Bluegrass Family

This spring two local filmmakers, Ruth Oxenberg and Rob Schumer, completed work on Bluegrass Journey, a major documentary film portrait of the contemporary bluegrass music scene. The documentary will premiere this July at our own local Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival, where much of it was shot. Music enthusiast Dirk Zimmer interviewed Ruth and Rob to find out the story behind the film.

Dirk: Can you tell us how your movie came about?

Ruth: We've been producing and directing the film for 7 years. Rob and I discovered bluegrass when we were planning our wedding 10 years ago. Rob plays the guitar and mandolin and when we were planning our wedding up here in the country, we thought, wouldn't it be great to have bluegrass band? He knew more about it than I, so we acquired CDs by the hundreds.

Dirk: You got addicted to it?

Ruth: Yeah, people get addicted to this music.

Dirk: There are so many cross-references across thegenerations.

Rob: Right, the deeper you get into it, the more you're just delighted in finding that this person as a kid played with that person and started learning from him and then from his records you learn that he was actually so-and-so's cousin in the 1940s. And the music, the musical world, becomes a historical journey.

Dirk: And everybody brings different styles to it.

Rob: When you discover the personal relationships, you fall in love with the culture, as well as the music.

Dirk: The movie shows so well that people enjoy each other's company, as well as the music . . .

Ruth: It's often described as a musician's music, kind of a cliched phrase, but it really is. There are more than 500 bluegrass festivals every year around the world. It started in the southeastern United States. Many people think that bluegrass music is as old as the hills, but really it dates from the 1940s.

Rob: Bill Monroe founded a group called The Bluegrass Boys in 1939, but it wasn't until his band in 1945 with Earl Scruggs and Lester Flatt in it that he created the sound that is now universally regarded as bluegrass.

Ruth: But you won't get a history lesson in the movie. It's more a celebration of the musicality and the festivals and being part of the community.

Dirk: So you did that for 7 years?

Rob: Well we took time out in the 7 years to have 3 kids.

Ruth: We have twins who are 5 years old and a 2 1/2-year-old baby and we moved from the city up here full time, so we had to make that transition to a new life.

Rob: 7 years in gestation, execution, and production, but it wasn't 7 straight years.

Ruth: Well, it was a completely new direction for both of us. Rob is an opthalmologist, a glaucoma specialist.

Rob: And a research scientist.

Ruth: My career was more directly related. For 18 years I was in television network news, but I had never gone out on my own before. We had to raise all the money ourselves. We formed a company and found investors.

Dirk: And did you do the camera and editing, etc?

Rob: I was one of 8 cameramen, but mostly we directed them.The concept that drove the look is that this music is art music the same way jazz is art music, so we searched for that look and think we have really found it.

Ruth: Through my relationships with cameramen over the years I was able to get friends to work for us, so we had high quality professional work. And we found an editor, Nancy Kennedy, who has a house in Phoenicia, so we edited over there. We wore many hats, the business hat as well.

Rob: Fund raising, organization, creative vision, technical execution, legal . .

Dirk: And now you have to deal with marketing, distribution, promoting the film, participating in film festivals and music festivals. Do they show documentaries?

Ruth: It's unusual.

Rob: Some of them have small symposia, but they're oriented toward the business of music--how to pick a manager, how to take your band on the road, Marketing Concepts 101. The thing about bluegrass is that it's a small community and no one in it is making a lot of money. No one is drawn in strictly for business reasons--only because they love the music. The music has never sold out.

Dirk: And it was always an intergenerational music. From fathers to sons, mothers to daughters, and so on. .

Ruth: Family. It was part of the culture as passed down in rural areas. At night, instead of turning on the TV, people played music together. It still is in a lot of places. It's remarkable, every year new bands appear at these festivals--young family bands. Also there's the O Brother Where Art Thou phenomenon.I think Americans are sick of the commercialization of pop and country music. It tapped into a hunger they have for something real.

Dirk: Let's talk about the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival.

Ruth: It's one of the best bluegrass festivals in the country, if not in the world. And here it is, right in our own backyard. Some of the best music in this genre that is to be found anywhere, with a setting and an ambience that is absolutely the best the Hudson Valley has to offer. And spectacular views.

Rob: Many generations of family come together there: grown people who are now grandparents now come with their children and their children's children.

Ruth: So we are very honored they asked us to show it at our hometown festival. Most of the film is shot there, but also in Nashville and Knoxville.

Dirk: I like what Peter Rowan said in your film, that it's about knowing the roots. From there you can go wherever you like, but you have to know the roots. And what Ronnie McCoury talks about--no matter how exciting and elevating it all is, when all is said and done, all you want to do is play some more.

Rob: It's very real--the only reason you're doing it is because you love it.

Ruth: That applies to us too. The only reason we've done this is because we love it. You get hooked.

Bluegrass Journey will be screened Wednesday and Thursday nights, July 16 and 17, at the Grey Fox Bluegrass Festival in Ancramdale, New York. For information about day and full festival passes visit www.greyfoxbluegrass.com or call 888-946-8495. For further information about Bluegrass Journey, including sales and further screenings, visit www.bluegrassjourney.com.

left: Chris Thile of Nickel Creek