NEA grant allows Arts Center to preserve Southern music documentaries

April 25, 2007, WOODBURY – A $25,000 National Endowment for the Arts grant will help the Arts Center of Cannon County preserve documentaries about Southern music, U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon announced.

“The Arts Center of Cannon County will restore, produce and distribute an 11-part video documentary about the roots of Southern music. The documentary was produced in the 1970s and was aired by PBS in Atlanta and hasn’t been released since,” Gordon said. “The Arts Center plans to put the documentary on DVD, as part of its mission to preserve art forms that are endangered.”

The 11-part documentary is comprised of three films – “Raw Mash,” “Mouth Music” and “Showdown at the Hoedown” – created by producer Sol Korine and director Blain Dunlap.

“This is an exciting project,” Arts Center Executive Director Donald Fann said. “All the documentaries focus on Middle Tennessee music traditions.”

The three 30-minute short films show that folk and traditional music cultures existed not in a vacuum, but co-existed and influenced each other, said project manager Evan Hatch.

“Hamper McBee is featured in ‘Raw Mash.’ He was a great storyteller, ballad maker and moonshine maker,” Hatch said. “His music included the step-by-step process of how to make moonshine.”

“Mouth to Music” is about individuals who use their voices for things other than singing, such as auctioneering and hollering. Hatch said hollering stood in for telephones; individuals could cast their voices for miles.

“Showdown at the Hoedown” documents the 1980 Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree and champion Frazier Moss’ final contest.

“Our goal at the Arts Center is to preserve through distribution – popular preservation. Make enough CDs and get them into people’s hands and heads, so that the art form will survive for another generation. We are not an archive; we’re giving it its own legs,” Hatch said.