1975 Bluegrass People & Pickin Film - 2-Page Vintage Article

Description

1975 Bluegrass People & Pickin Film - 2-Page Vintage Article
Original, Vintage Magazine Article
Page Size: Approx. 8" x 11" (21 cm x 28 cm) each page
Condition: Good
Believe me when I say that of all the
bluegrass festivals taking place in all the
ball parks and campgrounds of America,
there is none as totally confounding and
unexpected as the Delaware 3rd Annual
Old-Time Bluegrass Festival. Its very
name warns you of its oddball nature. So
I was somewhat suprised last summer
when Ron Ranter of New Jersey Public
Broadcasting told me that he would
shoot film on bluegrass music at the
Delaware festival. At the time I thought
Delaware the unlikeliest of festival sites.
I mean Delaware, for gods sake! Who
thinks of bluegrass when you mention
Delaware ?
It’s been five long months since the
festival took place. Winter rains have
almost swept clean the memory of what
had been three days of fun and
frolic--bluegrass style. Now Ron Ranter
has completed his film. “Bluegrass:
People & Pickin’ ” will be aired on New
Jersey public television Sunday, March
16 at 8:30.
The 3rd Annual Old Time Bluegrass
Festival seems to have absolutely
everything stacked against it. It is a
small festival compared to Galax or
Union Grove. There are no crowds of
twenty thousand. Only eight performing
bands cross the small stage at Gloryland
Park. The festival is scheduled for the
hottest month of the year, a time when
savy state residents try to be anywhere
but home. The days are hot and humid
with the ever present threat of
thunderstorms. The dry, cracked earth
that is Gloryland Park turns to mud at
the mention of rain. The land is flat.
There are few trees. These are the
negative factors.
On the positive side are Ralph
Stanley and Bill Monroe.
Monroe and Stanley co-produce the
festival and headline it as well. And
apparently that is enough. At least it
was enough for Ranter who has been
listening for years to these two living
legends. “There are very few places in
the east where you can hear Ralph
Stanley and Bill Monroe sing together on
the same stage,” said Ron.
Ron’s first problem in obtaining
permission to make his film was selling
network brass on the merits of New
Jersey public television filming an out of
state music festival. “We pretty much
like to stay in our own backyard,"
explained Ranter. The New Jersey
broadcasting authority is supported by
state funds and there is a strong feeling
that it’s primary responsibility is to the
state of New Jersey. But according to
Ranter, New Jersey Public Broadcast-
ing also feels it has an additional
responsibility “to create programming
that is unavailable anywhere else.”
New Jersey has no bluegrass
festival of its own. “So we did what is
unusual for New Jersey Public Broad-
casting,” explained Ranter. “We went
outside the state to produce the show.
The station was willing to do this
because the Delaware festival offered
the potential to produce good program-
ming.”
Ranter began to assemble a crew as
soon as he received permission to go
ahead with his bluegrass project. “To do
it properly,” he explained, “required the
biggest single film crew we had ever put
in one place.” The crew consisted of ten
people. “A crew of ten sounds like a lot,”
Ron said, “but when it got down to
actually working, we could have used
more men.”
One immediate problem was work-
ing with a crew unfamiliar with
bluegrass music. Ranter solved this
problem by bringing bluegrass records
to work. He also brought in photographs
of mandolins, banjos, Dobros, and
D-sized Martins. “When I asked for a
tight shot of a mandolin I didn’t want to
end up with a closeup of a banjo," he
said.
The crew arrived in Glasgow,
Delaware fully expecting to work hard
but they were unprepared for the long,
grueling hours under a hot sun. Arriving
early Friday morning they began setting
up for the concert that evening. The first
night concert ran well past midnight.
And by eight o’clock Saturday morning
they were back filming the first of the
days parking lot pickers, their voices
still coarse with sleep. Throughout the...
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