High Lonesome: The Story of Bluegrass Music (1992) User Reviews

A film to love even if you're not into bluegrass

[Buddybaba · 10/10 · 1 October 2005]

Rachel Liebling, a student of Ken Burns, has created a classic of Americana. The editing and cinematic styling are obviously a Burns spin off but an old nitrated photo of a small country church and great locomotive imagery bring her into new documentary dimensions. The music is perfectly synced with its images as in Bill Monroe's seamless walk from concert stage to his old front porch. Ralph Stanley singing "Man of Constant Sorrow". A young Alison Krause at about the time she won the national fiddling contest. This is not a complete compendium, a chronological survey, or a definitive look at Bill Monroe or any of the individual artists but an impassioned portrait of a true American musical art form. I recommend it highly, 10 out of 10.

Style of film not to my taste

[bezdecheck · 5/10 · 19 January 2012]

Now another viewer said this documentary was one to love even if you didn't care for bluegrass. I love bluegrass but the way this film was edited left me cold. Throughout the entire picture voices are speaking and singing over video of people speaking and singing - but one has nothing to do with another. I actually wanted to know what was going on in the concerts and interviews I saw and I found the structure of this film very irritating. I restarted the film twice to see if that made a difference. I guess I would have rather have listened to this on the radio. Looks like IMDG is forcing me to stretch this into ten lines because that's their rule. Stupid rule.