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Folk America Documentary-Part 1- Birth of a Nation

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??/??/2009
BBC Channel 4
Set 1Introduction : Birth Of A Nation
Radios And Records
Fiddlin' John Carson
Pop Stoneman
Wade Mainer
The Banjo And The Minstrel Shows
Uncle Dave Macon
The Blues : Blind Lemon Jefferson
David "honeyboy" Edwards
Charlie Patton
Record Players And Slim Bryant
Prohibition And Charlie Patton
Mississippi John Hurt
Henry Thomas
Dock Boggs
The Carter Family
Jimmie Rodgers
Wall Street Crash
The Future
CommentBroadcast on BBC4

The opening part looks at how, in the 1920s, record companies scoured the American south for talent to sell. This was a golden age of American music, as the likes of the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charlie Poole, Dock Boggs and Mississippi John Hurt burst onto record, eager to have a share in the new industry and the money it made, only to lapse into obscurity when the depression hit at the start of the 30s.

Contributors include Judy Collins, Steve Earle, Tom Paxton and Pete Seeger, surviving relations of 1920s greats such as Mississippi John Hurt, the Carter Family and Uncle Dave Macon, plus three actual survivors of the era - guitarist Slim Bryant, banjoist Wade Mainer and Delta bluesman 'Honeyboy' Edwards.
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