Banjoes, Fiddles & Riverboats: John Hartford and the General Jackson

Eleven time Fiddler of the Year and even a Grammy nominee, but that's just part of the story. Though born with disabilities that left him blind and partially deaf, Michael Cleveland is considered by many to be the greatest fiddler of all time.

Contrary to the stereotype of Mississippi as a state of social conservatism and stagnation, the support, protection and love Rainbow families provide queer youth offers up an alternative view of the New Deep South.

Join the Grammy Award winner and his band for a one-of-a-kind concert honoring the birthplace of Bluegrass. One of music’s top artists across all genres, Strings reveres acoustic music while pushing it forward into new spaces through his incredible live shows. Recorded on February 26, 2023 at the historic Ryman, Strings celebrates the traditional bluegrass songs that shaped him as a musician.

In the fall of 1962, a dramatic series of events made Civil Rights history and changed a way of life. On the eve of James Meredith becoming the first African-American to attend class at the University of Mississippi, the campus erupted into a night of rioting between those opposed to the integration of the school and those trying to enforce it. Before the rioting ended, the National Guard and Federal troops were called in to put an end to the violence and enforce Meredith's rights as an American citizen.

Filmed on location in seven different states during 1980-1981, America’s most loved and original music genre is the subject of “That’s Bluegrass”. This care-free, fast-moving documentary lovingly examines our home-grown musical heritage from the simple front porch fiddler to famous Nashville recording stars, listening in as accomplished amateurs do some “pickin and grinning” at outdoor festivals and play songs handed down from generation to generation.

The Stanley sound is true old-time, mountain style bluegrass music. This film tells Ralph's story through interviews with Ralph, fellow musicians, and those who know Ralph best. Rank Stranger, White Dove, Pretty Polly, Man of Constant Sorrow, and over twenty other songs help tell the story. Ralph performs with Dwight Yoakam, Patty Loveless, Junior Brown, Larry Sparks, George Shuffler, Ricky Skaggs, and members of the Clinch Mountain Boys.

Capturing the sights, sounds, and magic of Carlton Haney’s 1971 Labor Day Festival in Camp Springs, North Carolina; a three-day outdoor festival—the first of its kind—featuring bluegrass veterans and future stars alike sharing the primitive wood and cinder block stage. More than just capturing one of the largest bluegrass festivals of that decade, this documentary is also an interesting mixture of live performances, interviews, impromptu jam sessions and crowd footage of live music set in a small town surrounded by the now long gone red clay and tobacco shacks of North Carolina.

In the spring of 1927, after weeks of incessant rains, the Mississippi River went on a rampage from Cairo, Illinois to New Orleans, inundating hundreds of towns, killing as many as a thousand people and leaving a million homeless. In Greenville, Mississippi, efforts to contain the river pitted the majority black population against an aristocratic plantation family, the Percys, and the Percys against themselves. A dramatic story of greed, power and race during one of America's greatest natural disasters.

Two documentary filmmakers go back in time to the pre-Civil War American South, to film the slave trade.

No single figure in American music so dominated a genre as did Bill Monroe with bluegrass. BILL MONROE: FATHER OF BLUEGRASS MUSIC features performances by Bill Monroe & the Blue Grass Boys, Lester Flatt, Emmylou Harris, Paul McCartney, the Osborne Brothers, Dolly Parton, Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart, John Hartford and a once-in-a-lifetime Blue Grass Boys reunion featuring Del McCoury, Chubby Wise and Bill Keith. The film features archival footage and rare 1990s performances from Monroe's final years including many of the greatest songs from his six decades of recording.

Set in the North Carolina Appalachians, Sprout Wings and Fly honors the fiddle playing of 82-year-old Tommy Jarrell of Toast, NC. Tommy was quirky, gregarious and generous, and this film shows him at his best, in fine fiddling form.

Fronted by one of the most accomplished banjo players of his time, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones are captured live in concert on Live at the Quick. The versatile band performs just over a dozen songs including such radically different compositions as "Amazing Grace," "Big Country," "Hoedown," and the prelude from a Bach violin concerto.

Despite her mother's objections, the naive young daughter of a show boat captain is thrust into the limelight as the company's new leading lady.

Humorist Roy Blount Jr. takes viewers on a journey down the Mississippi River, showcasing everything from areas with spectacularly beautiful scenery to ugly and dangerously polluted stretches bordered by industrial development.

A powerful documentary starring Morgan Freeman about the genesis of The Blues in the South and the music spreading around the world. Morgan Freeman shares his story of his experience of growing up in Clarksdale, Mississippi and his love for the Blues.

Over 2000 Union soldiers, passengers and crew were crammed aboard the steamboat Sultana, licensed to carry 376. Graft, greed, overcrowding, a poorly maintained boat, and the Mississippi River was swollen with spring snowmelt conspired together to create a disaster. On April 27, 1865, the boat’s boilers exploded, causing the worst maritime disaster in US history.

An intimate portrait of the acclaimed North Carolina band The Avett Brothers, charting their decade-and-a- half rise, while chronicling their present-day collaboration with famed producer Rick Rubin on the multi-Grammy-nominated album “True Sadness.”

This passionate and affecting performance documentary celebrates the virtuoso artistry and joyous community of contemporary bluegrass music. Musically depicting many of the traditional roots and some of the more far-reaching branches of the genre by employing verite footage, thoughtful interviews, and vividly captured extended performances to weave a seamless tapestry that transports and enraptures the devoted fan and newcomer alike.

At the Ryman is a 1992 live album by Emmylou Harris and her then-newly formed acoustic backing band, The Nash Ramblers, recorded at the Ryman Auditorium, most famously known as the onetime home of the Grand Ole Opry. This video includes interviews with the artists and live performances from the album.

There are only a few Bluegrass Boys still around that played with the Father of Bluegrass, Bill Monroe. Peter Rowan was a bluegrass boy in the 1960's for only a short time, but Bill's influence and musical knowledge still resonates with Peter. Even as he branched out into his own music after leaving Bill's band, his bluegrass roots were never far away. This portrait of Peter expands beyond his music to his artistic and spiritual endeavors spanning four decades giving the viewer an in-depth look at a true legend within our Americana musical history. His lyrical quality and melodies are memorable; influencing the next generation of musicians, sharing what Bill taught him and what he has learned being a troubadour traveling the world.