Browse content similar to Aly Bain's America. Check below for episodes and series from the same categories and more!
Line | From | To | |
---|---|---|---|
These wonderful fingers belong to an old friend of mine. | 0:00:09 | 0:00:12 | |
Aly Bain grew up in Shetland | 0:00:16 | 0:00:18 | |
and came here to Edinburgh | 0:00:18 | 0:00:20 | |
in his early 20s to try to make a living as a musician. | 0:00:20 | 0:00:23 | |
He's lived here ever since. | 0:00:23 | 0:00:25 | |
In a 50-year career, | 0:00:29 | 0:00:30 | |
he's travelled all over the world and won international recognition | 0:00:30 | 0:00:34 | |
as one of the finest fiddle players of his or any other generation. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:38 | |
In celebration of Aly's 70th birthday, | 0:00:45 | 0:00:47 | |
we're taking a look back at the ground-breaking TV programmes | 0:00:47 | 0:00:51 | |
he did in the 1980s, | 0:00:51 | 0:00:52 | |
which took him from Kentucky and North Carolina | 0:00:52 | 0:00:55 | |
to Texas, Louisiana and Nashville, | 0:00:55 | 0:00:57 | |
meeting and playing with some of the all-time greats | 0:00:57 | 0:01:01 | |
of American traditional music. | 0:01:01 | 0:01:03 | |
'It's easy to get sentimental and overstate the connection | 0:01:20 | 0:01:23 | |
'between American country music and Scotland. | 0:01:23 | 0:01:25 | |
'We've each of us, after all, | 0:01:25 | 0:01:27 | |
'got 16 great-great-grandparents, | 0:01:27 | 0:01:29 | |
'and each one of them has 16, too. | 0:01:29 | 0:01:31 | |
'An important part of the American tradition IS Scottish - | 0:01:34 | 0:01:38 | |
'The fiddle tunes, ballads and so on that Scottish emigrants | 0:01:38 | 0:01:41 | |
'took with them across the Atlantic - | 0:01:41 | 0:01:43 | |
'but that 3,000 miles of sea two or three hundred years ago | 0:01:43 | 0:01:47 | |
'was only the start of it. | 0:01:47 | 0:01:48 | |
'There was a long way to go.' | 0:01:48 | 0:01:50 | |
Aly, when did you first visit the States? | 0:01:52 | 0:01:56 | |
In about 1970. | 0:01:56 | 0:01:59 | |
It was an amazing experience. Aye. | 0:01:59 | 0:02:02 | |
We just drove around in this old Volvo all around the East Coast | 0:02:02 | 0:02:05 | |
and went up as far as Canada. | 0:02:05 | 0:02:07 | |
It was the experience of a lifetime, really. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
And you played the college circuit, didn't you, | 0:02:10 | 0:02:13 | |
when you went with the Boys of the Lough? | 0:02:13 | 0:02:15 | |
We did, yeah. | 0:02:15 | 0:02:16 | |
And what...was that a deliberate choice? | 0:02:16 | 0:02:18 | |
I mean, did you kind of deliberately snub the St Andrews Society circuit? | 0:02:18 | 0:02:23 | |
Absolutely. We didn't want to get involved in the expat thing. Aye. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:28 | |
We wanted to play for Americans and so we played the college circuit | 0:02:28 | 0:02:32 | |
and folk clubs and not the St Andrews kind of things | 0:02:32 | 0:02:36 | |
that people would come in a kilt and say, "Guess my name". | 0:02:36 | 0:02:39 | |
I would say, "Is that the McBucket tartan?" | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:02:42 | 0:02:44 | |
Aly's decision to avoid tartan nostalgia brought opportunities | 0:02:54 | 0:02:58 | |
to explore and learn from the range and richness | 0:02:58 | 0:03:02 | |
of what we now call Americana. | 0:03:02 | 0:03:04 | |
From the Appalachian hill country, | 0:03:04 | 0:03:06 | |
JP Fraley was known as the dean of East Kentucky fiddle music. | 0:03:06 | 0:03:10 | |
Yeah, that's a beautiful tune. | 0:03:46 | 0:03:47 | |
The Wild Rose Of The Mountain. Thank you. | 0:03:47 | 0:03:49 | |
JP, you've been collecting music from around this part | 0:03:49 | 0:03:52 | |
for years, haven't you, off and on? | 0:03:52 | 0:03:54 | |
Well, I didn't actually realise it, Aly, | 0:03:54 | 0:03:57 | |
but when I started to play the fiddle, | 0:03:57 | 0:03:58 | |
that day I started collecting fiddle tunes, | 0:03:58 | 0:04:02 | |
which all fiddlers know, and I was lucky, I guess, | 0:04:02 | 0:04:06 | |
to grow up in a part of Kentucky | 0:04:06 | 0:04:08 | |
where that I grew up at that particular time, | 0:04:08 | 0:04:11 | |
cos there were several fiddlers around close | 0:04:11 | 0:04:14 | |
that was fiddling East Kentucky fiddle, we called it, | 0:04:14 | 0:04:18 | |
but it was fiddling, er, distinctly different styles. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:22 | |
Yeah, I was talking to Mike Seeger earlier on | 0:04:22 | 0:04:25 | |
and he was saying that around about the late '50s, | 0:04:25 | 0:04:28 | |
there wasn't much of this music being played around here. | 0:04:28 | 0:04:31 | |
In fact, he made a kind of a strange remark. | 0:04:31 | 0:04:33 | |
He said that actually, people were ashamed of it sometimes. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:37 | |
Why would that be? | 0:04:37 | 0:04:39 | |
Well, they were, because after World War II, the Kentucky... | 0:04:39 | 0:04:46 | |
the backwoods or backland part of Kentucky was opened up - | 0:04:46 | 0:04:50 | |
the roads were better and so forth and the advent of television, | 0:04:50 | 0:04:55 | |
better radio, better communications, | 0:04:55 | 0:04:57 | |
and the people, they begin to hear and see done, you know, other music, | 0:04:57 | 0:05:02 | |
other than what they grew up with - their heritage or tradition, | 0:05:02 | 0:05:06 | |
and they were ashamed of the music, | 0:05:06 | 0:05:10 | |
because, seemingly, some places that was well-known for country music, | 0:05:10 | 0:05:15 | |
or mountain music as we called it, | 0:05:15 | 0:05:18 | |
they satirised the fiddler as a drinking, fighting roustabout | 0:05:18 | 0:05:23 | |
and, er, you know, various things that wasn't... | 0:05:23 | 0:05:28 | |
didn't have too much character. | 0:05:28 | 0:05:29 | |
He became a person that was not very well educated, | 0:05:29 | 0:05:34 | |
played what I call gum-stop fiddle - | 0:05:34 | 0:05:36 | |
you know, a bunch of squeaks and cracks and carrying on | 0:05:36 | 0:05:39 | |
which we've heard on some of the old records that was... Yeah. | 0:05:39 | 0:05:43 | |
..actually some of the people thought | 0:05:43 | 0:05:46 | |
that that was really the way it all was. | 0:05:46 | 0:05:49 | |
And JP Fraley, what was his story? | 0:05:54 | 0:05:57 | |
JP was a miner. | 0:05:57 | 0:05:58 | |
He'd worked down the mines and educated himself | 0:05:58 | 0:06:02 | |
out of down the mines into selling equipment and so on | 0:06:02 | 0:06:06 | |
and he was a guy who loved old-time music. | 0:06:06 | 0:06:10 | |
Did he write these? No, he collected. | 0:06:10 | 0:06:12 | |
He just collected them? | 0:06:12 | 0:06:13 | |
But they're beautiful tunes and they would have been lost without JP. | 0:06:13 | 0:06:16 | |
Exactly. So, it was just great to meet him and play with him. | 0:06:16 | 0:06:21 | |
Aye, aye. | 0:06:21 | 0:06:22 | |
There was this revival of music, | 0:06:54 | 0:06:56 | |
of Americans finding out who they were... Uh-huh. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:01 | |
..and it was getting away from Doris Day into the new America. | 0:07:01 | 0:07:04 | |
Right. And boy, was it some revolution! | 0:07:04 | 0:07:08 | |
All this music - JP Fraley, all these people - | 0:07:08 | 0:07:11 | |
they came out of the folk revival. | 0:07:11 | 0:07:14 | |
They were almost forgotten. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:15 | |
People wanted to know who they were | 0:07:15 | 0:07:17 | |
and what their roots were and where they came from. Aye, aye. | 0:07:17 | 0:07:20 | |
And it wasn't just this house with a garage | 0:07:20 | 0:07:23 | |
and a TV and a washing machine. | 0:07:23 | 0:07:25 | |
It was something else. They wanted to find out who they really were. | 0:07:25 | 0:07:28 | |
BANJO PLAYS | 0:07:28 | 0:07:30 | |
Aly had one memorable encounter that took him almost beyond music | 0:07:36 | 0:07:40 | |
and right to the heart of the American South. | 0:07:40 | 0:07:43 | |
When Aly met her, Elizabeth Cotten was 92 years old. | 0:07:43 | 0:07:47 | |
That's Georgie Buck. | 0:07:52 | 0:07:54 | |
Yeah, that was lovely. | 0:07:55 | 0:07:57 | |
Where did you, um... | 0:07:57 | 0:07:58 | |
did you learn your music at home when you were growing up? | 0:07:58 | 0:08:00 | |
I learned my music in my home. | 0:08:00 | 0:08:03 | |
When I was 11 years old, I went to work and bought myself a guitar. | 0:08:03 | 0:08:08 | |
When my mother would leave home to go to work, | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
after mother was gone, I'd get up and put my dress on | 0:08:11 | 0:08:15 | |
and go down among where the white people lived, | 0:08:15 | 0:08:18 | |
and I'd knock on the door. | 0:08:18 | 0:08:20 | |
Someone would come to the door, | 0:08:20 | 0:08:22 | |
and I'd say, "Miss, would you like someone to work for you?" | 0:08:22 | 0:08:26 | |
And they sometimes said, "No, nothing." | 0:08:26 | 0:08:30 | |
I knocked on one lady's door, and when she opened the door, she says, | 0:08:30 | 0:08:35 | |
"What could a little girl like you do?" She hired me. | 0:08:35 | 0:08:39 | |
I said, "Miss, I can sweep your kitchen. | 0:08:39 | 0:08:41 | |
"I'll help with the vegetables. I can set your table." | 0:08:41 | 0:08:45 | |
I say, "You know, I can make a fire in your woodstove." | 0:08:45 | 0:08:48 | |
She cooked on a iron stove then. | 0:08:48 | 0:08:51 | |
Y'all know about them? | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
Yeah. No, you don't. You heard about them - but I did. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:56 | |
I knew how to make a fire in this iron stove, | 0:08:56 | 0:09:00 | |
to make it draw, so she could cook. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:02 | |
So she says to me, "Come in." | 0:09:02 | 0:09:04 | |
When I went into her house, I started to work for her that day. | 0:09:04 | 0:09:08 | |
And I worked for her until she left Chapel Hill. | 0:09:08 | 0:09:13 | |
And she paid me 75 cents a month. | 0:09:13 | 0:09:19 | |
Well, I didn't know 75 cents wasn't much money. | 0:09:19 | 0:09:22 | |
It was a lot of money to me. I'd never worked before. | 0:09:22 | 0:09:26 | |
So one morning, she came in the kitchen, she says, | 0:09:26 | 0:09:29 | |
"We're going to give you more money," | 0:09:29 | 0:09:31 | |
and she gave me, then, after that, one dollar a month. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:36 | |
And I gave that to my mother, and I said, "Buy me this guitar." | 0:09:36 | 0:09:39 | |
So she bought it to her sorrow. | 0:09:39 | 0:09:41 | |
She didn't get no more rest. SHE STRUMS | 0:09:41 | 0:09:44 | |
See, I was just playing this all the time. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:46 | |
I couldn't play it - just making a noise. | 0:09:46 | 0:09:49 | |
She stormed to me, and tell me to... | 0:09:49 | 0:09:52 | |
She called me babe. "Babe, put that thing down and go to bed." | 0:09:52 | 0:09:57 | |
I said, "Momma, I'm learning a new song." | 0:09:57 | 0:09:59 | |
I weren't learning no song, cos I didn't know one then. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:02 | |
I didn't know no song then. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:04 | |
That was wonderful, wasn't it? Oh, something else. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:07 | |
I have to say, when I first watched the series back in the '80s, | 0:10:07 | 0:10:10 | |
I completely fell in love with her. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:12 | |
Yeah, she... It's not difficult. Cos one of the things I found | 0:10:12 | 0:10:16 | |
very moving about watching her was actually watching somebody | 0:10:16 | 0:10:19 | |
who had a physical connection back to the days of the slave trade. | 0:10:19 | 0:10:25 | |
Yeah, her grandmother was a slave. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:26 | |
Aye, so presumably, she would have been alive | 0:10:26 | 0:10:28 | |
when her grandmother was alive. | 0:10:28 | 0:10:29 | |
Yes, and known slavery. | 0:10:29 | 0:10:31 | |
I can't imagine what life must have been like, | 0:10:31 | 0:10:33 | |
the things that she saw growing up. No. I mean, her music, | 0:10:33 | 0:10:36 | |
she learned herself when she was young and then, | 0:10:36 | 0:10:39 | |
she got married and didn't play for years and years | 0:10:39 | 0:10:43 | |
and, really by accident, got a job as a housekeeper | 0:10:43 | 0:10:47 | |
for Pete Seeger's family, | 0:10:47 | 0:10:49 | |
cos she found a little child once, | 0:10:49 | 0:10:51 | |
it had run away one day and she found it, | 0:10:51 | 0:10:53 | |
and they liked her so much that they gave her a job. | 0:10:53 | 0:10:56 | |
But they didn't know that she was musical. No. | 0:10:56 | 0:10:58 | |
They had no idea and then, when they found out, of course, | 0:10:58 | 0:11:02 | |
that was the start of her new career. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:04 | |
If she is remembered for anything, | 0:11:04 | 0:11:07 | |
it's going to be one folk song in particular. | 0:11:07 | 0:11:09 | |
Yeah. Freight Train. Yeah, Freight Train. | 0:11:09 | 0:11:12 | |
I mean, most people who don't know much about folk music | 0:11:12 | 0:11:14 | |
will probably have heard Freight Train, | 0:11:14 | 0:11:16 | |
because it's been so widely recorded. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:17 | |
Oh, it's sold millions of records. Yeah. | 0:11:17 | 0:11:20 | |
Such a simple, beautiful, simple... Isn't it? | 0:11:20 | 0:11:23 | |
And she's a great guitar player. Lovely. | 0:11:23 | 0:11:25 | |
I mean, really beautiful guitar playing. Oh, yeah - the expression, | 0:11:25 | 0:11:28 | |
the hesitations, the little bluesy notes. | 0:11:28 | 0:11:31 | |
But she's written these songs and she was performing all over America. | 0:11:31 | 0:11:35 | |
She won a Grammy. | 0:11:35 | 0:11:37 | |
We got nominated for a Grammy and she won it. | 0:11:37 | 0:11:39 | |
Wow! We didn't mind that! Wow! | 0:11:39 | 0:11:42 | |
# Freight train, freight train run so fast | 0:11:46 | 0:11:56 | |
# Please don't tell what train I'm on | 0:11:57 | 0:12:02 | |
# They won't know what route I'm gone | 0:12:02 | 0:12:07 | |
# When I am dead and in my grave | 0:12:07 | 0:12:13 | |
# No more good times here I crave | 0:12:13 | 0:12:18 | |
# Place the stones at my head and feet | 0:12:18 | 0:12:23 | |
# Tell them all that I'm gone to sleep | 0:12:23 | 0:12:27 | |
# When I die, Lord, bury me deep | 0:12:38 | 0:12:44 | |
# Way down on old Chestnut Street | 0:12:44 | 0:12:49 | |
# Then I can't hear old Number Nine | 0:12:49 | 0:12:53 | |
# As she comes rolling by | 0:12:53 | 0:12:58 | |
# Freight train, freight train run so fast | 0:12:59 | 0:13:10 | |
# Please don't tell what train I'm on | 0:13:10 | 0:13:14 | |
# They won't know what route I'm gone. # | 0:13:14 | 0:13:19 | |
Largely thanks to you, it has to be said, | 0:14:03 | 0:14:07 | |
Appalachian music, or Americana, as it's now called, | 0:14:07 | 0:14:10 | |
is now hugely popular. | 0:14:10 | 0:14:12 | |
But its roots are Scottish and Irish. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:14 | |
How did that come about? | 0:14:14 | 0:14:16 | |
Well, the early settlers down in that part of the world | 0:14:16 | 0:14:19 | |
were Ulster Scots and Scots | 0:14:19 | 0:14:21 | |
and of course, the Ulster Scots were really Scots, | 0:14:21 | 0:14:24 | |
just slightly removed. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:25 | |
Uh-huh. The same music, the same... | 0:14:25 | 0:14:28 | |
They all ended up down in the southern states there | 0:14:28 | 0:14:32 | |
and the musical influence is there for everyone to hear. | 0:14:32 | 0:14:36 | |
Jean Ritchie there - her family were major collectors of music | 0:14:36 | 0:14:41 | |
in Kentucky and I think she moved to New York in the '40s, | 0:14:41 | 0:14:45 | |
and she knew Bob Dylan and all these guys | 0:14:45 | 0:14:48 | |
who were starting to revive music, | 0:14:48 | 0:14:51 | |
and she became a huge part of American music, | 0:14:51 | 0:14:54 | |
and they call her the mother of American folk song, | 0:14:54 | 0:14:57 | |
which she probably is. | 0:14:57 | 0:14:58 | |
# Yes, I want to go to heaven just the same as any man | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
# I want to go to heaven just the same as any man | 0:15:01 | 0:15:03 | |
# I want to go to heaven just the same as any man | 0:15:03 | 0:15:05 | |
# but I can't go to heaven with a possum in my hand | 0:15:05 | 0:15:07 | |
# Hop up, my ladies, three in a row Hop up, my ladies, three in a row | 0:15:07 | 0:15:12 | |
# Hop up, my ladies, three in a row | 0:15:12 | 0:15:14 | |
# Don't mind the weather when the wind don't blow. # | 0:15:14 | 0:15:17 | |
That was a great old tune called - Uncle Joe, you call it? | 0:15:50 | 0:15:53 | |
Uncle Joe, in the mountains here. Yeah, we call it McLeod's reel. | 0:15:53 | 0:15:56 | |
I suppose it's had a long journey over here. Yeah. | 0:15:56 | 0:15:59 | |
Found a home in the mountains here in Kentucky. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:01 | |
You're the only one of us here today | 0:16:01 | 0:16:03 | |
that's from this area, from Perry County. Mm. | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
You were born and raised here, weren't you? | 0:16:06 | 0:16:09 | |
Yes, I always tell people I live in Viper, seven miles north of Hazard. | 0:16:09 | 0:16:14 | |
It's a dangerous country! | 0:16:14 | 0:16:15 | |
Your family and yourself have been collecting songs here | 0:16:15 | 0:16:19 | |
and, you know, ballads from around this area for many years. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:22 | |
Yes, we saved them, actually, from when we... | 0:16:22 | 0:16:24 | |
when the ancestors used to live in Britain. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:29 | |
They just came over with the great-grandfathers, | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
the great-great-grandfathers, I guess, | 0:16:32 | 0:16:35 | |
and they've been in the family since, most of them. | 0:16:35 | 0:16:37 | |
Now, the banjo player there, was Mike Seeger. Yeah. | 0:16:37 | 0:16:40 | |
Why is he important? Well, he's Pete Seeger's brother, if you like. | 0:16:40 | 0:16:45 | |
The Seeger family are, of course, huge in American folk music, | 0:16:45 | 0:16:49 | |
and Mike Seeger played the banjo, | 0:16:49 | 0:16:51 | |
he played the fiddle, he played guitar, | 0:16:51 | 0:16:53 | |
a singer and they were involved in all kinds, | 0:16:53 | 0:16:56 | |
all kinds of American folk music. | 0:16:56 | 0:16:58 | |
Very important people, if you like, in the revival. | 0:16:58 | 0:17:01 | |
Mike, I was going to talk to you about... | 0:17:02 | 0:17:05 | |
I suppose, the revival of old-time music, | 0:17:05 | 0:17:07 | |
which you are instrumental in. | 0:17:07 | 0:17:09 | |
My parents, well, they were trained, classically trained musicians, | 0:17:09 | 0:17:12 | |
but they...discovered, I guess you'd say, | 0:17:12 | 0:17:15 | |
this kind of music in the '30s | 0:17:15 | 0:17:16 | |
and they brought me and Peggy and Barbara and Penny up | 0:17:16 | 0:17:20 | |
on this kind of music. | 0:17:20 | 0:17:21 | |
Got Pete interested, too. Yeah. | 0:17:21 | 0:17:23 | |
You formed the New Lost City Ramblers - when, in the late '50s? | 0:17:23 | 0:17:27 | |
Yeah, there was a bunch of people from the cities, like myself, | 0:17:27 | 0:17:30 | |
mostly in the north, | 0:17:30 | 0:17:32 | |
who got interested in this kind of music in the '50s | 0:17:32 | 0:17:34 | |
and started playing the music then, | 0:17:34 | 0:17:37 | |
and just it widened out and widened out | 0:17:37 | 0:17:40 | |
to where there was thousands of people playing fiddles and banjos. | 0:17:40 | 0:17:43 | |
# Wake up, wake up, darling Corey | 0:17:45 | 0:17:49 | |
# What makes you sleep so sound | 0:17:49 | 0:17:53 | |
# The revenue officer coming | 0:17:53 | 0:17:57 | |
# They're going to take your stillhouse down | 0:17:57 | 0:18:01 | |
# Well, the last time I seen darling Corey | 0:18:09 | 0:18:13 | |
# Was on the banks of the deep blue sea | 0:18:13 | 0:18:17 | |
# A few pistols around her body | 0:18:17 | 0:18:20 | |
# And a banjo on her knee | 0:18:20 | 0:18:25 | |
# Wake up, wake up, darling Corey | 0:18:37 | 0:18:41 | |
# And go get me my gun | 0:18:41 | 0:18:45 | |
# I ain't no man for trouble | 0:18:45 | 0:18:49 | |
# But I'll die before I run | 0:18:49 | 0:18:52 | |
# Oh, dig a hole in the meadow | 0:19:00 | 0:19:04 | |
# Go and dig a hole in the ground | 0:19:04 | 0:19:08 | |
# Go dig a hole in the meadow | 0:19:08 | 0:19:11 | |
# Gonna lay darling Corey down. # | 0:19:11 | 0:19:15 | |
That's a lovely song. Oh, yeah. I love it - I love the banjo. Yeah. | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
And I love the thing that Mike Seeger was doing there, | 0:19:27 | 0:19:29 | |
when they play it up the neck, | 0:19:29 | 0:19:31 | |
because it gives it a very, very soft tone. Yeah. | 0:19:31 | 0:19:34 | |
Not that kind of plunky thing, but a really soft, mellow tone. | 0:19:34 | 0:19:37 | |
Yeah, I know. But all that came out of the same revival. | 0:19:37 | 0:19:40 | |
It all flourished after that. Aye, aye, aye. | 0:19:40 | 0:19:43 | |
Why is the fiddle so important? | 0:19:43 | 0:19:46 | |
How did it become so important in Appalachian music? | 0:19:46 | 0:19:50 | |
Well, I think, first of all, it was portable. Right. | 0:19:50 | 0:19:52 | |
You could stick it under your arm - | 0:19:52 | 0:19:54 | |
and when people emigrated, they took fiddles with them. | 0:19:54 | 0:19:57 | |
They played on the boats on the way over... Right. | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
..which took weeks. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:01 | |
They had ceilidhs and there was fiddle... | 0:20:01 | 0:20:03 | |
You always see on these old emigration boats, | 0:20:03 | 0:20:05 | |
you could see guys...there's always somebody playing the fiddle. | 0:20:05 | 0:20:08 | |
One of the grand old men of the American folk revival | 0:20:15 | 0:20:18 | |
when Aly got to know him, North Carolina's Tommy Jarrell | 0:20:18 | 0:20:22 | |
was a master of the clawhammer banjo style as well as the fiddle | 0:20:22 | 0:20:26 | |
and he had a voice that came straight out of the backwoods. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:30 | |
# Can't stay here if you can't shuck corn | 0:20:31 | 0:20:33 | |
# Susannah | 0:20:33 | 0:20:35 | |
# Can't stay here if you can't shuck corn | 0:20:35 | 0:20:37 | |
# Susannah gal | 0:20:37 | 0:20:39 | |
# It rained all night the day I left the weather it was dry | 0:20:39 | 0:20:43 | |
# The sun so hot I froze to death | 0:20:43 | 0:20:44 | |
# Susannah, don't you cry. # | 0:20:45 | 0:20:47 | |
That's fabulous! | 0:20:58 | 0:20:59 | |
I think it's safe to say that as far as Americana music goes, | 0:20:59 | 0:21:03 | |
Tommy Jarrell's the real deal. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:05 | |
Would you agree? Oh, he's the man. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:06 | |
Aye. There's no question about it. Tommy is the real thing. | 0:21:06 | 0:21:10 | |
I'd met him in, I think, Asheville, North Carolina. | 0:21:10 | 0:21:13 | |
We played down there many years before and they told me this fiddler | 0:21:13 | 0:21:18 | |
was going to play for the dance after, a guy called Tommy Jarrell. | 0:21:18 | 0:21:21 | |
We heard him then, and he was a lot younger then, | 0:21:21 | 0:21:25 | |
and, boy, when he was in his 40s, | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
I would have loved to have heard him playing then, cos he was a natural. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:32 | |
That's great, Tommy. The Arkansas Traveller. | 0:21:57 | 0:22:00 | |
You've been playing the fiddle around here all your life, then? | 0:22:00 | 0:22:03 | |
Well, ever since I was 13 years old. | 0:22:03 | 0:22:05 | |
I've been trying! | 0:22:05 | 0:22:06 | |
And you learned it from your father? | 0:22:06 | 0:22:08 | |
That's right. | 0:22:08 | 0:22:09 | |
And you had an uncle? Uncle Charlie. Yeah. | 0:22:09 | 0:22:13 | |
Well, I've learned a few tunes from other fellas, you know, | 0:22:13 | 0:22:16 | |
but I started out with them. | 0:22:16 | 0:22:17 | |
And what did your daddy do around here? | 0:22:18 | 0:22:21 | |
Well, he was a farmer and a moonshiner and a store owner and... | 0:22:21 | 0:22:25 | |
HE LAUGHS | 0:22:25 | 0:22:26 | |
There seems to be a lot of moonshine down here. Is that right? | 0:22:26 | 0:22:28 | |
Well, the land was so poor up where I was raised | 0:22:28 | 0:22:33 | |
that you had to do something besides trying to farm to make a living. | 0:22:33 | 0:22:37 | |
I made a crop of tobacco and it, like, | 0:22:37 | 0:22:40 | |
two dollars and a half pound to fertilise, and I said, | 0:22:40 | 0:22:43 | |
"Well, I'll never make no more tobacco," | 0:22:43 | 0:22:45 | |
and I went to moonshining there. | 0:22:45 | 0:22:47 | |
And my daddy, he got a contract to go out to South Dakota | 0:22:47 | 0:22:50 | |
to make some whisky and he backed out | 0:22:50 | 0:22:52 | |
and he asked me if I wanted to go do the job. | 0:22:52 | 0:22:54 | |
I said, "Yeah, I'll go." Was it good stuff? Yeah! | 0:22:54 | 0:22:57 | |
As good a whisky as you ever drinked. Yeah. | 0:22:57 | 0:22:59 | |
But it was right after World War I, | 0:22:59 | 0:23:04 | |
Them folks was all broke out there. | 0:23:04 | 0:23:06 | |
I made 600 gallons of whisky out there. | 0:23:06 | 0:23:08 | |
Of course, I got the most of it stole. Our partner stole it! | 0:23:08 | 0:23:11 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:23:11 | 0:23:12 | |
I had his brother-in-law, too. | 0:23:12 | 0:23:16 | |
I, like, never got enough money to get home on. | 0:23:16 | 0:23:20 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:23:20 | 0:23:23 | |
And I stopped out in West Virginia and made some out there - | 0:23:23 | 0:23:27 | |
before I got home! | 0:23:27 | 0:23:29 | |
You were leaving a trail of whisky all across this country! Oh, Lord! | 0:23:29 | 0:23:33 | |
I left home with 100 dollars and a ticket and I got off the train | 0:23:33 | 0:23:39 | |
with 16 dollars and a half | 0:23:39 | 0:23:41 | |
and I was gone, like, in eight days, six months. | 0:23:41 | 0:23:43 | |
That's how good I done at moonshinin'! | 0:23:43 | 0:23:45 | |
I was thinking, you know, to go from tobacco, supplying tobacco, | 0:23:50 | 0:23:55 | |
to moonshine, to playing the fiddle as a career, | 0:23:55 | 0:23:58 | |
d'you think there's a connection there somehow, | 0:23:58 | 0:24:00 | |
do you think there's a link? | 0:24:00 | 0:24:01 | |
It's all bad for you, that's it! | 0:24:01 | 0:24:04 | |
Fiddlers always... Illicit pleasure! | 0:24:04 | 0:24:06 | |
Aye, bad for you! Aye, aye! | 0:24:06 | 0:24:08 | |
But Tommy, well, as you saw, he was in his 80s there | 0:24:08 | 0:24:13 | |
and he's full of beans and we had a great day with him. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:16 | |
Just a great day and he's just a pleasure to be with, | 0:24:16 | 0:24:20 | |
and to play with. | 0:24:20 | 0:24:21 | |
Away 1,000 miles to the west of the Appalachians is Texas, | 0:24:25 | 0:24:30 | |
home of a very different style of fiddle playing. | 0:24:30 | 0:24:33 | |
They call it Texas swing. | 0:24:33 | 0:24:35 | |
In Austin, Aly had a session | 0:24:35 | 0:24:37 | |
with one of its greatest swingers - Johnny Gimble. | 0:24:37 | 0:24:41 | |
Now, I like the kind of back porch, | 0:25:01 | 0:25:04 | |
down homey stuff we've been watching up to now. | 0:25:04 | 0:25:07 | |
You're in a room where the walls are covered | 0:25:07 | 0:25:11 | |
in silver, gold, platinum discs. | 0:25:11 | 0:25:14 | |
Yes. Tell me about Johnny Gimble. | 0:25:14 | 0:25:17 | |
Johnny Gimble is a Texas swing fiddler who played with Bob Wills. | 0:25:17 | 0:25:23 | |
To play with Bob Wills, that's Texas swing. | 0:25:23 | 0:25:27 | |
And they toured all over America in a bus, these guys, | 0:25:27 | 0:25:31 | |
and played for dances. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:33 | |
They didn't play concerts. They played for... | 0:25:33 | 0:25:34 | |
Thousands of people would come and they would play these massive dances | 0:25:34 | 0:25:38 | |
and that's how they made their money - | 0:25:38 | 0:25:40 | |
but Texas swing and that kind of fiddle playing | 0:25:40 | 0:25:44 | |
meant that he was in huge demand in Nashville, | 0:25:44 | 0:25:47 | |
so he played sessions with everybody, | 0:25:47 | 0:25:50 | |
from George Jones to whoever he wanted. | 0:25:50 | 0:25:52 | |
They would have Johnny Gimble on their album. | 0:25:52 | 0:25:56 | |
And he never stopped smiling. Really? | 0:25:56 | 0:25:58 | |
He just smiled all the time we were there. He would just smile. | 0:25:58 | 0:26:01 | |
He just loves the music. | 0:26:01 | 0:26:03 | |
That's beautiful. Did you write that? | 0:26:32 | 0:26:35 | |
I made it up. You made it up? | 0:26:35 | 0:26:37 | |
Yes. I can't write music but I can make it up. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:39 | |
I'd like to talk to you a little bit about I suppose your forte in music, | 0:26:41 | 0:26:46 | |
which is swing music on the fiddle. | 0:26:46 | 0:26:48 | |
Would I be right in saying that that's what you like? | 0:26:48 | 0:26:51 | |
Well, I guess so - I like all of it, | 0:26:51 | 0:26:54 | |
but I grew up listening to Texas dance music, I think you'd call it. | 0:26:54 | 0:26:58 | |
I couldn't... | 0:26:58 | 0:27:00 | |
My mother didn't believe in going to dances | 0:27:00 | 0:27:03 | |
but we got the records and listened to them. | 0:27:03 | 0:27:05 | |
Cliff Bruner was an old hero of mine | 0:27:05 | 0:27:09 | |
and then JR Chatwell was a fiddle player with Adolph Hofner. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:12 | |
Then about 1940, I think Bob Wills really turned me on | 0:27:12 | 0:27:16 | |
with the fiddle players he had. | 0:27:16 | 0:27:18 | |
As much as anything else was the beat for dance music. | 0:27:18 | 0:27:21 | |
It swings, you know? | 0:27:21 | 0:27:23 | |
And you actually played with Bob Wills for a while? | 0:27:23 | 0:27:25 | |
'49 and '50 and then '51. I played about two and a half years with him. | 0:27:25 | 0:27:29 | |
It must have been quite an experience. | 0:27:29 | 0:27:31 | |
Mm-hm. On the road... | 0:27:31 | 0:27:34 | |
They used to say, "Join the Navy and see the world," | 0:27:34 | 0:27:37 | |
and they used to say, "Join Bob Wills | 0:27:37 | 0:27:40 | |
"and see the world through a windshield!" | 0:27:40 | 0:27:42 | |
# Right or wrong I'll always love you | 0:27:43 | 0:27:47 | |
# Though you're gone I can't forget | 0:27:48 | 0:27:51 | |
# Right or wrong I'll keep on dreaming | 0:27:52 | 0:27:57 | |
# Still I wake with that same old regret | 0:27:57 | 0:28:01 | |
# All along I knew I'd lose you | 0:28:02 | 0:28:07 | |
# Still I prayed that you'd be true | 0:28:07 | 0:28:12 | |
# In your heart girl just remember | 0:28:12 | 0:28:17 | |
# Right or wrong I'm still in love with you. # | 0:28:17 | 0:28:21 | |
Look, now! | 0:28:21 | 0:28:22 | |
Oh, Johnny! | 0:28:24 | 0:28:26 | |
I love the guy who's doing the singing. What's his name? | 0:28:30 | 0:28:33 | |
Alvin Crow. Alvin Crow. | 0:28:33 | 0:28:35 | |
Yes, he's a...pretty redneck outfit. | 0:28:35 | 0:28:38 | |
But... | 0:28:38 | 0:28:39 | |
You know, all this dance hall stuff | 0:28:39 | 0:28:42 | |
with a bottle of beer in the back pocket smooching around. | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
Do you think it's harmed his career, | 0:28:45 | 0:28:47 | |
the fact he looks a wee bit like Jerry Lewis? | 0:28:47 | 0:28:49 | |
Yes, he does! He does, doesn't he?! | 0:28:49 | 0:28:51 | |
# Well, right or wrong I'll always love you | 0:28:59 | 0:29:04 | |
# Though you're gone I can't forget it | 0:29:04 | 0:29:09 | |
# Right or wrong I'll keep on dreaming | 0:29:09 | 0:29:14 | |
# Still I wake with that same old regret | 0:29:14 | 0:29:19 | |
# All along I knew I'd lose you | 0:29:19 | 0:29:23 | |
# Still I prayed that you'd be true | 0:29:23 | 0:29:28 | |
# Oh, Lord, in your heart please just remember | 0:29:28 | 0:29:33 | |
# Right or wrong I'm still in love with you. # | 0:29:33 | 0:29:38 | |
Woohoo! | 0:29:41 | 0:29:42 | |
That was fantastic. Great. | 0:29:42 | 0:29:45 | |
I mean, he's from Austin, and Austin was a hotbed of music. | 0:29:45 | 0:29:49 | |
I mean, music shows all over Austin. Why is that? | 0:29:49 | 0:29:52 | |
Why did that happen in Austin in particular? I don't know. | 0:29:52 | 0:29:55 | |
Willie Nelson was there, Waylon Jennings, all these guys. | 0:29:55 | 0:29:58 | |
Austin was the sort of centre of that whole musical thing. | 0:29:58 | 0:30:01 | |
That's where we filmed this. | 0:30:03 | 0:30:05 | |
There was an amazing amount of musicians down there. | 0:30:05 | 0:30:08 | |
Was it a style you admired? Yes, I just love it. | 0:30:08 | 0:30:11 | |
There's a lot of improvisation in it | 0:30:11 | 0:30:14 | |
and that's what these guys are good at. | 0:30:14 | 0:30:16 | |
They never played a tune for very long. | 0:30:16 | 0:30:19 | |
They would sort of leave and go off and do their own thing, | 0:30:19 | 0:30:22 | |
which is a very jazz thing. | 0:30:22 | 0:30:24 | |
Yeah! | 0:30:30 | 0:30:31 | |
Part Irish and part Cherokee, | 0:30:33 | 0:30:35 | |
Junior Daugherty had come to music relatively late in life | 0:30:35 | 0:30:39 | |
as a safer option to working the rodeos. | 0:30:39 | 0:30:42 | |
Wow! That's hot! | 0:31:21 | 0:31:24 | |
That was real toe-tapping stuff. | 0:31:24 | 0:31:26 | |
How would you describe Junior Daugherty's style of playing? | 0:31:26 | 0:31:30 | |
He's from New Mexico, close to Texas. | 0:31:30 | 0:31:34 | |
Very much influenced by the Texas swing music - | 0:31:34 | 0:31:38 | |
but a bit old-timey in there, as well. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:41 | |
Junior played all kinds of music. He's a good singer, as well. | 0:31:41 | 0:31:44 | |
Junior used to be in the rodeos and had some kind of an accident | 0:31:45 | 0:31:50 | |
and took up fiddle music seriously. | 0:31:50 | 0:31:53 | |
He made his living playing in competitions. | 0:31:53 | 0:31:57 | |
Junior, I was going to talk to you about... | 0:31:57 | 0:31:59 | |
You're the expert here on competitions. | 0:31:59 | 0:32:01 | |
You've been playing in competitions for years and years. | 0:32:01 | 0:32:05 | |
Yeah, I've been... Well, seriously since about 1970, I guess. | 0:32:05 | 0:32:10 | |
I went to Nashville in 1970. | 0:32:10 | 0:32:14 | |
And these competitions are all over the place? | 0:32:14 | 0:32:17 | |
Right. They've got a bundle of them here in Texas | 0:32:17 | 0:32:20 | |
but I don't come down here very often. | 0:32:20 | 0:32:22 | |
They've got too many good fiddlers down here! | 0:32:22 | 0:32:25 | |
You're from New Mexico which is pretty close to the Texas border. | 0:32:26 | 0:32:30 | |
It is. I'm about 45 miles north of El Paso. | 0:32:30 | 0:32:33 | |
You're a real cowboy because you did all the rodeo stuff way back. | 0:32:35 | 0:32:38 | |
At one time, yes. How did you do that? | 0:32:38 | 0:32:41 | |
Just sort of move around different rodeos | 0:32:41 | 0:32:43 | |
like you move around fiddle competitions? | 0:32:43 | 0:32:46 | |
Yes. Only I didn't make as much money! | 0:32:46 | 0:32:49 | |
I finally had a horse fall on me and crushed my foot and I quit. | 0:32:50 | 0:32:53 | |
You quit? I said, "That's it." | 0:32:53 | 0:32:55 | |
# As I look at the letters | 0:33:00 | 0:33:04 | |
# That you wrote to me | 0:33:04 | 0:33:08 | |
# It was you that I'm thinking of | 0:33:08 | 0:33:15 | |
# As I read the lines | 0:33:17 | 0:33:20 | |
# That to me were so dear | 0:33:20 | 0:33:24 | |
# I remember our faded love | 0:33:24 | 0:33:30 | |
# I miss you darling | 0:33:33 | 0:33:36 | |
# More and more every day | 0:33:36 | 0:33:40 | |
# As heaven would miss the stars above | 0:33:40 | 0:33:47 | |
# With every heartbeat | 0:33:49 | 0:33:52 | |
# I still think of you | 0:33:52 | 0:33:56 | |
# And remember our faded love. # | 0:33:56 | 0:34:03 | |
Back east from Texas into Louisiana, home of Cajun music, | 0:35:39 | 0:35:43 | |
Aly got together with Marc Savoy | 0:35:43 | 0:35:45 | |
and renewed his friendship with Dewey Balfa. | 0:35:45 | 0:35:48 | |
Dewey was the man who at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival | 0:35:48 | 0:35:53 | |
had first brought the Cajun sound to a world audience. | 0:35:53 | 0:35:56 | |
You were quite unique in that you had a whole family playing music. | 0:36:07 | 0:36:10 | |
That was what was really wonderful about your band, wasn't it? | 0:36:10 | 0:36:13 | |
Yes, Aly. You see, we were brought up on a farm as a sharecropper. | 0:36:13 | 0:36:19 | |
My Daddy was a sharecropper. | 0:36:19 | 0:36:21 | |
And, erm... We were very close. | 0:36:21 | 0:36:24 | |
There was a family of nine and we only had one fiddle in the family | 0:36:24 | 0:36:31 | |
so we would kind of switch it from one to the other | 0:36:31 | 0:36:35 | |
and that's why there were so many fiddlers in the Balfa family. | 0:36:35 | 0:36:40 | |
Personally, I liked the accordion. | 0:36:40 | 0:36:43 | |
But the fiddle talks, | 0:36:43 | 0:36:46 | |
the fiddle cries, the fiddle turns the key. | 0:36:46 | 0:36:50 | |
What made you choose Dewey Balfa for the series? | 0:36:59 | 0:37:02 | |
It was Dewey and his brothers who took Cajun music out of Louisiana | 0:37:02 | 0:37:06 | |
and into the rest of America - | 0:37:06 | 0:37:07 | |
and, of course, it took off, because it's infectious. | 0:37:07 | 0:37:11 | |
They were really sincere about what they were doing. | 0:37:11 | 0:37:14 | |
They loved Cajun music. | 0:37:14 | 0:37:16 | |
They wanted to share it with people | 0:37:16 | 0:37:18 | |
and they wanted to revive it in Louisiana itself. | 0:37:18 | 0:37:21 | |
They wanted to make the local population proud of what they had. | 0:37:21 | 0:37:25 | |
And we were trying to do exactly the same thing. | 0:37:25 | 0:37:27 | |
When Britain took over Canada, | 0:37:29 | 0:37:31 | |
they got dumped out and then went to Louisiana because it was French. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:34 | |
An incredible place to end up. | 0:37:34 | 0:37:36 | |
To make a living in the swamps if you weren't born there | 0:37:36 | 0:37:39 | |
and you just got transported there, | 0:37:39 | 0:37:41 | |
and everything that can kill you that's down there - | 0:37:41 | 0:37:43 | |
the alligators and snakes. | 0:37:43 | 0:37:45 | |
But what it made was great people. | 0:37:45 | 0:37:47 | |
They are really down-to-earth. I just loved them. | 0:37:47 | 0:37:49 | |
We spent almost a month there and it was just a big party. | 0:37:49 | 0:37:54 | |
Really? Yes. How did you find the food? | 0:37:54 | 0:37:56 | |
The food, I just loved it. | 0:37:56 | 0:37:58 | |
This is supposed to be good? | 0:38:01 | 0:38:03 | |
It's good. | 0:38:03 | 0:38:05 | |
That's brilliant. Hooves from all the pigs. | 0:38:08 | 0:38:10 | |
That's really good. | 0:38:11 | 0:38:13 | |
Take more. You're not supposed to quit on a little bit! | 0:38:13 | 0:38:16 | |
So the whole pig's gone? Everything? The whole pig's gone. | 0:38:18 | 0:38:21 | |
The only thing the Cajuns lose when they kill a pig is the squeak! | 0:38:21 | 0:38:25 | |
It's just a tradition that we try and keep alive | 0:38:28 | 0:38:31 | |
so it's an annual event. | 0:38:31 | 0:38:33 | |
We do it to have a party, it's just an excuse to have a party, | 0:38:34 | 0:38:37 | |
but what it represents is a way of life | 0:38:37 | 0:38:39 | |
for the old people many years ago. | 0:38:39 | 0:38:41 | |
The way they survived and preparing all their food during a boucherie. | 0:38:41 | 0:38:44 | |
The killing of a steer, or a pig, like today. | 0:38:44 | 0:38:48 | |
We just try to keep that practice alive. | 0:38:48 | 0:38:51 | |
Maybe one of these days, who knows, the world might make a big circle | 0:38:51 | 0:38:54 | |
and come back and we'll have to learn that way of life again. | 0:38:54 | 0:38:58 | |
What is it they say down there? "Laissez les bons temps rouler". | 0:38:58 | 0:39:02 | |
And none better to get the good times rolling than Michael Doucet. | 0:39:02 | 0:39:06 | |
Jongle a moi by Michael Doucet | 0:39:06 | 0:39:09 | |
It's always evolving. | 0:39:32 | 0:39:34 | |
What really matters to me is why are people doing this, you know. | 0:39:34 | 0:39:38 | |
I mean, I like the old songs. | 0:39:38 | 0:39:40 | |
You have to be able to play the old songs the way they should be played | 0:39:40 | 0:39:44 | |
because there's nothing like sitting with an older musician | 0:39:44 | 0:39:47 | |
who just perfectly dissects time. | 0:39:47 | 0:39:50 | |
In that he plays a song just at the right rhythm it should be played, | 0:39:50 | 0:39:54 | |
the right notes, no more than is needed | 0:39:54 | 0:39:56 | |
and just does everything the way it should be done. | 0:39:56 | 0:39:58 | |
There's something you can really learn about there. | 0:39:58 | 0:40:01 | |
Michael, there, he was then one of the young ambassadors for the music. | 0:40:08 | 0:40:14 | |
A great singer. You can tell he's a real Cajun. He loves it. | 0:40:14 | 0:40:17 | |
He loves the music, he sings beautifully. Aye. | 0:40:17 | 0:40:20 | |
That high voice that he always had. I love that. | 0:40:20 | 0:40:23 | |
MUSIC: Midland Two-Step by Michael Doucet | 0:40:43 | 0:40:45 | |
In America, it can seem that all musical roads lead to Nashville. | 0:41:48 | 0:41:53 | |
There, Aly met with the father of bluegrass himself - Bill Monroe. | 0:41:53 | 0:41:58 | |
Monroe started recording in the 1930s | 0:41:58 | 0:42:01 | |
and went on to become a living legend. | 0:42:01 | 0:42:03 | |
I love that. Bill Monroe, yes. Bill Monroe. | 0:42:39 | 0:42:42 | |
Would it be right to call him the father of bluegrass music? | 0:42:42 | 0:42:46 | |
Undoubtedly, yes. Why? | 0:42:46 | 0:42:48 | |
He invented it. He really invented it. | 0:42:48 | 0:42:50 | |
He literally invented it? Yes. He made it popular. | 0:42:50 | 0:42:54 | |
He kind of moulded it into what it is today. He's revered. | 0:42:54 | 0:42:57 | |
Every bluegrass musician thinks that he's the best. | 0:42:57 | 0:43:00 | |
He's the father of everything. | 0:43:00 | 0:43:02 | |
When you were playing with him | 0:43:02 | 0:43:04 | |
did you have a sense that you were playing with a living legend? | 0:43:04 | 0:43:07 | |
Absolutely. Really? I was really scared. | 0:43:07 | 0:43:10 | |
It was 90 degrees and to be honest I had a kind of a hangover that day! | 0:43:10 | 0:43:14 | |
Should you be telling me this?! | 0:43:16 | 0:43:18 | |
And he was getting about deaf. Was he? | 0:43:18 | 0:43:21 | |
And I kept asking him questions and he kept saying, "What did you say?" | 0:43:21 | 0:43:25 | |
And I had to shout again and the heat was overcoming | 0:43:25 | 0:43:28 | |
and Kenny Baker was playing with us that day, the great fiddler. | 0:43:28 | 0:43:32 | |
That's a great tune. | 0:43:39 | 0:43:41 | |
Bill, your family came over here from Scotland, | 0:43:41 | 0:43:43 | |
didn't they, originally? | 0:43:43 | 0:43:45 | |
The Monroes come from Scotland. | 0:43:45 | 0:43:47 | |
And is it because your link with Scotland that you named that tune? | 0:43:47 | 0:43:51 | |
I always loved the way the Scottish music was played | 0:43:51 | 0:43:54 | |
and the sound and going way on back | 0:43:54 | 0:43:56 | |
and the way the tones hundreds of years ago, I loved that part of it. | 0:43:56 | 0:44:00 | |
And I'd heard some Scottish bagpiping over in this country | 0:44:00 | 0:44:04 | |
and I just wanted to make a number like that and call it Scotland. | 0:44:04 | 0:44:09 | |
How did you get started in the music? | 0:44:09 | 0:44:11 | |
To start with, my mother she liked to play the fiddle | 0:44:11 | 0:44:14 | |
and my uncle Pen Vandiver on my mother's side of the family | 0:44:14 | 0:44:17 | |
was a wonderful fiddler, | 0:44:17 | 0:44:19 | |
and he would come and visit us once in a while | 0:44:19 | 0:44:21 | |
and I would get to listen to him play the fiddle. | 0:44:21 | 0:44:24 | |
And you learnt lots of tunes from him. | 0:44:24 | 0:44:26 | |
He did a really nice album called Uncle Pen. | 0:44:26 | 0:44:29 | |
Would you like to play one or two of his tunes? | 0:44:29 | 0:44:32 | |
Yeah, that would be fine. Why don't you do that? | 0:44:32 | 0:44:34 | |
Pick out one, Kenny. | 0:44:34 | 0:44:36 | |
Yeah. Let's do Jenny Lynn. Jenny Lynn, that's fine, yeah. | 0:44:36 | 0:44:40 | |
You hear the word legacy bandied about an awful lot these days. | 0:45:37 | 0:45:43 | |
What do you think is the legacy that Bill Monroe will leave? | 0:45:43 | 0:45:46 | |
It's changing all the time and in many different directions. | 0:45:46 | 0:45:51 | |
It's into country music, it's into old-time music. | 0:45:51 | 0:45:54 | |
Bluegrass music infects everything. | 0:45:54 | 0:45:57 | |
It's like a virus. It goes through all music. | 0:45:57 | 0:46:00 | |
You can see what has all been put in there like the feeling of the music | 0:46:00 | 0:46:05 | |
and the sound and the drive to it. | 0:46:05 | 0:46:08 | |
There's a lot of different ideas been put in bluegrass music. | 0:46:08 | 0:46:11 | |
Like the blues, the jazz, the timing of it matters. | 0:46:11 | 0:46:16 | |
The whole singing in it. | 0:46:16 | 0:46:18 | |
The sound of old-time fiddlers coming out of Scotland... | 0:46:18 | 0:46:21 | |
..built on how many years ago. | 0:46:22 | 0:46:24 | |
And that's in this music. | 0:46:24 | 0:46:26 | |
I think it's the greatest music in the world. | 0:46:26 | 0:46:28 | |
It's here to stay, I think. I just think it's wonderful. | 0:47:11 | 0:47:14 | |
Did you get the impression that he was very much aware of his status? | 0:47:14 | 0:47:19 | |
Oh, yeah. That he was musical royalty? | 0:47:19 | 0:47:22 | |
Absolutely. He knew exactly who he was. | 0:47:22 | 0:47:25 | |
I remember when we did 20 years of Boys of the Lough | 0:47:25 | 0:47:30 | |
we played at Carnegie Hall in New York | 0:47:30 | 0:47:33 | |
and he came and opened for us. | 0:47:33 | 0:47:35 | |
He opened for you? Yes, our concert. | 0:47:35 | 0:47:38 | |
Garrison Keillor was the compere. | 0:47:38 | 0:47:40 | |
But if we went one minute over, we had to pay $13,000 to the union. | 0:47:41 | 0:47:46 | |
And Bill Monroe... | 0:47:46 | 0:47:48 | |
I've gone a bit quiet thinking about that! | 0:47:50 | 0:47:52 | |
Bill Monroe wouldn't come off once he got going! | 0:47:52 | 0:47:55 | |
We were literally going on the stage and dragging him off | 0:47:55 | 0:47:57 | |
so as we could finish on time! | 0:47:57 | 0:47:59 | |
We're glad to have all you folks with us here today. | 0:47:59 | 0:48:02 | |
We have a number here that I hope you folks have heard it | 0:48:02 | 0:48:05 | |
and will like here tonight. | 0:48:05 | 0:48:07 | |
The title is Blue Moon of Kentucky. | 0:48:07 | 0:48:10 | |
That song, Blue Moon of Kentucky, Elvis Presley recorded that. | 0:48:18 | 0:48:23 | |
That was Bill made for life, I guess. | 0:48:23 | 0:48:26 | |
# Blue Moon of Kentucky | 0:48:26 | 0:48:29 | |
# Keep on shining | 0:48:29 | 0:48:31 | |
# Shine on the one that's gone | 0:48:33 | 0:48:36 | |
# And proved untrue. # | 0:48:36 | 0:48:38 | |
He had, like, three careers. | 0:48:39 | 0:48:42 | |
1946 or '47 he started a band with Flatt and Scruggs | 0:48:42 | 0:48:46 | |
and Chubby Wise on fiddle. | 0:48:46 | 0:48:48 | |
Chubby Wise was a great fiddler. | 0:48:48 | 0:48:50 | |
That was his first band - and what a band. Absolutely. It's mind-blowing. | 0:48:50 | 0:48:56 | |
# The stars were shining bright | 0:48:58 | 0:49:00 | |
# And they whispered from on high | 0:49:00 | 0:49:04 | |
# Your love has said goodbye | 0:49:04 | 0:49:07 | |
# Blue Moon of Kentucky | 0:49:07 | 0:49:11 | |
# Keep on shining. # | 0:49:11 | 0:49:12 | |
In the end, he died a hugely popular man. | 0:49:12 | 0:49:15 | |
But almost every great bluegrass player came up through his band. | 0:49:15 | 0:49:21 | |
The Grand Ole Opry is maybe Nashville's showcase | 0:49:34 | 0:49:39 | |
but it's in places like The Station Inn | 0:49:39 | 0:49:41 | |
where you'll find musicians' musicians. | 0:49:41 | 0:49:44 | |
Aly went along there on a night when Mark O'Connor was playing. | 0:49:44 | 0:49:47 | |
It was to turn into a bit of challenge. | 0:49:47 | 0:49:50 | |
Mark O'Connor is rightly regarded | 0:50:56 | 0:50:58 | |
as one of the greatest American musicians living. | 0:50:58 | 0:51:01 | |
Is that something you would agree with? | 0:51:01 | 0:51:03 | |
I absolutely agree with you, yes. | 0:51:03 | 0:51:05 | |
I ran into him in 1976. | 0:51:05 | 0:51:08 | |
I was at the Bicentennial in America | 0:51:08 | 0:51:10 | |
and we were playing there in Washington. | 0:51:10 | 0:51:13 | |
I went into this hotel and I was going up the stairs | 0:51:13 | 0:51:15 | |
and I heard this guy playing the fiddle. | 0:51:15 | 0:51:17 | |
And I said, I have to find out who that is. | 0:51:17 | 0:51:20 | |
I got my way through the crowd and here's Mark O'Connor | 0:51:20 | 0:51:23 | |
at about 15 years old standing in there playing to these people | 0:51:23 | 0:51:27 | |
and it just blew me away. | 0:51:27 | 0:51:29 | |
I thought, "Wow, this is going to be something else." | 0:51:29 | 0:51:32 | |
And you knew immediately. | 0:51:32 | 0:51:34 | |
I knew on my way up the stairs, really, | 0:51:34 | 0:51:36 | |
that this guy could play the fiddle. | 0:51:36 | 0:51:38 | |
Mark's from Seattle and by some chance Benny Thomasson, | 0:51:56 | 0:52:00 | |
a great Texas swing fiddler, was living in Seattle | 0:52:00 | 0:52:02 | |
and Mark went to him for lessons. | 0:52:02 | 0:52:05 | |
So that's where he learnt the Texas swing and the jazz in his playing. | 0:52:05 | 0:52:09 | |
And of course, he has the technique to play anything - | 0:52:09 | 0:52:12 | |
classical music or any kind of music he wants. | 0:52:12 | 0:52:15 | |
He's just a genius. Aye. | 0:52:15 | 0:52:18 | |
I watch him play and his fingers just fall down the fiddle. | 0:52:18 | 0:52:22 | |
I have to reach for things. His just fall down. | 0:52:22 | 0:52:24 | |
Right, right, right. He's in a different league. | 0:52:24 | 0:52:27 | |
He's the kind of guy that makes you sick if you're a fiddle player, | 0:52:27 | 0:52:31 | |
really, what he can do. Aye. | 0:52:31 | 0:52:33 | |
I was going to say, | 0:52:33 | 0:52:34 | |
traditional fiddle and classical violin seem worlds apart. | 0:52:34 | 0:52:39 | |
How unusual is it for somebody to have a foot in both camps | 0:52:39 | 0:52:42 | |
and be successful at both? | 0:52:42 | 0:52:44 | |
It is very unusual - | 0:52:44 | 0:52:46 | |
but he can do that, and he has the technique to do it. | 0:52:46 | 0:52:49 | |
He developed that himself. | 0:52:49 | 0:52:51 | |
It all flows from inside him and he can play what he wants. | 0:52:51 | 0:52:55 | |
He's a remarkable guy. Aye. | 0:52:55 | 0:52:58 | |
And you duelled with him on the stage? | 0:52:58 | 0:53:00 | |
No. We did... It was like the usual thing. | 0:53:00 | 0:53:03 | |
We arrived and he was there and, "What are we going to play?" | 0:53:03 | 0:53:06 | |
I said, "Play Old Molly Hare", | 0:53:06 | 0:53:08 | |
because that's what they called the Fairy Dance | 0:53:08 | 0:53:10 | |
and he knew it and I knew it and so we just got up and started to play | 0:53:10 | 0:53:15 | |
and it just went where it went. | 0:53:15 | 0:53:17 | |
No rehearsal? No. | 0:53:17 | 0:53:19 | |
It just went where it went. Uh-huh. | 0:53:19 | 0:53:21 | |
And I did this little bit of dancing bow that I made up. | 0:53:21 | 0:53:25 | |
It's kind of my own bow thing. It's not a classical thing. | 0:53:25 | 0:53:29 | |
He can see I'm looking at my bow and smiling because he couldn't do that. | 0:53:29 | 0:53:33 | |
Is that right? | 0:53:33 | 0:53:34 | |
It's one of the only things in the world he couldn't do. | 0:53:34 | 0:53:37 | |
But five minutes later he could do it! | 0:53:37 | 0:53:39 | |
He was great - | 0:53:42 | 0:53:44 | |
and he's so big, you know, and I'm so small. Aye, aye. | 0:53:44 | 0:53:46 | |
I almost had to stand on a stool! | 0:53:46 | 0:53:48 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:56:31 | 0:56:33 | |
Aly, it's been absolutely wonderful talking to you, as always. | 0:56:37 | 0:56:41 | |
Nice to talk to you. | 0:56:41 | 0:56:42 | |
Just watching yourself, your younger self on that, what do you think? | 0:56:42 | 0:56:46 | |
I thought I was actually quite good looking, you know. | 0:56:48 | 0:56:50 | |
When I look at that I realise what a great life I've had. Aye. | 0:56:50 | 0:56:54 | |
What an absolute privilege it's been to meet all those people | 0:56:54 | 0:56:57 | |
and to play with them. | 0:56:57 | 0:56:59 | |
And to have a life and 48 years on the road | 0:56:59 | 0:57:02 | |
playing music - and still doing it. | 0:57:02 | 0:57:04 | |
Did you always think you would make a living as a musician? | 0:57:04 | 0:57:07 | |
No. Not for a moment when I was young. Really? | 0:57:07 | 0:57:10 | |
It was a pure accident. | 0:57:10 | 0:57:12 | |
But it's the best accident that ever happened to me. | 0:57:12 | 0:57:15 | |
No, I've had a great life, a really great life. | 0:57:15 | 0:57:18 | |
I've lived lots of lives in one. | 0:57:18 | 0:57:20 | |
Aye. And how would you sum it up? | 0:57:20 | 0:57:22 | |
I was looking in a record shop window one day in Chicago | 0:57:23 | 0:57:28 | |
and I saw a CD and I thought the name of it suits me just fine. | 0:57:28 | 0:57:34 | |
It was called 'The Older I Get The Better I Used To Be'. | 0:57:35 | 0:57:38 | |
That's pretty much it! | 0:57:39 | 0:57:41 | |
I'll drink to that! OK. Cheers, Aly. Good, Alex. Cheers. | 0:57:41 | 0:57:44 | |
All right, can I get everybody's attention just for a second? | 0:57:47 | 0:57:51 | |
This is a fiddle that I've played since I was 11 and 12 years old. | 0:57:53 | 0:57:57 | |
A great fiddle player from America, Benny Thomasson, gave it to me. | 0:57:57 | 0:58:02 | |
It's not playable any more, | 0:58:02 | 0:58:03 | |
but through the years | 0:58:03 | 0:58:04 | |
I've got famous fiddle players | 0:58:04 | 0:58:06 | |
to sign it - | 0:58:06 | 0:58:07 | |
and a few of them have passed on, like Joe Venuti. | 0:58:07 | 0:58:09 | |
And people like this. | 0:58:12 | 0:58:13 | |
Yehudi Menuhin signed it and Stephane Grappelli. | 0:58:13 | 0:58:17 | |
And I would like to get the great Aly Bain to sign it tonight. | 0:58:17 | 0:58:23 | |
APPLAUSE | 0:58:23 | 0:58:25 |