“The High Lonesome Sound,” produced by John Coen, is a 30-minute 16mm black & white film dating to 1963. Credits include John Coen (photography & sound), Joel Agee (assistant), Patricia Jaffe (editing).
The film focuses on Kentucky mountain singer Roscoe Holcomb and life in the coal mining town of Hazard, Kentucky. It shows how folk music and spirituals give Kentucky mountaineers a way of holding to tradition and dignity in this depressed area where farms have worn out and machinery has replaced men in the coal mines. Old ballads and church songs are supplemented by popular hillbilly music and country rock and roll: sung by unemployed workers, coal miners, church congregations. - Film annotation from “American Folklore Films & Videotapes: An Index,” Center for Southern Folklore, Memphis, Tn. 1976.
“High Lonesome Sound” features these performers and songs:
Roscoe Holcomb (Daisy, Ky.)
* Across the Rocky Mountains
* Little Birdie
* The Wandering Boy
The Shepherd Family (Old House Branch, Ky.)
* Five Nights Drunk
Regular Baptist Church (Jeff, Ky.)
* When I Can Read My Titles Clear
Holiness Church of God (Delphia, Ky.)
* Have a Little Talk with Jesus
Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys (Hazard, Ky.)
* John Henry