul ♪

♪ That's how she loved
me with body and soul ♪

- I wanted my music to touch other people

that was raised up like I was raised up.

You want it to go from my
heart over to your heart

and let both of us hear it.

♪ Tomorrow as a sun sinks low ♪

♪ The shadows will cover her face ♪

♪ Her last sun goes down, as
she's laid beneath the ground ♪

♪ And my teardrops are falling like rain ♪

♪ Body and soul, body and soul ♪

♪ That's how she loved
me with body and soul ♪

♪ That's how she loved
me with body and soul ♪

- Monroe's resistance to
commercializing trends

left him outside the
mainstream of country music

until a new group of young
musicians and listeners

began to seek out the
sound of acoustic music.

(down tempo folk music)

- They gathered on
Cambridge street corners,

sang at the Newport Folk Festival,

played at coffeehouse hootenanny's,

and by the 1960's, bluegrass was swept up

in a folk music revival.

- Flipping the dial on the radio one day

I heard this sound.

I said, "Whatever this is, I like this."

And so I started to search you know,

your radio dial to find
more of this banjo,

mandolin, this harmony singing,

and I said,

"That makes my adrenaline move."

♪ Way down in the Blue Ridge Mountains ♪

♪ Way down where the tall pines grow ♪

♪ Lives my sweetheart of the mountain ♪

♪ She's my little Georgia rose ♪

The original bluegrass
sound was a combination

of certain acoustic instruments,

but it's not just the instruments.

You can teach someone to
be a tremendous musician,

but you can't teach them soul.

They have to have that.

♪ Now come and listen to my story ♪

♪ The story that I know is true ♪

♪ A little rose that blooms in Georgia ♪

♪ With hair of gold and heart so true ♪

♪ Way down in the Blue Ridge Mountains ♪

♪ Way down where the tall pines grow ♪

♪ Lives my sweetheart of the mountain ♪

♪ She's my little Georgia rose ♪

♪ We'd often sing old songs together ♪

♪ I watched her do little part ♪

♪ She'd smile at me
when I would tell her ♪

♪ That she was my sweetheart ♪

♪ Way down in the Blue Ridge Mountains ♪

♪ Way down where the tall pines grow ♪

♪ Lives my sweetheart of the mountain ♪

♪ She's my little Georgia rose ♪

(applause)

- In the late 60's, early 70's,

I played at an awful lot of the colleges

which got us into an
entirely different age group

and I was very, very surprised

and pleasantly so,

that these people did their homework,

they were interested in ground roots,

grass roots things,

where it came from that was
the most prevalent question

is not only "What is it?",
but "Where did it come from?",

"What's it all about?".

- The influence of country
music from the West coast

is felt even in the hippie
community of San Francisco.

The flower children are drawn

by the traditional bluegrass
music of Lester Flatt

and Earl Scruggs and
the Foggy Mountain Boys.

The purity of their
non-amplified string music

is not diluted by any circumstance,

not even by a psychedelic light
show at the Avalon Ballroom.

Several years back Earl
Scruggs told a writer,

"We're not about to forget
that the core of our fans

are people who get up in the mornin'

and bake a lot of biscuits."

And that holds today,

although maybe not in San Francisco.

- The folk revival created
a wider commercial market

for bluegrass.

The music became part of popular culture

through hit movies like,

'Deliverance', and 'Bonnie and Clyde'

and on television shows

where the hayseed image was exploited.

("The Ballad of Jed Clampett")

Flatt and Scruggs career skyrocketed

when the theme for the Beverly Hillbillies

hit number one on the country charts.

While they sang of
hillbillies hitting it rich,

other musicians sang about
more serious concerns.

♪ Over there in Vietnam
we brought another war ♪

♪ Well I know and they know ♪

♪ Just what we fightin' for in that war ♪

♪ A crazy Viet Nam war ♪

♪ Well I was a country boy
I lived down on the farm ♪

♪ Hadn't even killed enough
to done a body harm ♪

♪ 'Till that war ♪

♪ That crazy war... ♪

At a time when many
Americans were concerned

with the nation's political
and moral direction,

the counter-culture sought music closer

to the country's folk roots.

- In the 60's,

everybody in the world was
tired of all the synthetic

ridiculous things that
was being forced onto 'em,

and they all wanted to
get back to the earth,

back to the basics,

and bluegrass music really
helped take 'em there.

♪ Wish that I was on ol' Rocky Top ♪

♪ Down in the Tennessee hills ♪

♪ Ain't no smoggy smoke on Rocky Top ♪

♪ Ain't no telephone bills ♪

♪ Once I had a girl on Rocky Top ♪

♪ Half bear the other half cat ♪

♪ Wild as a mink but sweet as soda pop ♪

♪ I still dream about that ♪

♪ I've had years of cramped-up city life ♪

♪ Trapped like a duck in a pen ♪

♪ All I know is it's a pity life ♪

♪ Can't be simple again ♪

♪ Rocky Top, you'll always be ♪

♪ Home sweet home to me ♪

♪ Good old Rocky Top ♪

♪ Rocky Top, Tennessee ♪

♪ Rocky Top, Tennessee ♪

♪ Rocky Top, Tennessee ♪

(dreamy bluegrass tune)

- Bluegrass festivals began in the 1960's

bringing together for the first time

large groups of performers and audiences.

Festivals became a setting
for the masters of the music

to teach young musicians

who were experimenting with
new material and new styles.

- We liked folk music,

we just liked every kind
of acoustic we could find,

So through reading
about Sing Out! Magazine

we discovered they were gonna have

this bluegrass festival
in Roanoke, Virginia.

When we pulled up at the festival

and we realized that it's 9am

and there's tons of jamming going on,

boy it's all we could do is
just to get the car parked

and get 'em out and find
somebody to pick with.

What I loved the most
about those festivals,

I met a whole bunch of
people that were like me.

♪ I took my troubles down to Madame Ruth ♪

♪ You know that gypsy with
the gold-capped tooth ♪

♪ She's got a pad down on
Thirty-Fourth and Vine ♪

♪ Sellin' little bottles of
Love Potion Number Nine ♪

♪ She bent down and turned
around and gave me a wink ♪

♪ She said "I'm gonna mix it
up right here in the sink" ♪

♪ It smelled like turpentine
and looked like India ink ♪

♪ I held my nose ♪

♪ I closed my eyes ♪

♪ I took a drink ♪

- Early festivals drew diverse fans

from across the country

and musicians from around the world.

- The Bluegrass 45 from Tokyo, Japan.

- Thank you very much.

We really enjoy to play
here at Camp Springs.

Now we'd like to do a song that was done

by someone, you know,

they called it 'Mocking Banjo',

or some other one called
it 'Mocking Marmalade'

- That time bluegrass musicians
had to search each other out

so getting to see all
these professional acts

in one show was just overwhelming.

♪ You may not like my parents ♪

♪ And you may not like my song ♪

♪ Said you may not like the way I talk ♪

♪ But you like the way I go on ♪

♪ I'm a big horn man ♪

- When Ralph Stanley sang
'Man of Constant Sorrow'

the whole place fell apart.

♪ I am a man of constant sorrow ♪

♪ I've seen trouble all my days ♪

♪ I bid farewell to old Kentucky ♪

♪ The state where I was born and raised ♪

♪ Ruby ♪

The Osborne Brothers were
the rage of the festival.

♪ Ruby ♪

♪ Honey are you mad at your man? ♪

♪ If you don't believe I'm right ♪

♪ Just call on me tonight ♪

♪ Ill take you to your shady so cold ♪

♪ Oh, Ruby ♪

♪ Ruby ♪

♪ Honey are you ♪

♪ mad ♪

♪ at ♪

♪ your ♪

♪ man? ♪

When the bluegrass festival started

I just wanted to learn everybody's style.

I'm just a second generation guy

that had the good fortune

to be influenced by all these people.

But, Bill Monroe was the one
that turned me on the most

because he was the king
of the bluegrass mandolin.

The guy that started the whole style.

(intricate chords playing)

- Speaks to a lot of people
the bluegrass music does.

They can hear

in the music,

the feeling and everything they can,

it's right there.

And so that means a lot to
the people all over the world

and I'm proud of it.

- Musical tradition
that began by the hearth

of Monroe's childhood home,

is passed on today at bluegrass festivals

around the world.

There are festivals in Australia,

Czechoslovakia, Holland, England, France,

Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Japan,

and many more.

As Monroe learned from his Uncle Pen,

new generations learned from
the creators of the music

to carry on the legacy of bluegrass.

(celebratory bluegrass music)

(cheering)

- It's wonderful to be
at the same festival

as Bill Monroe, just to see

the man who created this music

that we're all enjoying so much.

If it weren't for him we
wouldn't be playing this music.

Bluegrass for me is such
a natural type of music.

No faders or any kind of
effects pedals on anything,

it's acoustic and that's
what really gets me into it.

♪ Hear a wind outside
blowin' loud and strong ♪

♪ Hear the mighty engines moan ♪

♪ I'll be far from here
when the sun comes up ♪

♪ And a love that has grown so cold ♪

♪ So don't follow me, don't follow me ♪

♪ I'm bound to a place I can't recall ♪

♪ I feel the big jets rise
through midnight skies ♪

♪ I'll search for the answers alone ♪

♪ And wait for the time to go home ♪

It can be difficult to be a woman playing.

A lot of people, "That's
not bluegrass, girl."

"Women can't play bluegrass.",

"Hey girl, you play like a man."

And then you've got people who think,

"Oh that's great that
you're expanding on it."

♪ I feel the wheels
touch down as I awake ♪

♪ From the dream I left with you ♪

♪ I hope a better day will find us soon ♪

♪ With a love we thought to be true ♪

♪ So don't follow me, don't follow me ♪

♪ I'm bound to a place
I can't recall... ♪

When I started singing I was a big fan

of a lot of male singers.

Bill Monroe for one, Ralph
Stanley I'm a big fan of.

I'd listen to them sing,

and that's the only way
that they could sing.

They don't put anything slick in there,

all you're hearing is
the sound of their voice.

When you hear them sing
it's like they talk,

and they have great
words and great melodies.

♪ She lives all alone
on a dark windy street ♪

♪ In a room at the top of the stairs ♪

- In a 'Room at the Top of the Stairs',

it's about this girl,

she's done some things wrong in life

she thinks maybe her boyfriend
shouldn't take it too well.

But he tries to let
her know that he wishes

he'd a been there when she was a girl

and he's sure that things
would've went different.

♪ She talks about the past
the sorrow and regret ♪

♪ She cries about the gray in her hair ♪

♪ I love her so much but
she just won't believe ♪

♪ That any man alive could ever care ♪

- What makes a difference
between a great singer

and one that's just kinda singin'

is that you can feel
the song they're singing

and it's just so soulful.

- He is the voice of the heart,

Mr. Mac Wiseman.

(cheers and applause)

- Keep on gently on the
chorus and sing along

and clap ya hands,

would ya do that?

'Keep on the Sunny Side of Life'

♪ There's a dark and a
troubled side of life ♪

♪ There's a bright and a sunny side too ♪

♪ Tho' we meet with the
darkness and strife ♪

♪ The sunny side we also may view ♪

♪ Keep on the sunny side ♪

♪ Always on the sunny side ♪

♪ Keep on the sunny side of life ♪

♪ It will help us ev'ry day ♪

♪ It will brighten all the way ♪

♪ If we'll keep on the
sunny side of life ♪

- I'm exposed to so many new bands,

going in as a solo and then backing me,

I think we've got a good
farm team coming on.

But, whether there'll
be anymore Bill Monroe's

or Mac Wiseman's or Lester
Flatt's, people like that

I really don't know,

but these kids hear things

that I didn't realize was ever there.

- We do types of music that
have a little wider appeal

than a straight traditional band.

We've taken rock 'n roll tunes

and made 'em into a bluegrass tune.

♪ I know you rider gonna
miss me when I'm gone ♪

♪ I know you rider gonna
miss me when I'm gone ♪

♪ Gonna miss your baby
from rolling in your arms ♪

The way we play resembles jazz

because for the most part it's free form.

♪ Gonna miss your baby
rolling in your arms ♪

(applause)

- Bluegrass has to grow to stay alive

just like any music it has to grow,

you know, some new things have
to come into it all the time.

It's based on the traditions
that have been set

but it also grows with every person

who brings something new into it.

♪ I told her I was fishin' for an excuse ♪

♪ She knows different so it ain't no use ♪

♪ Lordy, Lordy, Lordy got
them dog house blues ♪

♪ Well I went in the
house started the fire ♪

♪ She kicked me out in
the middle of the night ♪

♪ Lordy, Lordy, Lordy got
them dog house blues ♪

♪ Ain't no use talkin' I
got the dog house blues ♪

By taking the elements
bluegrass was created from

and adding to 'em,

it can still be bluegrass and
it can be fresh and exciting.

♪ I was out in the yard mad as I can be ♪

♪ Said to little doggy,
"Make room for me" ♪

♪ Lordy, Lordy, Lordy got
them dog house blues ♪

(howling)

♪ Ain't no use barkin' I
got the dog house blues ♪

♪ Ain't no use barkin' I
got the dog house blues ♪

(barking)

(howls)

- High in the hills of old Kentucky

there's a soft spot in my memory.

I'm on my way back to the old home

the light in the window I long to see.

♪ There's an old house ♪

♪ that once was a mansion ♪

♪ On a hill overlooking the town ♪

♪ But time left a wreckage ♪

♪ where once there were beauty ♪

♪ And soon the old
house will tumble down ♪

♪ But when the rain
starts to fall, you know ♪

♪ The rain starts to drip from the tree ♪

♪ There's an old man ♪

♪ who walks in the garden ♪

♪ And his head is bowed in memory ♪

♪ And his head is bowed in memory ♪

(cheering)

- The father of bluegrass
music, Mr. Bill Monroe.

(applause)

♪ Back in the days of my childhood ♪

♪ In the evening when
everything was still ♪

♪ I used to sit and
listen to the fox hounds ♪

♪ With my dad in the old Kentucky hills ♪

♪ I'm on my way back to the old home ♪

♪ The road winds on up the hill ♪

♪ But there's no light in the window ♪

♪ That shined long ago where I lived ♪

♪ Soon my childhood days were over ♪

♪ I had to leave my old home ♪

♪ For dad and mom was called to heaven ♪

♪ I was left in this world all alone ♪

♪ I'm on my way back to the old home ♪

♪ The road winds on up the hill ♪

♪ But there's no light in the window ♪

♪ That shined long ago where I lived ♪

♪ High in the hills of old Kentucky ♪

♪ Stands the fondest part in my memory ♪

♪ I'm on my way back to the old home ♪

♪ The light in the window I long to see ♪

♪ I'm on my way back to the old home ♪

♪ The road winds on up the hill ♪

♪ But there's no light in the window ♪

♪ That shined long ago where I lived ♪

♪ I'm on my way back to the old home ♪

♪ The road winds on up the hill ♪

♪ But there's no light in the window ♪

♪ That shined long ago where I lived ♪

(spirited bluegrass music)