0:00:03 > 0:00:06This is the story of a musical migration
0:00:06 > 0:00:09unfolded over many generations, many journeys...
0:00:10 > 0:00:14# I'm on my way to that fair land... #
0:00:14 > 0:00:18..of songs and tunes that crossed oceans and mountains...
0:00:21 > 0:00:25..of wayfarers and wanderers who carried their music with them...
0:00:25 > 0:00:27# I will leave my house and land
0:00:27 > 0:00:30# And I will leave my baby. #
0:00:30 > 0:00:32..from Scotland to Ireland...
0:00:36 > 0:00:38..and onto America's farthest frontiers.
0:00:43 > 0:00:47They would leave their mark on religion, politics,
0:00:47 > 0:00:49education and on a new nation's democracy.
0:00:50 > 0:00:53But I'm here to trace and to celebrate their influence
0:00:53 > 0:00:56on what I would be considered to be one of America's greatest gifts
0:00:56 > 0:00:57to the world -
0:00:57 > 0:00:58the music.
0:01:06 > 0:01:13# If you're travelling in the north country fair
0:01:17 > 0:01:22# Where the winds hit heavy on the borderline
0:01:28 > 0:01:31# Remember me
0:01:31 > 0:01:34# To one who lives there
0:01:38 > 0:01:46# She once was a true love of mine... #
0:01:46 > 0:01:48I love traditional folk music,
0:01:48 > 0:01:52and that song, I've known it since childhood because of my dad
0:01:52 > 0:01:54and Bob Dylan doing it together.
0:01:59 > 0:02:02# Rivers freeze
0:02:02 > 0:02:05# And summer ends... #
0:02:05 > 0:02:09Bob, he has a tradition himself of appropriating old folk songs
0:02:09 > 0:02:11and putting his own spin on them
0:02:11 > 0:02:14in a way that makes them new and accessible to a whole new audience.
0:02:14 > 0:02:17That song clearly borrowed from Scarborough Fair,
0:02:17 > 0:02:20so it goes back into the mists of time.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23# To keep her from
0:02:23 > 0:02:27# The howling winds. #
0:02:28 > 0:02:32That connection is really meaningful to me because, you know,
0:02:32 > 0:02:34my own family, the Cashes, were from Scotland.
0:02:34 > 0:02:37- That's right, yeah. - From the Kingdom of Fife.
0:02:37 > 0:02:38- Correct. Falkland, to be precise. - Yes.
0:02:38 > 0:02:40Falkland. Near Falkland.
0:02:42 > 0:02:45That song... In a way it's like time travel,
0:02:45 > 0:02:49you get to visit the song in earlier incarnations and in the present
0:02:49 > 0:02:52and how it's morphing into the future.
0:02:52 > 0:02:58And I almost feel a responsibility to honour these songs
0:02:58 > 0:02:59and love them.
0:02:59 > 0:03:06# I'm wondering if she remembers me at all
0:03:09 > 0:03:12# Many times
0:03:12 > 0:03:15# I've often prayed
0:03:20 > 0:03:25# In the darkness of my night... #
0:03:28 > 0:03:30My father was a musician,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33his grandfather was the choirmaster in a church.
0:03:34 > 0:03:39Do you know, I was in Dublin once and I went into an antique bookstore
0:03:39 > 0:03:42and there was this giant book, about this big,
0:03:42 > 0:03:45heavy, 50-pound book,
0:03:45 > 0:03:48and it said Traditional Irish And Scottish Music.
0:03:48 > 0:03:50So I pulled it off the shelf
0:03:50 > 0:03:56and it fell open to John Cash, a minstrel from 1840.
0:03:56 > 0:03:58No way.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01And it looked like my father. I mean, he looked like a Cash.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04It was... I just got goose bumps down my back
0:04:04 > 0:04:09and it was like someone saying, you know, "Keep it going, lassie.
0:04:09 > 0:04:10"Keep it going."
0:04:11 > 0:04:18# So if you're travelling in the north country fair
0:04:22 > 0:04:26# The winds hit heavy on the borderline. #
0:04:26 > 0:04:28Like so many others,
0:04:28 > 0:04:32the Cash family were part of a great movement of people to the New World.
0:04:32 > 0:04:35These were once American homes, built by pioneers.
0:04:36 > 0:04:41Now they stand in County Tyrone at the Ulster American Folk Park,
0:04:41 > 0:04:44transplanted relics of an epic migration story that began in
0:04:44 > 0:04:45the 17th century.
0:04:48 > 0:04:50Every September,
0:04:50 > 0:04:52thousands of people gather at a festival which celebrates the
0:04:52 > 0:04:57musical legacy of families who left Ulster for a new life in America.
0:04:57 > 0:05:01# Red bird, red bird Stepping on a leaf
0:05:03 > 0:05:08# Red bird, red bird Stepping on a leaf... #
0:05:08 > 0:05:10The Ulster Scots,
0:05:10 > 0:05:13that's really where the traditional bluegrass comes from.
0:05:16 > 0:05:18- APPLAUSE - Yeah!
0:05:18 > 0:05:20Thank you.
0:05:20 > 0:05:23You hear people in the mountains of West Virginia singing about
0:05:23 > 0:05:25Ireland's green shore.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28They were people who lived, you know, generations two, three,
0:05:28 > 0:05:30in Ulster and then moved
0:05:30 > 0:05:34and kept moving until they settled in the mountains
0:05:34 > 0:05:37and kept the old tunes and songs alive,
0:05:37 > 0:05:40that became what we call bluegrass.
0:05:40 > 0:05:43# Well, I ain't got long to stay here but what little time I've got
0:05:43 > 0:05:46# I want to rest content while I remain... #
0:05:46 > 0:05:50Bluegrass and country, gospel, folk and even rock and roll,
0:05:50 > 0:05:52in their different ways they've all been shaped by the music that
0:05:52 > 0:05:54travelled with the Ulster Scots.
0:05:54 > 0:05:58# The window's folding down and the roof's all caved in
0:05:58 > 0:06:01# Letting in the sunshine and the rain... #
0:06:01 > 0:06:03Known in America as the Scotch-Irish,
0:06:03 > 0:06:07their hymns, songs and tunes became an essential element
0:06:07 > 0:06:08in America's musical story.
0:06:09 > 0:06:14# I'm going to take a trip in that old gospel ship
0:06:14 > 0:06:17# I'm going far beyond the sky... #
0:06:18 > 0:06:22American country music just wouldn't be remotely the same without
0:06:22 > 0:06:25the Scots-Irish tradition, and if you look at bluegrass,
0:06:25 > 0:06:29honky-tonk and everything that was feeding the first generation,
0:06:29 > 0:06:33the Jimmy Rogers, Carter Family, Bill Monroe, Earl Scruggs,
0:06:33 > 0:06:35you can't disagree.
0:06:41 > 0:06:45# Then I shall bathe my weary soul
0:06:45 > 0:06:49# In seas of heavenly rest
0:06:49 > 0:06:56# And not a wave a trouble roll across my peaceful breast. #
0:06:58 > 0:07:00It's one influence of many influences.
0:07:00 > 0:07:03You know, sometimes we can over-claim the Scotch-Irish
0:07:03 > 0:07:05origins of everything.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08And that doesn't really measure up.
0:07:08 > 0:07:11But it's a very strong and, I think, identifiable influence
0:07:11 > 0:07:14and thread through so much of this.
0:07:14 > 0:07:18# I was just a lad
0:07:18 > 0:07:21# Merely 22
0:07:22 > 0:07:27# Neither good nor bad
0:07:27 > 0:07:29# Just a kid like you
0:07:31 > 0:07:36# And now I'm lost
0:07:36 > 0:07:38# Too late to pray
0:07:40 > 0:07:44# Lord, I've paid the cost
0:07:44 > 0:07:48# On the lost highway. #
0:07:48 > 0:07:51Music like this has become part of a global industry,
0:07:51 > 0:07:55instantly accessible whenever and wherever we want it.
0:07:55 > 0:08:00MUSIC: Singin' The Blues by Bix Beiderbecke
0:08:01 > 0:08:04In the early 20th century when the modern music industry was in
0:08:04 > 0:08:08its infancy, America was becoming the most industrialised
0:08:08 > 0:08:10nation in the world.
0:08:12 > 0:08:16For the first time, more people lived in cities than in the country.
0:08:16 > 0:08:18But even in those fast-moving times,
0:08:18 > 0:08:21many still clung to the music of the past.
0:08:25 > 0:08:28People flocked to old-time fiddle competitions...
0:08:30 > 0:08:32..epic battles between the finest in the country.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37Events like these had been associated with the Scotch-Irish
0:08:37 > 0:08:39ever since America's very first fiddle contest,
0:08:39 > 0:08:42held to mark St Andrew's Day in 1736.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50I think we often get a longing to look back at our history
0:08:50 > 0:08:53and that was the time when the industrialisation was
0:08:53 > 0:08:58taking over America and people looked back to those fiddle tunes
0:08:58 > 0:09:02as an example of a more pastoral kind of life,
0:09:02 > 0:09:03a simpler kind of life.
0:09:03 > 0:09:06MUSIC: Arkansas Traveller
0:09:06 > 0:09:09This old tune was a favourite at the fiddle conventions.
0:09:09 > 0:09:12No-one played it better than the Scotch-Irish champion
0:09:12 > 0:09:15and Confederate veteran Henry Clay Gilliland.
0:09:17 > 0:09:20His music was a link back to pioneer days.
0:09:39 > 0:09:40Growing up in the Texas frontier,
0:09:40 > 0:09:44Henry taught himself to play the old tunes on his mother's broken
0:09:44 > 0:09:47fiddle with strings he had to make from his horse's hair.
0:09:47 > 0:09:48Now, that same determination
0:09:48 > 0:09:51helped him to become one of the most famous fiddlers in the west.
0:09:57 > 0:09:58Along with a younger fiddler,
0:09:58 > 0:10:01Eck Robertson, Henry Gilliland made history...
0:10:03 > 0:10:07..the first commercial recording ever released by a country musician.
0:10:18 > 0:10:22Those very early recordings are kind of the early Bible of this music.
0:10:24 > 0:10:26They were great. I mean, you're hearing all this...
0:10:26 > 0:10:28- HE HISSES - ..scratchy recording and just
0:10:28 > 0:10:31listening to them play and you realise you've probably never heard
0:10:31 > 0:10:33anybody play that good again.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38Henry was never going to become a recording star because
0:10:38 > 0:10:42he only ever made that one record, but it did mark a moment in history.
0:10:42 > 0:10:45The musical legacy of America's frontier past had entered
0:10:45 > 0:10:47a new era of recorded music.
0:10:47 > 0:10:51MUSIC: Black Bottom Stomp by Jelly Roll Morton
0:10:57 > 0:10:58In the roaring '20s,
0:10:58 > 0:11:01America was dancing to the rhythms of the Jazz age.
0:11:01 > 0:11:03- # Hot feet - Hot feet, Charleston's doing 'em
0:11:03 > 0:11:05- # Hot feet - Shot feet, Black Bottom ruined 'em
0:11:05 > 0:11:07# Hot Pete Hear 'em yell
0:11:07 > 0:11:09# Oh, what, so hot heat. #
0:11:10 > 0:11:13New York City was the centre of an expanding music industry
0:11:13 > 0:11:14hungry for new business.
0:11:17 > 0:11:21As people left the impoverished south for the industrial north,
0:11:21 > 0:11:23record companies saw there was money in nostalgia,
0:11:23 > 0:11:26in music that was an echo of the world they'd left behind.
0:11:26 > 0:11:31# Glory, glory Hallelujah
0:11:31 > 0:11:33# Glory, glory... #
0:11:33 > 0:11:35Part of that was people coming into the cities working
0:11:35 > 0:11:39and the industrialisation of the world and they were longing
0:11:39 > 0:11:43for that more rustic life that they probably grew up with,
0:11:43 > 0:11:45so they really loved to hear that old music.
0:11:45 > 0:11:46It brought the home back to them.
0:11:50 > 0:11:52Maybe some people were burned out on jazz
0:11:52 > 0:11:54and I think a lot of rural southerners
0:11:54 > 0:11:58wanted to hear music that sounded like them,
0:11:58 > 0:12:00that the people who sang it and talked on it
0:12:00 > 0:12:02sang and talked like they did,
0:12:02 > 0:12:06that it gave value to their culture.
0:12:06 > 0:12:11# A hand that is lent to a soul almost spent... #
0:12:11 > 0:12:13As well as the traditional repertoire, singers found
0:12:13 > 0:12:17inspiration in the newspapers for songs of death and disaster -
0:12:17 > 0:12:21train wrecks and shootings, bad men and murdered woman -
0:12:21 > 0:12:24and the record-buying public just couldn't get enough of it.
0:12:24 > 0:12:29# The people on the ship were a long way from home... #
0:12:30 > 0:12:35These disaster songs were like news bulletins - urgent and shocking.
0:12:35 > 0:12:37# Death came riding by
0:12:37 > 0:12:40# 1,600 had to die
0:12:40 > 0:12:43# It was sad when the great ship went down. #
0:12:43 > 0:12:46And they sold in huge numbers.
0:12:46 > 0:12:48They were fast becoming the modern equivalent
0:12:48 > 0:12:50of the broadsheet ballads of the Old World.
0:12:50 > 0:12:53But the most popular songs prove that people hadn't changed
0:12:53 > 0:12:56that much at all in the New World.
0:12:56 > 0:12:58It seems that they were still drawn to the darker side of life.
0:13:03 > 0:13:08A dreadful crime, a woman's body in a deep, dark river.
0:13:08 > 0:13:11In the late '20s, America was thrilled and chilled by
0:13:11 > 0:13:14a murder ballad recorded by a Virginia millworker.
0:13:15 > 0:13:20The tragic tale of Rose Connelly had a long history in Appalachia.
0:13:20 > 0:13:22But that song, like the ancestors of many of the Americans
0:13:22 > 0:13:26that loved and sang it over the years, had crossed oceans
0:13:26 > 0:13:29and mountains before it got anywhere near the recording studio.
0:13:39 > 0:13:44# Down in the Willow Garden
0:13:44 > 0:13:47# Where me and my true love did meet
0:13:48 > 0:13:53# It was there we went a-courting
0:13:53 > 0:13:56# My love fell off to sleep
0:13:57 > 0:14:02# I had a bottle of Burgundy wine
0:14:02 > 0:14:06# And my true love, she did not know
0:14:06 > 0:14:12# It was there I'd murdered that dear little girl
0:14:12 > 0:14:16# Down on the banks below... #
0:14:16 > 0:14:18Long before it was heard in America,
0:14:18 > 0:14:20a version of the story of poor, murdered Rose Connelly was
0:14:20 > 0:14:25first collected in Ulster, in the port town of Coleraine.
0:14:25 > 0:14:30# I drew my sabre through her
0:14:30 > 0:14:34# It was a bloody knife
0:14:34 > 0:14:39# I threw her into the river
0:14:39 > 0:14:44# It was an awful sight
0:14:44 > 0:14:49# My father often told me
0:14:49 > 0:14:53# That money would set me free
0:14:53 > 0:14:58# If I'd but murder that dear little girl
0:14:58 > 0:15:01# Whose name was Rose Connelly... #
0:15:04 > 0:15:07This well-travelled song is another reminder of how music
0:15:07 > 0:15:11has always moved with people.
0:15:11 > 0:15:16They were moody, deep stories about human nature.
0:15:16 > 0:15:18That storytelling tradition certainly continued
0:15:18 > 0:15:19in modern country music -
0:15:19 > 0:15:22I mean, all the way through, from old-time music to,
0:15:22 > 0:15:25you know, '30s, '40s, '50s, to modern country music.
0:15:25 > 0:15:27The storytelling is very important,
0:15:27 > 0:15:31and it probably goes way back to our enjoyment of those ballads.
0:15:32 > 0:15:34BANJO PLAYS
0:15:51 > 0:15:54All over the South, in cotton mills like this one,
0:15:54 > 0:15:56something extraordinary grew and flourished
0:15:56 > 0:15:59in the dust and lint of the mill floor.
0:16:00 > 0:16:03A demand for cotton, created by the First World War,
0:16:03 > 0:16:05sparked a great wave of migration.
0:16:10 > 0:16:14In urgent need of workers, the mills sent recruiters to isolated
0:16:14 > 0:16:17Scotch-Irish communities with the promise of a new American dream.
0:16:19 > 0:16:22The people who moved from the mountains would have shared
0:16:22 > 0:16:26that same sense of community, of being rural, self-sufficient,
0:16:26 > 0:16:30religious people for the most part, as well, too.
0:16:35 > 0:16:38They brought their culture with them, you know?
0:16:38 > 0:16:41All they changed was their mailing address.
0:16:45 > 0:16:47When they moved here from the hill country,
0:16:47 > 0:16:51you had probably more fiddlers and banjo-pickers per square foot
0:16:51 > 0:16:53than in most places,
0:16:53 > 0:16:57and the mills concentrated these musicians in a particular area.
0:16:57 > 0:17:00You ended up with a lot of musicians -
0:17:00 > 0:17:03- MILLbilly musicians, they were. - HE LAUGHS
0:17:10 > 0:17:12It meant that they were learning new tunes.
0:17:12 > 0:17:14They were swapping tunes.
0:17:14 > 0:17:16They were learning new licks and this kind of thing.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27A lot of the tunes had been handed down,
0:17:27 > 0:17:30and bounced back and forth and subtly changed,
0:17:30 > 0:17:34but it gave everybody kind of a common tongue -
0:17:34 > 0:17:40tunes that go back 200 or 300 years to the Scots-Irish tradition.
0:17:40 > 0:17:42# Go, my little love And go with me
0:17:42 > 0:17:45# I'm goin' away in the morn
0:17:45 > 0:17:46# I'm goin' away to leave you, love
0:17:46 > 0:17:49# By the sounds of the dinner horn... #
0:17:53 > 0:17:56Mountain musicians were also exposed to new genres of music,
0:17:56 > 0:17:58when touring vaudeville shows from the North
0:17:58 > 0:18:00came to entertain the workers,
0:18:00 > 0:18:03and they soon began to weave these new styles and ideas with
0:18:03 > 0:18:06the traditional music of the past.
0:18:06 > 0:18:09A new sound started to emerge in the 1920s, and it was
0:18:09 > 0:18:12the freewheeling, boisterous sound of string band music.
0:18:12 > 0:18:15One of the finest bands of the era came out of a North Carolina
0:18:15 > 0:18:18cotton mill, led by the original country outlaw, Charlie Poole.
0:18:27 > 0:18:30# May I sleep in your barn tonight, Mister?
0:18:30 > 0:18:34# It's cold lying out on the ground
0:18:34 > 0:18:38# And the cold north wind is whistling
0:18:38 > 0:18:41# And I have no place to lie down... #
0:18:41 > 0:18:45A rambler, a drinker and a fighter, Charlie Poole could barely
0:18:45 > 0:18:49write his own name, but he left his mark on a generation of musicians.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51This is Going Down The Road Feelin' Bad -
0:18:51 > 0:18:53the Lonesome Road Blues.
0:18:58 > 0:19:00Every summer, within sight of the mill where
0:19:00 > 0:19:04he worked from the age of nine, this festival celebrates his legacy
0:19:04 > 0:19:06and the musical culture of his community.
0:19:06 > 0:19:10# I got those old lonesome road blues
0:19:10 > 0:19:14# Lord, I got those lonesome road blues
0:19:14 > 0:19:17# I got those old lonesome road blues...
0:19:17 > 0:19:22Never too fond of hard work, in June 1925, Charlie and his band
0:19:22 > 0:19:25quit their jobs in the mill and came to draw their final pay.
0:19:26 > 0:19:29I talked to one of the mill workers, and he said they sat down
0:19:29 > 0:19:30at the end of the looms,
0:19:30 > 0:19:33and he said they played Don't Let Your Deal Go Down,
0:19:33 > 0:19:34and he said, Charlie said,
0:19:34 > 0:19:38"We're going to New York to make records. Goodbye. We're gone."
0:19:38 > 0:19:41No contact, no experience, no manager,
0:19:41 > 0:19:44but by September they had a recording contract.
0:19:44 > 0:19:46RECORD PLAYER CLICKS
0:19:46 > 0:19:49Charlie Poole became one of Columbia Records' biggest stars,
0:19:49 > 0:19:53and his complex, innovative style changed the story of American music.
0:19:53 > 0:19:56MUSIC: Don't Let Your Deal Go Down by Charlie Poole
0:19:58 > 0:20:02He made new tunes sound old, and he made old tunes sound new.
0:20:06 > 0:20:09# Now, I've been all around this whole wide world... #
0:20:09 > 0:20:13Vaudeville banjo players were playing minstrel music,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16which was a Northern, stereotyped interpretation
0:20:16 > 0:20:17of what Southern music was.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19# Looks like home to me... #
0:20:21 > 0:20:26So he's taking this Northern conception of what Southernness is,
0:20:26 > 0:20:30and he's turning that into his own Southern brand of music,
0:20:30 > 0:20:31which made him really distinct.
0:20:31 > 0:20:34# Done most everything
0:20:34 > 0:20:36# I've played cards with the King and Queen... #
0:20:36 > 0:20:39So it's this complex, messy thing, where it's not pop,
0:20:39 > 0:20:41it's not traditional, but it's both.
0:20:41 > 0:20:45# Oh, don't let your deal go down
0:20:45 > 0:20:48# Don't let your deal go down
0:20:48 > 0:20:51# Don't let your deal go down
0:20:51 > 0:20:55# Before my last gold dollar is gone... #
0:20:55 > 0:21:01He added the ingredients and stirred them all together
0:21:01 > 0:21:04that would eventually give birth to bluegrass music,
0:21:04 > 0:21:06and when you listen to Bill Monroe,
0:21:06 > 0:21:08and Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, you think,
0:21:08 > 0:21:12"Well, what kind of music did they listen to when they were youngsters?
0:21:12 > 0:21:15"When they were teenage boys, what did they hear?"
0:21:15 > 0:21:17They heard Charlie Poole's music.
0:21:20 > 0:21:22RECORD PLAYER CLICKS
0:21:22 > 0:21:25Another band escaped the cotton mills in the mid-'20s.
0:21:25 > 0:21:28They had a raucous, treble sound and they became the first
0:21:28 > 0:21:30supergroup in country music's history.
0:21:33 > 0:21:35Well, folks, here we are again, the Skillet Lickers,
0:21:35 > 0:21:37red-hot and raring to go.
0:21:37 > 0:21:39We're going to play another little tune this morning.
0:21:39 > 0:21:42I want you to grab that gal and shake up to the early morn.
0:21:42 > 0:21:44Don't you let them dance on your new carpet.
0:21:44 > 0:21:46You make them roll it up.
0:21:46 > 0:21:48MUSIC: Soldier's Joy by The Skillet Lickers
0:21:54 > 0:21:56They had a rough and rowdy sound.
0:21:56 > 0:22:00I mean, it was like, "The party's on and we are already drunk.
0:22:00 > 0:22:01"Come on in!" You know?
0:22:02 > 0:22:05The Skillet Lickers were very much outlaw country.
0:22:09 > 0:22:11They're doing songs about making moonshine
0:22:11 > 0:22:14and doing runs across state lines.
0:22:14 > 0:22:17They're thumbing their nose at the establishment.
0:22:17 > 0:22:20# Chicken in a bread tray Scratching that dough
0:22:20 > 0:22:22# Granny, will your dog bite? No, child, no
0:22:22 > 0:22:24# Lay it in the centre Just get a chair
0:22:24 > 0:22:26# Holding you Don't let her in... #
0:22:26 > 0:22:30It's very much that kind of anti-establishment tradition,
0:22:30 > 0:22:34which is also a big part of the American experience, too.
0:22:34 > 0:22:36# I'm gonna get a drink Don't you want to go?
0:22:36 > 0:22:38# I'm gonna get a drink Don't you wanna go?
0:22:38 > 0:22:40# I'm going to get a drink Don't you wanna go?
0:22:40 > 0:22:42# Roll on, soldier's joy
0:22:42 > 0:22:46# 25 cents for the morphine 15 cents for the beer
0:22:46 > 0:22:47# 25 cents for the morphine
0:22:47 > 0:22:50# It gonna take me away from here... #
0:22:51 > 0:22:54In the late '20s, this was rock and roll -
0:22:54 > 0:22:58drugs, alcohol, and a tune that came over from Scotland many years ago.
0:22:58 > 0:23:01This song was a smash hit during the Prohibition era.
0:23:01 > 0:23:03The Skillet Lickers were a sensation,
0:23:03 > 0:23:07and the driving force behind them was fiddler Clayton McMichen.
0:23:11 > 0:23:15This Scotch-Irish virtuoso energised traditional music and brought
0:23:15 > 0:23:18old songs like this one to new audiences across America.
0:23:26 > 0:23:28# Well, light's in the parlour
0:23:28 > 0:23:29# Fire's in the grate
0:23:29 > 0:23:31# Clock's on the mantel Says it's getting late
0:23:31 > 0:23:33# Curtains on the window snowy white
0:23:33 > 0:23:35# The parlour's pleasant on a Sunday night
0:23:35 > 0:23:37# Ida Red Ida Red
0:23:37 > 0:23:39# I'm a plumb fool about Ida Red
0:23:39 > 0:23:41# Ida Red Ida Red
0:23:41 > 0:23:44# I'm a plumb fool about Ida Red... #
0:23:44 > 0:23:45Hell yeah!
0:23:59 > 0:24:00# Lamp's on the table Picture's on the wall
0:24:00 > 0:24:02# That's a pretty sofa and that's not all
0:24:02 > 0:24:04# I'm not mistaken I'm sure I'm right
0:24:04 > 0:24:07# There's somebody else in the parlour tonight
0:24:07 > 0:24:09# Ida Red Ida Red
0:24:09 > 0:24:11# I'm a plumb fool about Ida Red
0:24:11 > 0:24:13# Ida Red Ida Red
0:24:13 > 0:24:15# I'm a plumb fool about Ida Red... #
0:24:20 > 0:24:24Part of McMichen's live set from the mid-'20s on,
0:24:24 > 0:24:27this song became a western swing classic,
0:24:27 > 0:24:30and the inspiration for one of rock and roll's first hits,
0:24:30 > 0:24:35when, thanks to Chuck Berry, Ida Red was reborn as Maybellene.
0:24:44 > 0:24:46# Lamp's on the table Picture's on the wall
0:24:46 > 0:24:48# That's a pretty sofa and that's not all
0:24:48 > 0:24:50# I'm not mistaken I'm sure I'm right
0:24:50 > 0:24:52# There's somebody else in the parlour tonight
0:24:52 > 0:24:54# Ida Red Ida Red
0:24:54 > 0:24:56# I'm a plumb fool about Ida Red
0:24:56 > 0:24:58# Ida Red Ida Red
0:24:58 > 0:25:00# I'm a plumb fool about Ida Red
0:25:00 > 0:25:01# Ida Red... #
0:25:11 > 0:25:14Oh, that's all!
0:25:20 > 0:25:23For many living under Prohibition,
0:25:23 > 0:25:26lively music like this was a welcome relief,
0:25:26 > 0:25:29but, for others, these hot tunes smacked of sin.
0:25:34 > 0:25:38# There's a dark and a troubled side of life
0:25:38 > 0:25:43# There is a bright and a sunny side too
0:25:43 > 0:25:47# Though we meet with the darkness and strife
0:25:47 > 0:25:51# This sunny side we also may view... #
0:25:51 > 0:25:53There was a growing audience for religious music
0:25:53 > 0:25:55with its roots in rural communities.
0:25:55 > 0:25:59# When the storms of life are raging
0:25:59 > 0:26:02# Stand by me By me... #
0:26:02 > 0:26:05The old Southern style of shape-note singing was evolving into
0:26:05 > 0:26:08a more polished and dynamic gospel sound.
0:26:13 > 0:26:16The McCravy Brothers, whose people came from County Antrim,
0:26:16 > 0:26:20were radio stars who also recorded popular religious music.
0:26:20 > 0:26:23# If the world from you withhold
0:26:23 > 0:26:25# Of its silver and its gold
0:26:25 > 0:26:29# And you have to get along on meagre fare... #
0:26:29 > 0:26:31Working people found comfort and strength in
0:26:31 > 0:26:33their simple, emotional songs -
0:26:33 > 0:26:37music that helped make sense of a rapidly changing world.
0:26:37 > 0:26:42# Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. #
0:26:42 > 0:26:45# Leave it there
0:26:45 > 0:26:47# Oh, leave it there
0:26:48 > 0:26:53# Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there
0:26:54 > 0:26:57# If you trust and never doubt
0:26:57 > 0:27:00# He will surely lift you out
0:27:00 > 0:27:05# Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there
0:27:06 > 0:27:09# If your body suffers pain
0:27:09 > 0:27:13# And your health you can't regain
0:27:13 > 0:27:17# And your soul is almost sinking in despair
0:27:18 > 0:27:21# Jesus knows the pain you feel
0:27:21 > 0:27:24# He can save and he can heal
0:27:24 > 0:27:30# Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there
0:27:30 > 0:27:33# Oh, leave it there
0:27:33 > 0:27:35# Oh, leave it there
0:27:36 > 0:27:42# Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there
0:27:42 > 0:27:46# If you trust and never doubt
0:27:46 > 0:27:49# He will surely lift you out
0:27:49 > 0:27:53# Take your burden to the Lord and leave it there. #
0:27:56 > 0:27:57For a generation of musicians,
0:27:57 > 0:28:01the recording industry was an escape from poverty.
0:28:01 > 0:28:03Drawing on the repertoire of traditional songs,
0:28:03 > 0:28:07tunes and old-time religion, many had made small fortunes.
0:28:09 > 0:28:12Making music had become a career.
0:28:12 > 0:28:16I've always wondered what it's like for any artist who
0:28:16 > 0:28:18has that moment where they realise,
0:28:18 > 0:28:22"Wow. People are buying my music and I've got money coming in.
0:28:22 > 0:28:24"I didn't know that there was a career to be had here,
0:28:24 > 0:28:26"but, hey, I'll go with it.
0:28:26 > 0:28:27"What are my other prospects?
0:28:27 > 0:28:31"Ploughing behind a mule the rest of my life or digging in a coal mine?"
0:28:34 > 0:28:37# Who'll rock the cradle? Who'll sing the song?
0:28:37 > 0:28:40# Who will rock the cradle when I'm gone?
0:28:40 > 0:28:43# Who will rock the cradle when I'm gone?
0:28:43 > 0:28:47# I'll rock the cradle I'll sing the song
0:28:47 > 0:28:50# I'll rock the cradle when you're gone... #
0:28:50 > 0:28:53For Dock Boggs, his banjo was his ticket out of
0:28:53 > 0:28:56the Virginia coal mine where he'd worked from the age of 12.
0:28:57 > 0:29:01His family, whose ancestors had come over from Ireland in the 1750s,
0:29:01 > 0:29:02was steeped in music.
0:29:02 > 0:29:05# Done all I can do I've said all I can say
0:29:05 > 0:29:10# I will send you to your mama next payday... #
0:29:10 > 0:29:12But Dock grew up with the blues,
0:29:12 > 0:29:16and he fused both traditions to create his own haunting sound.
0:29:17 > 0:29:20# Oh, I've got no honey baby now
0:29:20 > 0:29:24# Got no sugar baby now
0:29:24 > 0:29:26The eight recordings he made in New York
0:29:26 > 0:29:29still resonate with musicians today.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36In 1929, Columbia Records' scouts headed for the moonshine capital
0:29:36 > 0:29:39of Tennessee, Johnson City.
0:29:39 > 0:29:41TRAIN HORN HONKS
0:29:43 > 0:29:46They recorded a Scotch-Irish entertainer with songs that
0:29:46 > 0:29:48reached back centuries.
0:29:48 > 0:29:50His real name was Clarence Earl McCurry,
0:29:50 > 0:29:53but history remembers him as Tom Ashley.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56Tom Ashley had been a medicine show performer.
0:29:56 > 0:30:01He loved music and he was going to play music, come hell or high water.
0:30:01 > 0:30:03A medicine show just travelled around the mountains
0:30:03 > 0:30:05selling medicine, and that's how he made his living.
0:30:05 > 0:30:07That was a pretty tough way to go.
0:30:09 > 0:30:12# There are a house
0:30:12 > 0:30:15# In New Orleans
0:30:15 > 0:30:20# They call the rising sun... #
0:30:20 > 0:30:23Tom Ashley honed his craft on the road, before taking the musical
0:30:23 > 0:30:27heritage of his family and his community into the recording studio.
0:30:28 > 0:30:31# Well, I can't come in
0:30:31 > 0:30:33# Or I can't sit down
0:30:35 > 0:30:39# For I haven't but a moment's time... #
0:30:39 > 0:30:43One song from those Johnston City sessions had very deep roots,
0:30:43 > 0:30:47going all the way back to 13th-century England and Scotland.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49This is a tune called The Coo Coo that I learned from my friend
0:30:49 > 0:30:52Doc Watson, who learned it from Clarence Tom Ashley.
0:30:53 > 0:30:56In the old British song, the cuckoo welcomes spring -
0:30:56 > 0:30:59in Appalachia, he's an adulterer, a gambler,
0:30:59 > 0:31:00and his song is a warning.
0:31:02 > 0:31:06# Well, I've played cards up in England
0:31:06 > 0:31:10# I've played cards down in Spain
0:31:10 > 0:31:14# I'll bet you 5
0:31:14 > 0:31:18# I'll beat you at this game
0:31:18 > 0:31:22# Oh, the cuckoo She's a purty bird
0:31:22 > 0:31:26# And she warbles as she flies
0:31:26 > 0:31:30# And she never hollers "cuckoo"
0:31:30 > 0:31:34# Till the fourth day of July
0:31:44 > 0:31:46# There's just one thing
0:31:46 > 0:31:48# That's been a puzzle
0:31:48 > 0:31:52# Since the day that time began
0:31:52 > 0:31:56# Man's love for his woman
0:31:56 > 0:32:00# And her sweet love for him
0:32:00 > 0:32:02# Oh, the cuckoo
0:32:02 > 0:32:04# She's a purty bird
0:32:04 > 0:32:09# And she warbles as she flies
0:32:09 > 0:32:13# And she never hollers "cuckoo"
0:32:13 > 0:32:16# Till the fourth day of July... #
0:32:18 > 0:32:22Tom Ashley recorded it on October 23, 1929.
0:32:22 > 0:32:25The following day was Black Thursday -
0:32:25 > 0:32:28the stock market crashed and America entered the Great Depression.
0:32:31 > 0:32:34Record sales collapsed.
0:32:34 > 0:32:37Even popular old-time singers like Jimmie Rodgers
0:32:37 > 0:32:40and the Carter Family saw their sales plummet.
0:32:41 > 0:32:44Charlie Poole had to go back to work in the cotton mill.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47He made a little over 5 a week,
0:32:47 > 0:32:50and you figure, five years earlier in New York,
0:32:50 > 0:32:53he would be paid 300 for singing two songs,
0:32:53 > 0:32:56you know, so hard times were back again.
0:32:58 > 0:33:05# For here the hearts of men are failing
0:33:05 > 0:33:10# For these are latter days, we know
0:33:10 > 0:33:16# The Great Depression now is spreading
0:33:16 > 0:33:23# God's word declared it would be so... #
0:33:23 > 0:33:27As the recession hit hard, there was no money to spare for records.
0:33:28 > 0:33:32Clayton McMichen was playing in furniture stores.
0:33:32 > 0:33:35Tom Ashley ended up hauling lumber.
0:33:35 > 0:33:40Dock Boggs pawned his banjo and went back down the mine.
0:33:40 > 0:33:42After a 13-week bender,
0:33:42 > 0:33:46Charlie Poole drank himself to death on bad moonshine.
0:33:46 > 0:33:52# I'm going where there's no depression
0:33:52 > 0:33:58# To the lovely land that's free from care
0:33:58 > 0:34:04# I'll leave this world of toil and trouble
0:34:04 > 0:34:07# My home's in heaven
0:34:07 > 0:34:09# I'm going there. #
0:34:13 > 0:34:17The recording boom was over,
0:34:17 > 0:34:20but the folk music of the South had found a new home -
0:34:20 > 0:34:21on the radio.
0:34:23 > 0:34:26It's going to be Cripple Creek. Let's go, boys.
0:34:26 > 0:34:28FIDDLE AND BANJO PLAY FAST
0:34:30 > 0:34:34Music once confined to traditional rural communities
0:34:34 > 0:34:36now reached a huge new audience.
0:34:38 > 0:34:40FEEDBACK HUMS
0:34:40 > 0:34:44This is the solemn old judge, George D Hay,
0:34:44 > 0:34:46of radio station WSM,
0:34:46 > 0:34:49the home of the Grand Ole Opry down in Nashville, Tennessee.
0:34:49 > 0:34:51APPLAUSE
0:34:56 > 0:34:59Broadcasting to two-thirds of the country by the 1930s,
0:34:59 > 0:35:04the heart of America's Saturday night was WSM's Grand Ole Opry.
0:35:04 > 0:35:06It's Grand Ole Opry time!
0:35:06 > 0:35:09# Holler at all your grand-grandmothers... #
0:35:09 > 0:35:11CHEERING, WHISTLING AND APPLAUSE
0:35:11 > 0:35:13# Who's got the fine twin banjos?
0:35:13 > 0:35:16# Hey, can you fiddle any more? #
0:35:16 > 0:35:18The music was our entertainment.
0:35:18 > 0:35:21We had a radio and we listened to the Grand Ole Opry on the weekends.
0:35:21 > 0:35:26# Everyone's going to have some fun at the Grand Ole Opry tonight. #
0:35:26 > 0:35:31The Ryman Auditorium, in my mind, as a child, I thought it was the...
0:35:31 > 0:35:34It had to be the biggest building in the world.
0:35:34 > 0:35:37Well, here comes many pearls - the Duke of Paducah, Eddy Arnold,
0:35:37 > 0:35:39- and a lot more... - It was the Grand Ole Opry.
0:35:39 > 0:35:41This has been country music's spiritual home
0:35:41 > 0:35:44since the early 1940s.
0:35:44 > 0:35:45It's strangely appropriate,
0:35:45 > 0:35:48given that it started its life as a gospel tabernacle.
0:35:48 > 0:35:51- Yes, it's the Grand Ole Opry... - FEEDBACK SCREECHES
0:35:51 > 0:35:54..the same programme with the same people that you've been listening to
0:35:54 > 0:35:56for the past 14 years,
0:35:56 > 0:35:59only now, we're on a network of stations that reaches all the way
0:35:59 > 0:36:02from the Mexican border to the mountains of Virginia.
0:36:02 > 0:36:04All of those people in the Deep South
0:36:04 > 0:36:07in the '30s, '40s and '50s,
0:36:07 > 0:36:11the radio was their only connection to the outside world,
0:36:11 > 0:36:15and, you know, at the end of a tremendously hard day's work
0:36:15 > 0:36:17in the cotton fields, to gather around the radio,
0:36:17 > 0:36:21and listen to these disembodied voices that carried
0:36:21 > 0:36:22three chords and the truth...
0:36:22 > 0:36:25FAST FIDDLE MUSIC
0:36:25 > 0:36:29Those 50,000 watts can resonate down through the ages, you know,
0:36:29 > 0:36:31and connect us all.
0:36:31 > 0:36:33# Bile them cabbage down Bake those hot cakes brown
0:36:33 > 0:36:36# The only song that I can sing Bile them cabbage down... #
0:36:38 > 0:36:40The Scotch-Irish, with their fiddles and banjos,
0:36:40 > 0:36:43and the old, sad songs and hymns that they loved to sing,
0:36:43 > 0:36:44were at the very heart of it.
0:36:47 > 0:36:52Opry stalwarts the McGee Brothers worked this stage for over 40 years.
0:36:52 > 0:36:55# My wife died on Friday I'm sad that she was buried
0:36:55 > 0:36:57# Sunday was recording day
0:36:57 > 0:36:59# On Monday I got married... #
0:36:59 > 0:37:03Let's give a great big Tennessee welcome to Moon Mullican.
0:37:03 > 0:37:04WHISTLING AND APPLAUSE
0:37:04 > 0:37:07Hillbilly boogie-woogie man Moon Mullican,
0:37:07 > 0:37:09who learned to play on a church organ,
0:37:09 > 0:37:12rocked the Ryman before rock and roll was ever heard of.
0:37:12 > 0:37:14BOOGIE-WOOGIE PIANO PLAYS
0:37:22 > 0:37:26But the king of them all was the son of a Baptist preacher,
0:37:26 > 0:37:29a Smoky Mountain fiddler who became the most powerful
0:37:29 > 0:37:30music publisher in Nashville.
0:37:30 > 0:37:32And now here's the star of our show,
0:37:32 > 0:37:35the pride of Tennessee's Smoky Mountains, Roy Acuff!
0:37:35 > 0:37:36CHEERING
0:37:36 > 0:37:40During the war years, Roy Acuff was more popular than Sinatra.
0:37:40 > 0:37:43He helped transform a fledgling country music industry into
0:37:43 > 0:37:45an American institution.
0:37:47 > 0:37:49# I received the letter you wrote, dear
0:37:49 > 0:37:51# In which you said you'd wait for me
0:37:51 > 0:37:54# I'm asking you to please not wait, dear
0:37:54 > 0:37:56# It would only ruin your life I see... #
0:37:57 > 0:38:00From that very stage, via the magic of radio,
0:38:00 > 0:38:02the Opry stars sang of Saturday-night sinners
0:38:02 > 0:38:04and Sunday-morning redemption.
0:38:04 > 0:38:07# Wherever I go... #
0:38:07 > 0:38:09CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:38:10 > 0:38:15The Opry's mix of folk music, broad comedy and old-time religion
0:38:15 > 0:38:17appealed to millions of Americans.
0:38:17 > 0:38:19The listeners would feel really close to them,
0:38:19 > 0:38:21almost as if they were neighbours or part of the family.
0:38:21 > 0:38:23PHIL PLAYS ACCORDION
0:38:32 > 0:38:35You'd hear Bill Monroe and Flatt and Scruggs,
0:38:35 > 0:38:37but then you'd hear the Stanley Brothers,
0:38:37 > 0:38:40and you'd hear Patsy Cline, or you'd hear George Jones.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47And the first time I got to play on that stage, I think I was 15,
0:38:47 > 0:38:48and I played there with Ralph Stanley,
0:38:48 > 0:38:51and, man, talk about a dream come true.
0:38:51 > 0:38:53That was just an amazing, amazing thing.
0:39:01 > 0:39:04World War II changed America's fortunes.
0:39:04 > 0:39:08The Great Depression was forgotten,
0:39:08 > 0:39:11and American confidence and energy found expression
0:39:11 > 0:39:12in new musical genres.
0:39:12 > 0:39:15MUSIC: Bluegrass Breakdown by Bill Monroe
0:39:23 > 0:39:26Bluegrass is such an exciting moment. It's kind of...
0:39:26 > 0:39:30It goes along with winning World War II, and the atom bomb,
0:39:30 > 0:39:33and the new America that was...
0:39:33 > 0:39:38that just burst out of that pivot point of the end of World War II.
0:39:44 > 0:39:48Mountain music, hymns and harmonies, blues and jazz -
0:39:48 > 0:39:52hillbilly musician Bill Monroe mixed them all into a passionate,
0:39:52 > 0:39:56hard-driving sound that felt completely new in the 1940s.
0:40:00 > 0:40:06He was also listening to big band swing and popular music,
0:40:06 > 0:40:10and seemed to have a sound in his head that his various bands
0:40:10 > 0:40:14didn't quite catch on to until he hires Earl Scruggs on banjo
0:40:14 > 0:40:16and Lester Flatt on guitar.
0:40:25 > 0:40:29And they create a five-man band that debuts in December of 1945
0:40:29 > 0:40:31at the Grand Ole Opry,
0:40:31 > 0:40:35and, with Bill Monroe's high, lonesome singing style,
0:40:35 > 0:40:38it all came together and they made this music
0:40:38 > 0:40:40that had a kind of locomotion.
0:40:43 > 0:40:47It wasn't rock and roll, but it had a rock-and-roll sort of feeling.
0:40:54 > 0:40:58# Oh, my brother take this warning
0:41:00 > 0:41:05# Don't let old Satan hold your hand
0:41:08 > 0:41:13# You'd be lost in sin forever
0:41:14 > 0:41:19# You'd never reach the promised land
0:41:22 > 0:41:29# The old crossroads now is waiting
0:41:29 > 0:41:34# Which one are you going to take?
0:41:36 > 0:41:41# One leads down to destruction
0:41:43 > 0:41:49# The other to the pearly gate... #
0:42:13 > 0:42:17I think you can hear God's presence in it,
0:42:17 > 0:42:19without having to go to church.
0:42:19 > 0:42:22You know, I think a lot of people, erm,
0:42:22 > 0:42:25maybe have given up on church or they don't want to go to church,
0:42:25 > 0:42:27or they went when they was a kid and they didn't like it,
0:42:27 > 0:42:31and they don't want to go back, but God is so in these songs.
0:42:31 > 0:42:38# Jesus our saviour will protect you
0:42:38 > 0:42:44# He'll guide you by the old country road... #
0:42:45 > 0:42:47Whether you embraced it rejected it,
0:42:47 > 0:42:51religion was a central part of Southern culture.
0:42:51 > 0:42:55For so many musicians, black and white, church was where you
0:42:55 > 0:42:59learned to sing and learned what it took to make a good song.
0:42:59 > 0:43:06# One leads down to destruction
0:43:06 > 0:43:14# The other to the pearly gate. #
0:43:20 > 0:43:23So many of these people grew up in rural churches.
0:43:23 > 0:43:29There is a sound that comes from people who have
0:43:29 > 0:43:32not necessarily been trained musically,
0:43:32 > 0:43:38but who have sung in those small, mission hall, rural church settings,
0:43:38 > 0:43:39and it's different.
0:43:39 > 0:43:42It's just... It's different from mainline churches.
0:43:42 > 0:43:44It's different from the churches with the big spires on them.
0:43:44 > 0:43:48It's just different, and some of those singers, they just...
0:43:48 > 0:43:50You can hear it - they mean it.
0:43:50 > 0:43:53MUSIC: Honky Tonk Blues by Hank Williams
0:43:53 > 0:43:57# Well, I went to a dance and I wore out my shoes
0:43:57 > 0:44:00# Woke up this morning wishing I could lose
0:44:00 > 0:44:04# Them jumping honky-tonk blues
0:44:04 > 0:44:09# Yeah, the honky-tonk blues
0:44:09 > 0:44:11# Good Lord, I've got 'em
0:44:11 > 0:44:16# I've got the honky-tonk blues... #
0:44:16 > 0:44:20That same intensity crossed over from church to country.
0:44:22 > 0:44:25A new generation of songwriters and performers carried the lessons
0:44:25 > 0:44:29learned in gospel halls and rural churches into songs
0:44:29 > 0:44:31that celebrated life, with all its passions.
0:44:33 > 0:44:35Hank Williams, the honky-tonk hero that wrote that song,
0:44:35 > 0:44:38knew all about seeking redemption on a Sunday morning
0:44:38 > 0:44:40after the sins of Saturday night.
0:44:40 > 0:44:44# Well, I stopped into every place in town
0:44:44 > 0:44:47# This city life has really got me down
0:44:47 > 0:44:51# I've got the honky-tonk blues
0:44:51 > 0:44:54# Yeah, the honky-tonk blues... #
0:44:54 > 0:44:57His personal struggle with alcoholism and heartbreak
0:44:57 > 0:45:00inspired some of the best-loved songs of the 20th century.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03MUSIC: Your Cheatin' Heart by Hank Williams
0:45:03 > 0:45:06# When tears come down... #
0:45:06 > 0:45:09There's a tension between the party and the fun
0:45:09 > 0:45:11and the Saturday night thing,
0:45:11 > 0:45:13and then there's the waking up on Sunday morning,
0:45:13 > 0:45:18and the regret, and the sense of shame and sinfulness
0:45:18 > 0:45:22and, "Oh, my goodness, that's what I'm actually like." You know?
0:45:22 > 0:45:23And the music captures that.
0:45:25 > 0:45:29# Your cheatin' heart
0:45:29 > 0:45:32# Will tell on you... #
0:45:32 > 0:45:36It speaks right to the core of the human experience.
0:45:36 > 0:45:40There's the push-pull of romance, and cheating and heartbreak,
0:45:40 > 0:45:45and too much partying, and trying to find redemption,
0:45:45 > 0:45:48and right there in that tension point, you've got country music.
0:45:50 > 0:45:55When he died in 1953, Hank Williams' funeral service was broadcast
0:45:55 > 0:45:57on the radio that had helped make him a star.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01All over the South, people listened as country music's finest
0:46:01 > 0:46:03came to sing him goodbye.
0:46:03 > 0:46:10One of Hank's own compositions, I Saw The Light,
0:46:10 > 0:46:12will be brought to us by Roy Acuff.
0:46:14 > 0:46:16Thank you, Reverend, very much.
0:46:16 > 0:46:19May we do this as Hank would want it done.
0:46:19 > 0:46:21I'd like to try it.
0:46:21 > 0:46:22Will you boys take it away?
0:46:29 > 0:46:33# I saw the light I saw the light
0:46:33 > 0:46:38# No more darkness No more night
0:46:38 > 0:46:43# Now I'm so happy No sorrow in sight
0:46:43 > 0:46:45# Praise the Lord
0:46:45 > 0:46:48# I saw the light... #
0:46:48 > 0:46:51Roy Acuff was Hank's hero,
0:46:51 > 0:46:53the Grand Ole Opry's king of country.
0:46:53 > 0:46:57Singing alongside him was Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass.
0:46:57 > 0:47:00All three had grown up with the same old-time religion
0:47:00 > 0:47:03and the same songs and fiddle tunes first brought to the Appalachians
0:47:03 > 0:47:05by their Scotch-Irish ancestors.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08# I saw the light. #
0:47:09 > 0:47:12Their stamp on American music is permanent,
0:47:12 > 0:47:16and their legacy celebrated in Nashville's Hall of Fame.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19# Oh, can the circle be unbroken?
0:47:19 > 0:47:22# By and by, Lord
0:47:22 > 0:47:25# By and by... #
0:47:25 > 0:47:28Throughout country music's history, its stars have sought authenticity
0:47:28 > 0:47:31from its Southern, working-class past.
0:47:31 > 0:47:34# In the sky, Lord In the sky... #
0:47:34 > 0:47:36Now a global industry,
0:47:36 > 0:47:39country has come a long way from its hillbilly heroes...
0:47:39 > 0:47:41DRUMS PLAY FAINTLY
0:47:41 > 0:47:44..yet its finest songwriters have found inspiration
0:47:44 > 0:47:46in that same heritage,
0:47:46 > 0:47:50part of a tradition that's travelled across oceans and time.
0:47:56 > 0:48:01# Shall we gather at the river?
0:48:01 > 0:48:05# Where bright angel feet have trod?
0:48:05 > 0:48:09# With its crystal tide forever
0:48:09 > 0:48:12# Flowing by the throne of God? #
0:48:12 > 0:48:15There was an imprint made by a whole body of hymns
0:48:15 > 0:48:18that were written in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
0:48:18 > 0:48:21# The beautiful, the beautiful river... #
0:48:21 > 0:48:22When somebody gives me a Carter Family box set,
0:48:22 > 0:48:25and, "Oh, my goodness, like, a third of this is in the hymn book
0:48:25 > 0:48:26"that I grew up with."
0:48:26 > 0:48:29# That flows by the throne of God
0:48:34 > 0:48:38# On the margin of the river
0:48:38 > 0:48:42# Washing up its silver spray... #
0:48:42 > 0:48:46Iconic hymns like this one are part of a stream of gospel music
0:48:46 > 0:48:49that's flowed between Scotland, Northern Ireland and America
0:48:49 > 0:48:52since the 19th century -
0:48:52 > 0:48:55a shared tradition in which Scotch-Irish composers
0:48:55 > 0:48:57were a creative force.
0:48:57 > 0:49:02There is a common culture - an unbroken circle, if you like -
0:49:02 > 0:49:07of early country gospel music, which is as much part of my
0:49:07 > 0:49:12cultural inheritance as it is for somebody who lives in Virginia.
0:49:12 > 0:49:16# Ere we reach the shining river
0:49:16 > 0:49:20# Lay we every burden down
0:49:20 > 0:49:24# Grace our spirits will deliver
0:49:24 > 0:49:29# And provide a robe and crown... #
0:49:29 > 0:49:31From the very beginning of the 20th century,
0:49:31 > 0:49:34gospel records made by America's earliest country stars
0:49:34 > 0:49:36travelled back across the ocean,
0:49:36 > 0:49:39and they found eager listeners in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
0:49:39 > 0:49:41# Gather with the saints at the river
0:49:41 > 0:49:45# That flows by the throne of God. #
0:49:48 > 0:49:50BIRD CHIRPS
0:49:53 > 0:49:57In 1952, an Appalachian singer made that same journey.
0:49:59 > 0:50:01Honoured now as the mother of American folk music,
0:50:01 > 0:50:03her name was Jean Ritchie.
0:50:03 > 0:50:06She travelled to Scotland and Ireland from her home in Kentucky
0:50:06 > 0:50:09to try and find the source of her family's songs.
0:50:09 > 0:50:14# Well met, well met My own true love
0:50:14 > 0:50:18# Well met, well met Said he
0:50:18 > 0:50:23# I've come from far across the sea
0:50:23 > 0:50:27# And it's all for the sake of thee... #
0:50:27 > 0:50:29My name is Jean Ritchie.
0:50:29 > 0:50:32I come from mountain country.
0:50:32 > 0:50:36We were always known as a singing family,
0:50:36 > 0:50:38and we always kept the old way of living,
0:50:38 > 0:50:42singing the old songs handed down from generation to generation.
0:50:42 > 0:50:46# And it's all for the sake of thee... #
0:50:48 > 0:50:51Jean sought out Scottish and Irish singers, collecting a wealth
0:50:51 > 0:50:55of music, but she also shared her own treasure trove of songs.
0:50:55 > 0:50:58# The next place ere I met my love
0:50:58 > 0:50:59# It was at a wake... #
0:50:59 > 0:51:04'She had a lot of songs that turned up in the Ulster song tradition
0:51:04 > 0:51:06'and the Scottish song tradition, you know?'
0:51:06 > 0:51:07# Scorn and disdain
0:51:07 > 0:51:10# And the bonny wee lass's answer was to no' come again... #
0:51:10 > 0:51:14We were in this circle of singers,
0:51:14 > 0:51:16swapping songs and versions of songs.
0:51:16 > 0:51:18Maybe somebody would sing a song,
0:51:18 > 0:51:19and somebody would sing an Ulster version,
0:51:19 > 0:51:21and somebody would sing a Scottish version,
0:51:21 > 0:51:23and somebody would sing an Appalachian version,
0:51:23 > 0:51:27and you had all these different variants of the one song turning up.
0:51:27 > 0:51:31# And the bonny wee lass's answer was to no' come again. #
0:51:32 > 0:51:36# Down in some lone valley
0:51:36 > 0:51:40# In a lonesome place... #
0:51:40 > 0:51:43She collected many, many songs in the British Isles and Ireland,
0:51:43 > 0:51:46which she then took back over with her again.
0:51:47 > 0:51:50She herself was her very own carrying stream,
0:51:50 > 0:51:54through her family and back again, in her sharing of songs.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58# And I'll dream of pretty Saro
0:51:58 > 0:52:01# Wherever I go... #
0:52:02 > 0:52:04HE PLAYS Pretty Saro
0:52:08 > 0:52:11This song was lost to the tradition of the British Isles
0:52:11 > 0:52:15in the 18th century, but it was preserved in Appalachia.
0:52:15 > 0:52:17It's just one of many songs returned to us
0:52:17 > 0:52:20by that great mountain singer,
0:52:20 > 0:52:21who carried her family's music home.
0:52:23 > 0:52:29# Down in some lone valley
0:52:29 > 0:52:34# In a lonesome place
0:52:34 > 0:52:39# Where the wild birds do whistle
0:52:39 > 0:52:44# And their notes do increase
0:52:44 > 0:52:50# Farewell, pretty Saro
0:52:50 > 0:52:54# I bid you adieu
0:52:54 > 0:53:00# And I'll dream of pretty Saro
0:53:00 > 0:53:05# Wherever I go
0:53:07 > 0:53:13# My love, she won't have me
0:53:13 > 0:53:18# So I understand
0:53:18 > 0:53:23# She wants a freeholder
0:53:23 > 0:53:28# Who owns a house on land
0:53:28 > 0:53:33# I cannot maintain her
0:53:33 > 0:53:38# With riches and gold
0:53:38 > 0:53:44# Nor by all the fine things
0:53:44 > 0:53:50# That a big house can hold... #
0:53:52 > 0:53:54Jean Ritchie described folk music as
0:53:54 > 0:53:56"a river that never stopped flowing",
0:53:56 > 0:53:58and the songs that she sang and celebrated
0:53:58 > 0:54:01inspired generations to connect with the music of the past.
0:54:03 > 0:54:10# The country I come from is called the Midwest
0:54:10 > 0:54:14# I was taught and brought up there
0:54:14 > 0:54:17# The laws to abide
0:54:17 > 0:54:21# And that the land that I live in
0:54:21 > 0:54:24# Has God on its side... #
0:54:24 > 0:54:27Jean Ritchie was at the forefront of the folk revival
0:54:27 > 0:54:28that began in the '50s.
0:54:28 > 0:54:30On both sides of the Atlantic,
0:54:30 > 0:54:34people reconnected with near-forgotten musical traditions.
0:54:34 > 0:54:35There was quite an epiphany.
0:54:35 > 0:54:37In fact, we all loved Americana music
0:54:37 > 0:54:39because of the instrumental sound of it -
0:54:39 > 0:54:41the banjos, the mandolins, the guitars -
0:54:41 > 0:54:47and that loop actually brought us back to the songs,
0:54:47 > 0:54:50and when we heard that generation of traditional singers
0:54:50 > 0:54:52performing them, it was a very short hop to us
0:54:52 > 0:54:56putting the guitar line behind it, or the banjo line behind it,
0:54:56 > 0:55:00and grafting American instrumentalism
0:55:00 > 0:55:01on to our own tradition.
0:55:04 > 0:55:06My generation played its part too -
0:55:06 > 0:55:09we connected with the past and changed the tradition
0:55:09 > 0:55:10to tell our own musical stories.
0:55:14 > 0:55:17Perthshire's Ross Ainslie and Tyrone-born Jarlath Henderson
0:55:17 > 0:55:19are part of the next wave.
0:55:19 > 0:55:22Finding their own connections between Scotland and Ireland's
0:55:22 > 0:55:25different traditions, they're taking the music into a new century.
0:55:36 > 0:55:40Well, there's no doubt that this is an evolving, living tradition.
0:55:40 > 0:55:42You know, and just like people have done for hundreds of years
0:55:42 > 0:55:45in the past, or composing...
0:55:45 > 0:55:47based on what their surroundings are, you know,
0:55:47 > 0:55:49and what influences them, you know?
0:55:49 > 0:55:50- We're not stuck in a box.- Mm-hmm.
0:55:50 > 0:55:55There's such a, like, vast ocean of these amazing tunes.
0:55:55 > 0:55:56You know, it's like...
0:55:56 > 0:55:59You've got to start off with the traditional
0:55:59 > 0:56:03and then try and maybe do your own thing with it after.
0:56:03 > 0:56:05The deeper you go, the more you find common ground.
0:56:22 > 0:56:23Like, you're not...
0:56:23 > 0:56:26In order to plot your course, you have to know where you started.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29- Yeah, definitely.- That's true. - Yeah.- It's that line from...
0:56:29 > 0:56:31What was it? Alice in Wonderland?
0:56:31 > 0:56:34"You're not lost if you know where you've been."
0:56:34 > 0:56:35So, yeah.
0:57:02 > 0:57:05I started this series with an American anthem,
0:57:05 > 0:57:08a hymn about life's journey, born out of our shared folk tradition.
0:57:08 > 0:57:10HE PLAYS Wayfaring Stranger
0:57:15 > 0:57:18That song, Wayfaring Stranger,
0:57:18 > 0:57:22captures the spirit of a restless people, and the musical traditions
0:57:22 > 0:57:24they carried with them when they travelled so far from home.
0:57:27 > 0:57:33An echo from the past, their legacy endures, part of that great carrying
0:57:33 > 0:57:38stream of music that flows between Scotland, Ireland and America.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45The music never really stands still, and it never has.
0:57:45 > 0:57:47That's because it travels with people.
0:57:47 > 0:57:49Sometimes I'm not sure where my road's going to take me,
0:57:49 > 0:57:51but there's one thing that I do know,
0:57:51 > 0:57:53and it's as true today as it's ever been.
0:57:53 > 0:57:54Wherever your journey takes you,
0:57:54 > 0:57:56if you're carrying your music with you,
0:57:56 > 0:57:58you're never a stranger for long.
0:58:05 > 0:58:12# I am a poor wayfaring stranger
0:58:12 > 0:58:18# Travelling through this world alone
0:58:18 > 0:58:24# There is no sickness, toil or danger
0:58:24 > 0:58:29# In that fair land to which I go... #