“The High Lonesome Sound: Kentucky Mountain Music” (Part II of II)

“The High Lonesome Sound,” produced by John Coen, is a 30-minute 16mm black & white film dating to 1963. Credits include John Coen (photography & sound), Joel Agee (assistant), Patricia Jaffe (editing).
The film focuses on Kentucky mountain singer Roscoe Holcomb and life in the coal mining town of Hazard, Kentucky. It shows how folk music and spirituals give Kentucky mountaineers a way of holding to tradition and dignity in this depressed area where farms have worn out and machinery has replaced men in the coal mines. Old ballads and church songs are supplemented by popular hillbilly music and country rock and roll: sung by unemployed workers, coal miners, church congregations. - Film annotation from “American Folklore Films & Videotapes: An Index,” Center for Southern Folklore, Memphis, Tn. 1976.
“High Lonesome Sound” features these performers and songs:
Roscoe Holcomb (Daisy, Ky.)
* Across the Rocky Mountains
* Little Birdie
* The Wandering Boy
The Shepherd Family (Old House Branch, Ky.)
* Five Nights Drunk
Regular Baptist Church (Jeff, Ky.)
* When I Can Read My Titles Clear
Holiness Church of God (Delphia, Ky.)
* Have a Little Talk with Jesus
Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys (Hazard, Ky.)
* John Henry

[@Nazareth434]

Roscoe, the original "Mr High Lonesome Sound" himself!

[@rcombs65]

This has a glimpse of my great grandpa in it. And a few people I actually attended church with when I grew up in Jeff Kentucky

[@RedAkumaSan]

How cool is that! Thanks for your comment.

[@michaelashcraft8569]

Makes my Soul want to cry....

[@Nazareth434]

Yep. Sad that so much anger and destruction have taken over these days! No sense of community and comradieriship in many places today, and when you do find it, miserable folks seem to find out about the town and move in and ruin it- lived in several small close knit towns where life was grand, only to have "progressivism" come from outside and infest the town and turn it unrecognizable in a few short years.

[@carolinestafford8234]

Thank you for this. Very interesting.

[@eparker3161]

Awesome.

[@RedAkumaSan]

Find Part I at this link - th-cam.com/video/_pbs-8OgAcs/w-d-xo.html

[@redwolf7929]

He looks pretty old to still have to work poor fella