Roots and Branches: American Music on Screen
May 08, 2008
Sponsored by KBCS 91.3 FM and Easy Street Records
NARRATED BY TOM SAUBER, MARK GRAHAM AND ORVILLE JOHNSON, FOLLOWED BY LIVE SET OF MUSIC BY THE KINGS OF MONGREL FOLK
This musical trip back in time features motion picture and newsreel footage from the 1920s and 30s of country, blues and jazz performers. Clips range from the iconic Jimmie Rodgers, Bob Wills and early jazz masters Ted Weems and Frank Westphal, to anonymous jugs bands, fiddlers and field hands. The footage captures musicians at work in a vanished America – at barn dances, street corners, fiddler conventions and in the fields. Tom Sauber, Mark Graham and Orville Johnson will share their encyclopedic knowledge of Americana and old-time music as they narrate these rarely seen film clips. The trio will also perform a set of their own music, inspired and informed by blues, bluegrass and American roots music.