Bluegrass Journey

Bluegrass Journey (2003), directed by Ruth Oxenberg, is a documentary about bluegrass music. (It's not about the bluegrass region of Kentucky.) Most of the film's footage was shot at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, and at the annual bluegrass music association meetings. These are interesting places, and the director captured the feel as well as the appearance of these events.

Bluegrass music is wonderful, and the director clearly loves it. The musicians, spectators, and venues are all fascinating, and the footage has great visual--as well as auditory--appeal.

The problem for me is that Ms. Oxenberg obviously became enchanted by a hyperactive and photogenic mandolin player, and it seems as if he's onscreen--with one group or another-- for at least 25% of the time. Most of the music he plays is progressive bluegrass--or "newgrass"--and that music doesn't appeal to me.

I wish the director has given us more classic, traditional bluegrass music. It's still played today, and my guess is she had lots of footage of this type of music, which she chose to edit out.

I think the use of more archival footage, contrasting the early bluegrass bands with the bands playing today, also would have made for a stronger and more interesting documentary.

We owe Ms. Oxenberg a vote of thanks for a honest, sincere, and basically enjoyable effort. However, as I watched "Bluegrass Journey," I kept thinking about the far better film she could have, but didn't, give us.

"Bluegrass Journey" highlights some fantastic moments in American acoustic music, and should appeal to aficionados of both traditional bluegrass (Del McCoury Band, Bob Paisley and Southern Grass) and newgrass (Nickel Creek, The Texas Trio) with a bone thrown to Celtic music as well (Tim O'Brien and The Crossing). The camera work is at times stunning, putting us not just right on stage at the Grey Fox Festival, but intimately close to instruments played expertly and with great affection. The offerings by Dobro virtuoso Jerry Douglas are by themselves worth the price of the DVD.

The directors have inexplicably included a grating scene of a New Age wedding which not only adds absolutely nothing to the film, but detracts from it. One can only speculate as to why they deemed this worthy of our attention, but omitted any portrayal of the hymns and Sunday morning Gospel sings which are integral to the genre, and which grace almost every bluegrass festival I've ever heard of.

The unfortunate wedding scene notwithstanding, "Bluegrass Journey" is a worthwhile tribute to a truly American art form.