This man was joining others for some homestyle hoe-down music on our town square. He kept shaking his head to the song along with his other hand so those parts are a bit out of focus.
Mark - this part of TN is closer to the Delta and has more inspiration in the blues though the suburb we live in is pretty isolated. A lot of the suburbs out here are new (about 10 years ago we had a major population burst, fasting growing city in TN). It filled up with young families and cookie-cutter homes - cut the old trees down, built subdivisions over the cotton fields, parking lots over the mom and pop stores, Starbuck's, etc. There is a lack of diversity and very small elderly population. A lot of the people here are actually from other parts of the US and moved here because of a few fortune 500 companies in the area. BUT, it has great schools and is safer than the city. Still has some quaintness is parts...all part of a trade-off I suppose.
I would love to go out West sometime and see a lot of the older places, pioneer stuff. The stories and adventure behind it always intrigues me!
I like the movement, the blur. Documentaries seem to need it often. Study it, and you'll see it has impact. Has TN changed so much that these people have become so distant from even their neighbors in the suburbs? I hope the rural areas will always be there. I've heard Bluegrass. It communicates everything they've gone through; the generations. Here, when I listen to the Sons of the Pioneers, I'm reminded of early California.
You know, the whole time I'm watching this I'm thinking how different their lives are from mine. How this is such a part of who they are and a lifestyle that my suburban children will only know as "shows" we watch when going to the Town Square. But for this people, it's entrenched into their culture, their ancestors, their blood. The songs they were singing were so reminescent of mountain music - old, old church songs, love songs, sad songs about a girl who died and the way their voices quivered at times gave me chills.
If anything, I just wish this man's face was more in focus but his whole body was in motion from the moment he got there. My light was very limited here too. Here's a photo of him playing, very blurred obviously:
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