Summer Concert Series: Down from the Mountain (2000)

 The movie, O Brother Where Art Thou (2000) brought a renewed interest in folk and bluegrass music. In fact the music was so important to that movie that a concert film was created based around the performers who did the songs heard there. As strange of an idea as this is, Down From the Mountain works wonderfully.

Despite the presence of D.A. Pennebaker (Don't Look Back (1967), Monterey Pop (1968)) as one of the directors there is little cinematic about this movie. You can close your eyes and simply listen to the music and get pretty much the same out of it. That may sound like a major insult, but when the music is this good one hardly needs anymore. Those who know my taste in music (or anyone who reads my Cowboy Church posts) will hardly be surprised to hear me praise this movie, it is a perfect example of what I listen to when I am not watching movies. Such incredible artists as Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss and Union Station, The Cox Family, Ralph Stanley, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, John Hartford and The Whites perform here and all of them are at the top of their game. From the perfect voices of Emmylou Harris and Alison Krauss, to the incredible lyrics of Gillian Welch and David Rawlings, to the incredible musicianship of Ralph Stanley and Union Station, this film gives country, folk and bluegrass fans all they could want from a concert movie and much more.

A pure auditorily treat, even if cinematically it leaves some to be desired. 

-Michael J. Ruhland

Happy Birthday to Me

Hello my friends, guess what, it is my birthday. Yay!

While I will not be spending my entire day at home (as I work in a grocery store and therefore am not able to work from home), I have come to the realization that after work I am going to have to spend the rest of my day at home instead of being out and having birthday themed adventures. However this hardly means that I can't have birthday themed adventures in my own house. While I can't except my friends to be waiting to greet me with a big party when I get home, I can celebrate with my movie-land friends, with some birthday themed films like the following.

Despite me being born on this day, it wasn't exactly a great day in history in other respects. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated and the Titanic sunk for instance.






(Yes... So much of this movie is extremely racist and hard to watch but this scene and others stand out as great filmmaking of the highest quality, it is equally possible to hate the racism while loving the filmmaking)

Gillian Welch and David Rawlings wrote a song about the terrible things that happened on my birthday.




On the bright side one of the all time great country singers was born today as well, Loretta Lynn. Speaking of Loretta, Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980) still stands as one of the best country music movies ever made.


















Here is a scene from my personal favorite movie, Show People (1928).

This is not related to my birthday but lately I have been reading the new book Chase! A Tribute to the Keystone Cops (edited by Lon & Debra Davis, you can buy it here). The more I have been reading the more I have been watching the Ketstone films and the more I am realizing that these classic shorts are just plain fun movies.









For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Ephesians 2:10

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn his face toward you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24-26

So happy birthday to me. Yay!

-Michael J. Ruhland