Songcatcher
Kerry Blech
>The soundtrack CD is already in stores, and I picked it up yesterday. It
>features Roseanne Cash, Iris DeMent, Dolly Parton, Emmy Rossum, Emmylou
>Harris, Alison Moorer, Patty Loveless, Julie Miller, Maria McKee, Sara Evans,
>Gillian Welch, David Rawlings and David Steele, Deana Carter, David
>Mansfield, Hazel Dickens, David Patrick Kelly and Bobby McMillon, and Pat
>Carroll, some of whom may or may not play fiddle!
Many (or most) of these singers are not in the film, nor were their
voices
used... a couple of them were. Emmy Lou Harris' only involvement was
that
her modern version of Barbry Allen was used over the closing credits,
and
it was quite jarring given the appropriateness of all the other music
in the film. I assume there is some sort of disclaimer on the CD that it
is not, in fact, really a soundtrack CD, but "inspired by"? I would hope
so. Pat Carroll, that fine character actress, did a nice job of actually
singing her part, coached by Sheila Kay Adams (whom I wished had gotten
the opportunity to sing in the film herself -- she did get to play some
banjo in it, though, and that is almost as good as hearing her
sing). Bobby McMillion, D.P. Kelly, and Hazel Dickens all partook in
a rather eerie round-robin sing of "O, Death." All did it nicely,
especially Hazel (this is gross understatement on my part -- her
singing is among the best on the planet). There were a couple of
fiddle sequences in the film -- one a nice solo fiddle version of
"Sally Goodin" during a picnic scene, and the other was accompaniment
to a song by Iris DeMent, also a high point in the film for me.
I've seen the preview video and look forward to seeing it on the
big silvered screen (hopefully not in one of those multiplexes whose
screens are smaller than some of the TVs I've seen in friends' homes).
I was told it was expected to hit Seattle cinemas around July.
Alan Jabbour wrote:
>I'd love to hear from anyone who sees this film early on. I don't know who it's about, but the title >"Songcatcher" suggests Dorothy Scarborough, a Texas scholar and writer who did fieldwork in 1930 or thereabouts >in the Southern Appalachians and published the collection A SONGCATCHER IN THE SOUTHERN MOUNTAINS (1937). A >friend of mine, Sylvia Grider, has written on Scarborough's career.
Though uncredited, I think that Ms. Scarborough's book was a major
inspiration. The writer
did cite Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil Sharp's writings as sources. some
of the
characters even have the same name as informants that Scarborough
collected from.
Best, regards,
Kerry
Al Christians
>friend of mine, Sylvia Grider, has written on Scarborough's career.
>
Tell us more about Scarborough. She's one of those people who was
famous but has been just about completely forgotten.
Al
Kerry Blech
is Scarborough's biographer. If you search on either Sylvia
or Dorthy's names, you will find some min-bios on Scarborough
on the web. Dr. Grider, who is at Texas A&M, is working on a full
length biography of Scarborough. I know little about Scarborough,
basically what is related in her Songcatcher in the Southern
Mountains book and what Grider has written. I too would like to
learn more.
She taught English/writing at Columbia University, her father had
been on the faculty of Baylor University, she had a few very
successful novels and also published a folklore book on
African-American music she'd collected (I think about 1924)
prior to her 1930 field trip to collect ballads that
resulted in "Songcatcher." In Songcatcher, she notes that she
also collected quite a volume of lyric songs, that were
out of scope for the ballad collection, that she had transcribed
and planned on publishing later. She also was totally captivated
by Appalachian instrumental music, primarily on fiddle and banjo,
and projected a future collecting trip to investigate that
more deeply. Alas, she died in about 1935, apparently suddenly,
so no futher books were forthcoming. In fact, Songcatcher was
completed by her colleagues at Columbia, in her honor and memory,
as well as to further the academic record on balladry.
I'd also like to know if her manuscrpts are with her collection
in Waco. I'd love to see someone tackle them and parse for more
songs and tunes and perhaps publish some more. Not to mention the
slight possibility of finding some of the recordings she made
on the 1930s trip (speak-o-phone cylinders, for the most part,
probably mostly destroyed in the process of transcribing, and
others melting in the torrid Richmond, VA heat, as she described
in the book -- but she also did some collecting -- having
singers and musicians come to her -- in New York, and apparently
some of those recordings have survived but seem to be
misfiled, and as yet not fully identified. But, I can say
no more... (as I know no more).
Best regards,
Kerry
Steve Goldfield
Kerry Blech <Blec...@WolfeNet.com> wrote:
#>Mary Katherine Aldin wrote:
#>>The soundtrack CD is already in stores, and I picked it up yesterday. It
#>>features Roseanne Cash, Iris DeMent, Dolly Parton, Emmy Rossum, Emmylou
#>>Harris, Alison Moorer, Patty Loveless, Julie Miller, Maria McKee, Sara Evans,
#>>Gillian Welch, David Rawlings and David Steele, Deana Carter, David
#>>Mansfield, Hazel Dickens, David Patrick Kelly and Bobby McMillon, and Pat
#>>Carroll, some of whom may or may not play fiddle!
#>
#>Many (or most) of these singers are not in the film, nor were their
#>voices
#>used... a couple of them were. Emmy Lou Harris' only involvement was
#>
#>I've seen the preview video and look forward to seeing it on the
#>big silvered screen (hopefully not in one of those multiplexes whose
#>screens are smaller than some of the TVs I've seen in friends' homes).
#>I was told it was expected to hit Seattle cinemas around July.
#>
#>Alan Jabbour wrote:
#>>I'd love to hear from anyone who sees this film early on. I don't know who it's about, but the title >"Songcatcher" suggests Dorothy Scarborough, a Texas scholar and writer who did fieldwork in 1930 or thereabouts >in the Southern Appalachians and published the collection A SONGCATCHER IN THE SOUTHERN MOUNTAINS (1937). A >friend of mine, Sylvia Grider, has written on Scarborough's career.
#>
#>Though uncredited, I think that Ms. Scarborough's book was a major
#>inspiration. The writer
#>did cite Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil Sharp's writings as sources. some
#>of the
#>characters even have the same name as informants that Scarborough
#>collected from.
#>
#>Best, regards,
#>Kerry
I hope I didn't mess up any attributions while snipping.
I was sent an airplay copy of the CD and couldn't believe
that Kerry would like it, so I'm glad to hear that it isn't
what's on the film, which he said he did like.
Steve
(8<})>(8<})>(8<})>(8<})>(8<})>(8<})>(8<})>(8<})>(8<})>(8<})>
-------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Goldfield <stev...@best.com> * Oakland, California
* Home Page--<http://www.best.com/~stevesag/stevesag.html> *
I'm not over the hill. I am the hill.
John Garst
> ...published a folklore book on
> African-American music she'd collected (I think about 1924)....
Dorothy Scarborough
Assisted by Ola Lee Gulledge
On the Trail of Negro Folk-Songs
Cambridge, MA
Harvard University Press
1925
Kerry Blech
>
> I hope I didn't mess up any attributions while snipping.
>
> I was sent an airplay copy of the CD and couldn't believe
> that Kerry would like it, so I'm glad to hear that it isn't
> what's on the film, which he said he did like.
Steve,
thanks for the vote of confidence, or whatever. Guess I'll
pass on getting the Cd...
Kerry
Brent Cantrell
find the site now, so I can't post the link.
WARNING -- this includes a film synopsis.
Brent Cantrell
Knoxville
..........................................
TRIMARK PICTURES
and
RIGAS ENTERTAINMENT
in association with
The Independent Film Channel Productions
present
An ErgoArts
Production
A Film by Maggie Greenwald
SONGCATCHER
Janet McTeer
Aidan Quinn
Pat Carroll
Jane Adams
Greg Russell Cook
Iris DeMent
Stephanie Roth Haberle
David Patrick Kelly
E. Katherine Kerr
Taj Mahal
Muse Watson
and introducing Emmy Rossum
Casting by... ELLEN PARK VIVIAN HASBROUK
TRACY KILPATRICK
Co-Producers..JENNIFER M. ROTH
WENDY SAX
Costume Designer..KASIA WALICKA MAIMONE
Editor....KEITH REAMER
Production Designer..GINGER TOUGAS
Director of Photography..ENRIQUE CHEDIAK
Original Score and Musical Direction....DAVID MANSFIELD
Executive Producers.....JONATHAN SEHRING
CAROLINE KAPLAN
Produced by...ELLEN RIGAS VENETIS
RICHARD MILLER
Written and Directed by....MAGGIE GREENWALD
RUNNING TIME: 109 minutes MPAA RATING: PG-13
CAST
(in order of appearance)
Lily Penleric...JANET MCTEER
Dean Arthur Pembroke.....MICHAEL DAVIS
Professor Wallace Aldrich...MICHAEL GOODWIN
Fate Honeycutt..GREG RUSSELL COOK
Elna Penleric....JANE ADAMS
Harriet Tolliver....E. KATHERINE KERR
Deladis Slocumb...EMMY ROSSUM
Viney Butler....PAT CARROLL
Alice Kincaid...STEPHANIE ROTH HABERLE
Tom Bledsoe.....AIDAN QUINN
Hilliard...BART HANSARD
Polly....ERIN BLAKE CLANTON
Earl Giddens..DAVID PATRICK KELLY
Isabel....KRISTIN HALL
Reese Kincaid....MICHAEL HARDING
Dexter Speaks...TAJ MAHAL
Parley Gentry..MUSE WATSON
Rose Gentry...IRIS DEMENT
Clementine McFarland....RHODA GRIFFIS
Ambrose McFarland...STEVE BOLES
Reverand Merriweather......TAYLOR HAYES
Will......JOSH GOFORTH
Barn Band-Dulcimer....DON PEDI
Barn Band-Banjo..SHEILA KAY ADAMS
Singer at Barn Dance...BOBBY MCMILLON
Singer at Barn Dance....HAZEL DICKENS
Josie Moore....ANDREA POWELL
Uncle Cratis..DANNY NELSON
Postman Johnson..DAVID DUCEY
Cyrus Whittle....STEVEN SUTHERLAND
SOUNDTRACK RECORDING
Traditional Balladry Advisor..SHEILA KAY ADAMS
and Vocal Coach
Traditional Songs Performed in the Film
Barbara Allen
Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies
Conversation With Death
Down In A Willow Garden
Jonnie Scot
Leather Breeches
Lord Randall
Lord Thomas & Fair Ellinor
Matthy Groves
Old Joe Clark
Pretty Saro
Sally Goodin
Silk Merchant's Daughter
Single Girl
Soldier's Joy
The Trooper and The Maid
The Two Sisters
Young Hunting
When The Mountains Cry
Written by David Mansfield and Tom Russell
Published by Jocada Music (BMI) and Frontera Music (ASCAP)
Administered by Bug Music, Inc.
Pickin' That Thang (Dr. Joe)
Written and Performed by Taj Mahal
Published by Sony Music Publishing
Barbara Allen
Traditional
Music Arranged and Performed by David Mansfield
Performed by Emmylou Harris
Iris DeMent appears courtesy of
Warner Bros. Records, Inc.
Use of Edison Logo is made with permission of McGraw-Edison Company, a
Subsidiary of Cooper Industries, Inc., Houston, Texas.
No animals were harmed in the making of this film.
Filmed on Location in Asheville, North Carolina,
Western North Carolina Film Commission.
Special Thanks To
David Brose, The John C. Cambell Folk School
The Southern Folklife Collection, Wilson Library at
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
John Curry
Dr. William K. McNeil, Ozark Folk Center
Archives of Appalachia, East Tennessee State University
Dean Williams, Appalachia State University
Mary Jane and Henry Queen
Rodney Sutton
Dan Gellert
Tracy McKnight
Kate O'Connell
Cataloochee Ranch, Maggie Valley, N.C.
The Great Smokey Mountains Railway, Dillsboro, N.C
Helen Uffner Vintage Clothing LLC-N.Y.
McCauley Natural Hair Co., Cary, N.C.
Adelphia Communications
Larry Hopkins and the Ananda Hair Salon
Shurla Alexander
Peter Venetis
John and Doris Rigas
Michael Rigas
Timothy Rigas
James Rigas
Jane Wright
Graeme, Frances and Daisy Miller
William and Shirley Greenwald
and
Meixing Mansfield Greenwald
The filmmakers gratefully acknowledge the work of
Olive Dame Campbell and Cecil J. Sharp
Thank you to the people of the Western Mountains of North Carolina
The events, characters and firms depicted in this motion picture are
fictitious.
Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events
is purely coincidental.
© 2000 Song Catcher Films LLC
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Song Catcher Films LLC is the author of this motion picture for the
purposes of copyright and other laws in all countries throughout the
world.
Ownership of this motion picture is protected by copyright and other
laws of the United States and other countries. Any unauthorized
exhibition, distribution or reproduction of this motion picture or
videotape or any part thereof (including the soundtrack) could result
in severe and criminal penalties.
SONGCATCHER
Synopsis
Set off on an exhilarating adventure across a part of America
still rarely seen, deep into the raw and rambling, high-mountain roots
of rock, bluegrass, folk and country music. This is the terrain of
SONGCATCHER, a different kind of movie about music: part love story,
part archive of America's most secret musical legacies. Academy
Award-nominee and Tony Award and Golden Globe-winner JANET MCTEER
stars as turn-of-the-century musicologist Dr. Lily Penleric, an
unlikely heroine whose earthy, unstoppable drive leads her to musical,
personal and romantic discoveries - as she uncovers remarkable songs,
dances and beats of the heart in the Appalachian mountains.
The time is 1907. Lily Penleric, a woman ahead of her time,
has just been passed over yet again for a university promotion,
despite her academic achievements. Frustrated and determined to get
the recognition she deserves, she heads to Appalachia, dragging an
impossibly bulky, primitive recording device far into the hill
country, with a plan to record music never heard before. There she
joins her sister Elna (portrayed by Tony Award-winner JANE ADAMS), who
runs a local schoolhouse - and quickly butts her head against the
fiercely insular and protective mountain ways.
Here, the story takes a left turn into the wild-hearted
culture of the Appalachian mountains, as Lily worms and wheedles her
way into the world where American roots music was born, a place of
hardscrabble farmers, daring, illegal bootleggers and palpable magic.
Some of contemporary music's most exciting artists including IRIS
DEMENT, TAJ MAHAL and HAZEL DICKENS also star, along with music by
such legends as EMMYLOU HARRIS bringing to life the raw and
transcendentally lyric ballads and tunes of Appalachia.
Under the shotgun-toting tutelage of local expert Viney Butler
(played by Grammy and Emmy Award-winner and Tony Award-nominee PAT
CARROLL) and the scarlet-throated orphan Deladis Slocumb (EMMY
ROSSUM), Lily begins to learn about the local music and starts to
record their haunting songs. But Lily cannot help but also become
privy to the mountain people's struggles - from marital squabbles and
run-away husbands to the community's fight to save their land from
greedy coal companies. Not everyone in the hill-country is
cooperative, including the rough local musician Tom Bledsoe (the
acclaimed AIDAN QUINN), who accuses Lily - now known far and wide as
"The Songcatcher" - of exploiting the locals. But as Tom comes to see
Lily's strength and passion for the music, and Lily begins to feel
Tom's deep loyalty for his people, mutual respect and romance blossom.
The fires are not confined to Lily's romantic life, though,
and when disaster strikes hard at the very core of her mountain
community and her own ambitions, Lily is faced with a choice: to
remain an outsider forever or to join the musical, spirited community
of the mountain people she has grown to admire.
Special Jury Prize-winner for Outstanding Ensemble Performance
at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival, SONGCATCHER features authentic
vocal performances by the entire cast, as well as the earthy artwork
of Elizabeth Ellison.
Trimark Pictures and Rigas Entertainment, in association with The
Independent Film Channel Productions, present an Ergo Arts production
of a film by Maggie Greenwald. SONGCATCHER stars Janet McTeer, Aidan
Quinn, Pat Carroll and Jane Adams. Casting by Ellen Parks, Vivian
Hasbrouk and Tracy Kilpatrick. Co-Producers are Jennifer M. Roth and
Wendy Sax, and Kasia Walicka Maimone served as Costume Designer.
Edited by Keith Reamer, Production Design by Ginger Tougas; Enrique
Chediak served as Director of Photography. Original Score and Musical
Direction by David Mansfield. The Executive Producers are Jonathan
Sehring and Caroline Kaplan. Produced by Ellen Rigas Venetis and
Richard Miller, SONGCATCHER was Written and Directed by Maggie
Greenwald.
# # #
AMERICA'S ROOTS MUSIC
A Brief Primer on Appalachian Song and Dance
The sweet, haunting songs "caught" on film in "SONGCATCHER:
represent some of America's most powerful musical influences - the
Appalachian roots that later sprouted into the spirited twang of
American country music, the lively atmosphere of bluegrass, the urgent
relevancy of folk and eventually the Southern-influenced birth of
Elvis Presley's rock n'roll. Today, Appalachia remains a hotbed of
creative music with new stars such as Iris DeMent rising out of the
old traditions with the rarest of gifts: a high lonesome voice and a
simple song that can shatter a person's heart.
Many Appalachian churches even have a fundamental faith in the
power of music. As Virginia Reverend Bobby Akers has said: "For us,
guitars and drums and rock n' roll [have become] the instruments of
God."
Appalachian music is America's most primitive music, our
equivalent of the African drum-beat. In fact, the influences on
Appalachian music are the very make-up of America: African banjos and
rhythms merged with European fiddles and ballads. Throughout the 19th
century, songs carried from homes far away kept their singers linked
to the lives of their ancestors in the Old World. Soon these timeless
ballads met the wood-carved instruments of the wild American mountains
and Irish and English folk melodies blended with the intensely
personal tone of Southern blues.
The Banjo Begins It All
Long before there were guitars in this county, there were banjos
brought from Africa, played primarily by African-American slaves.
During the Civil War, soldiers from mountain villages came into
contact with African-Americans and their banjos for the first time.
These soldiers brought the newfangled instruments home, sparking an
entirely new sound as pluckers sat down with fiddlers on rickety old
porches and found a way to combine the two.
It wasn't until the late 19th century that guitars and mandolins
entered the picture - again introduced by African-Americans who were
inventing a new form of playing known as the blues -- and they were
still a rare find in the 1907 of SONGCATCHER. Other instruments
tended to be those that could be hand-crafted out of local materials,
including penny-whistles, flutes, fifes, mouth-harps and dulcimers.
The instruments themselves shifted from song to song and sometimes
stopped altogether for a haunting a capella ballad. The songs
themselves addressed everyday concerns of the people - most telling
stories of hardship and hope, from lost love to family tragedy, from
growing up poor to finding your way. The songs were sometime
centuries-old narratives about universal concepts such as love,
family, murder, fueds and war; and sometimes they were more recent
adaptations, telling of important local events or heroes. Later, when
coal mining began to affect the lives and land of the people, many
songs even took on a political nature, expressing anger, sadness and
frustration at the drastic effects of the mines.
The songs of those times survive even now because they were part of
the very fabric of people's lives. There was no way to make real
money from music, so people played it to entertain themselves and to
pass on legends and lessons to their children. The music was never
elite or exclusionary - everyone in Appalachia, whether Scots-Irish or
French or German or African-American, could either sing, play an
instrument, dance or tell a story, often in a style distinctly their
own. In those times, families might gather around to sing songs or
tell stories before bedtime, or a whole village might gather after
raising up a barn to dance, play music and share tales. It was just
an organic part of everyday existence.
A Secret Music
Throughout his period of time, Appalachian music remained
obscure to most Americans, a secret known only by musicologists and
others who traveled in the remote mountain country. Not only did few
Americans travel to Appalachia, but almost no one ventured out. Many
mountain folk remained highly suspicious of life beyond their
close-knit villages. In the 1920s, however, record companies
discovered the music's appeal, coining the phrase "hillbilly music" to
boost sales and bringing talented musicans out of the hills. Many of
the Grand Ole Opry's first stars hailed from Appalachia, including
Uncle Dave Macon, Uncle Jimmy Thompson, the Fruit Jar Drinkers, the
Gully Jumpers, Deford Bailey and Dr. Humphrey Bate. Over time,
"hillbilly music" evolved into bluegrass and country music, producing
major popular stars.
Sadly, this shift signaled a lessening of the traditional
ways. Now instead of passing songs down from generation to generation
by word of mouth and live performances, the mountain peoples began to
listen to phonographs and radios. But that traditional style of
clear-as-mountain-air expression and the use of heart-rending,
true-to-life stories persists in country-style music, especially that
most untouched by commercial trends.
Enter Flatfooting
Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, Appalachian music was often
accompanied by dancing, a loose-limbed, percussive dance style known
as clogging, buck dancing or flatfooting. Like the music, the dances
were passed down from parents to their children and remain a tradition
even today.
Flatfooting is an improvisational style of dance, with each
dancer free to express himself or herself in any way as long as they
maintain a steady pounding rhythm. Flatfooting is also a particularly
versatile style of dance, allowing for villagers to dance alone, in
pairs or in large groups. Today, flatfooting has become a
show-stopping form of entertainment across the world - and has even
entered the arena of performance art. But people can still be found
clogging away on a small square of wood at mountain music festivals or
alone in a backwoods cabin.
THE APPALACHIAN "MOUNTAINEERS": AN INTRODUCTION
Known as "mountain people" or mountaineers, the people who
inhabit the remote, rural stretches of the Appalachian mountain chain
have long existed as an American mystery. Reclusive and with their
own fiercely strong traditions, the Appalachian mountain people have
nevertheless left a profound influence on such popular American arts
as music, story-telling, art and woodcrafts.
The Appalachian mountains, which stretch down the eastern
coast of North America from Newfoundland to Georgia, are soft,
rounded, heavily eroded mountains with the appearance of lush,
undulating green hills separated by hidden valleys or "hollers." Most
of the mountain territory is forested swampland, covered in ferns and
mosses. This has been both a blessing and curse for Appalachia. On
the one hand, it has provided astonishing physical beauty and
remoteness; and on the other, this same fecund ground has compacted
into enormous deposits of valuable coal - which has been a source of
fierce battles, greed, environmental destruction and repression since
the 1800s.
After Native-Americans, the first settlers in this wild part
of America were primarily Germans, Irish and Scots, arriving in the
1700s. It is said that those who felt crowded in the bigger urban
settlements struck out for more liberty and more room in the far-off
hill country, not fearing the wilderness. Myths arose around these
brave "hill people," many unsubstantiated, but what remains clearly
documented is a way of life that highly prized loyalty, family,
self-sufficiency, story-telling, living on one's own terms and love of
the land. Due to their isolation, everything the mountain people
owned was made by local craftspeople, from furniture and tools to
musical instruments. Most food was grown by each individual
household, with few store-bought goods. In fact, little money was
needed or used in the mountains.
William Price, a writer who chronicled early mountain-life, wrote of
the mountaineers: "[They are] of fiery temperament, free-and-easy,
sport-loving, gallant, fighting at the drop of hat, racing horses,
playing cards, pitting game chickens, indulging in whisky as freely as
water . . . With their faults, nevertheless, they are endowed with
resplendent virtues of personal character."
Later, in the late 1800s and early 1900s people of Welsh, Italian and
African-American descent moved to the mountains to work the coal
mines. All of these cultures melted into Appalachian culture of
today. But as railroading, timbering, coal mining and cotton mills
began to industrialize the mountain regions in the early 20th century,
many Appalachian traditions began to change. Subsistence agriculture
gave way to industrial work - with subsequent losses in independence,
isolation and simplicity of life. One of the biggest changes was from
a barter economy to a dollar economy - one in which families now
sought to buy the essentials of life, including music. With so many
hours spent in mines or mills, families no longer had the time to
gather together just to sing songs and the old ways were overtaken by
the shock of the new.
Today, Appalachian folk culture - not just music, but the dance, arts
and craftsmanship of an earlier era - has undergone a vibrant revival.
There is a broad, youthful movement to get back to simpler, more
primal roots-based music and arts - and a fascination with what the
"mountaineers" of American history may have known about the mysteries
of living the good life.
# # #
SONGCATCHER
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION
SONGCATCHER is a journey deep into the heart and soul of
American music. This tale of unexpected romance takes audiences into
the rarely seen Appalachian mountains where on the rickety porches of
banjo-picker's cabins and subsistence farmer's shacks the everyday
music of the people - music filled with story-telling, protest,
politics, history, romance and sheer celebration -- was born. At
times haunting and at times hilarious, the music of SONGCATCHER, it is
important to note, was performed by the actors themselves.
Few people have experienced the hidden lands where the
wild-growing roots of bluegrass, country, folk and popular music first
took hold. This was what drew writer/director Maggie Greenwald to
take a peek into the backcountry of America where, at the turn of the
century, the ballads and tunes that would later inspire everyone from
Dylan to Guthrie to Garth first became known to the world.
"I was inspired to tell this story after doing some research
into the early days of country music, going back to the roots of it
before there even was a recording industry," explains Greenwald. "I
was intrigued by these wonderful ballads that were being sung in the
mountains for a century before the world ever knew about them. And I
was further intrigued to find that the people who brought this music
to the mainstream were women - the teachers and missionaries who were
up in the mountains at that time, and who realized for the first time
the power of this music and culture."
Greenwald took the basic essence of her research and melded it
into an adventurous, fictional tale about a woman music professor, one
of this country's first, who makes a solo journey into the mountains
to research Appalachian music -- only to fall in love with a local
musician who changes not only her feelings about the music but her
entire outlook on life.
"Like Lily, I fell in love with the world Maggie unfolded in
the script," says producer Ellen Rigas Venetis. "She takes us to an
incredible place in which two worlds are clashing - one the
sophisticated, modern world of Dr. Lily Penleric, the other the
primitive, freedom-loving world of the mountaineers - and yet out of
it comes this fantastic romance. I also was very excited to find at
the core of this story a truly unique, strong and unforgettable female
protagonist. This is a story not only about the history of American
music, but about a woman's strength, perseverance and her discovery of
something wilder and more primitive not only in American culture but
in herself."
Adds producer Richard Miller: "You really have two stories in
one in SONGCATCHER: one is the breathtaking untold story of how a lot
of popular music got started in this country and the other is a very
compelling love story about two people you would never expect to come
together. It was a script full of revelations and surprises."
Songcatching: The Heart of the Tale
While researching her script, Greenwald came across the old
mountain term "Songcatcher," which refers to anybody who collects
songs, whether a singer or an outsider. She also uncovered the
real-life history of one of Appalachia's most renowned songcatchers,
an East Coast-bred woman named Olive Dame Campbell, who boldly
journeyed to the mountains with her minister husband in 1908, a time
when few outsiders came to Appalachia. Olive was immediately taken
aback by the astonishing music and crafts of the mountain people and
began collecting their ancient ballads and studying the ways of their
handicrafts. Eventually, she founded the John C. Campbell Folk
School, dedicated to fostering traditional Appalachian ways, in
Brasstown, North Carolina.
Although Olive Dame Campbell brought many of the songs she
heard to the outside world, it wasn't until the British musicologist
Cecil J. Sharp published them in 1915 that they began to gain renown.
This irony that the songs only escaped national attention until a man
became involved didn't escape Greenwald's eye. She decided right away
that she wanted a woman at the center of her story - one who, like
Olive Dame Campbell, had to fight to be taken seriously, and who's
number one priority was making the music last.
Dr. Lily Penleric never existed in real-life, but her
experiences in the mountains echo many of the real-life Easterners - a
number of whom were among the country's first female college graduates
-- who made their way deep into the hills hoping to bring improved
health and education, while preserving the soul-stirring ways in which
art naturally mixed with life there. The dilemma Dr. Lily Penleric
faces - to simply take the music for her own advancement or to help
preserve and be a part of the freewheeling lifestyle that led to its
creation - was also very real. "The culture of the mountains was
hidden and preserved for a long time simply by geography, because the
mountains held the music in and kept other people out," explains
Greenwald. "But as more and more people began coming to the
mountains, the traditions became threatened."
"I found this period of time very exciting because there was a
real clash between the modern world and the primitive world and it was
all exploding in this one isolated place. The battle between progress
and tradition being waged then is one that still continues," adds
Greenwald.
Greenwald also gave to Dr. Lily Penleric something Olive Dame
Campbell and the other song-collectors of the early 20th century never
had: a primitive, fragile recording machine she drags into the hills
not unlike the piano in Jane Campion's "The Piano." This
first-generation machine recorded directly onto wax, which in the
sunny atmosphere of North Carolina, meant that even the slightest
exposure to heat could leave Lily with liquid music.
Greenwald took a trip from her home in New York City into the
Blue Ridge mountains of North Carolina, looking for more inspiration.
She found it everywhere she went . . . and in hundreds of singing
voices among the ordinary people living there. "The music itself was
the biggest inspiration for this story," she comments. "The a capella
style of singing I experienced all over North Carolina is some of the
fiercest, most beautiful folk music I've ever heard."
Another phenomenon struck Greenwald: the role of women in
preserving Appalachian ballads. "I realized that songs are very much
a women's tradition - handed down from mother to daughters, from
grandmothers to children around the house. It was really exciting to
me to discover a form of music that was primarily created by women,
passed down through the generations by women, and even discovered by
women," explains Greenwald. "I began to see the potential for Dr.
Lily Penleric."
Dr. Lily Penleric Becomes a Songcatcher
Once Greenwald had gathered an enormous amount of research
about turn-of-the-century Appalachia, she began to create Dr. Lily
Penleric, the outsider who finds herself changed by the mountains.
Greenwald saw Dr. Lily Penleric as a timeless woman, someone who would
have fought similar battles whether she was born 500 years ago or
today. "Lily's story has occurred throughout history, in that she is
a very independent woman who tries to make her way in a man's world by
trying to imitate men and be like them, destroying her own soul in the
process," she says.
"But I saw Lily being changed by the mountains," continues Greenwald.
"The hardships of dealing with nature and the experience of
discovering music as something that stirs her soul and not just an
intellectual subject of study eventually open her up to a love that
will be transforming. Until she meets Tom, she has shut herself off
from feeling in order to achieve. But in the mountains, and through
the music, she finds a new freedom. She begins to live more in her
heart than her head."
To bring Dr. Lily Penleric to life with the depth, charisma and
complexity of a true heroine, Greenwald needed an uncommon actress.
She found what she was looking for in Janet McTeer, fresh off her
extraordinary performance in "Tumbleweeds," for which McTeer garnered
a Golden Globe Award and an Academy Award nomination. "Working with
Janet was incredible," offers Greenwald. "She's brilliant and
big-hearted and fierce in a wonderful, wild, strong sense. She's
truly one of the most amazing talents I've ever experienced." McTeer
introduces the film with a startlingly beautiful rendition of "Barbara
Allen."
McTeer was drawn to the utter uniqueness of Dr. Lily Penleric's life -
although she never anticipated the challenges of wandering around in a
corset in the 90 degree North Carolina heat. "I found Lily
fascinating, and someone I could easily identify with because she is
so driven, and has paid such a big price for her dreams," she says.
"She reminded me of modern women because Lily has succeeded in a man's
world but she's lost herself along the way, becoming harder and
tougher. It's just like so many people today who are so busy working
and achieving that they start to miss some of the magic of a simpler
way of life." But McTeer was also intrigued by Lily Penleric's times.
"Lily was born at a time when women didn't even have the right to
vote," she observes. "Women had only just started going to college in
limited numbers, so she was really ahead of her time."
Nevertheless, Lily Penleric never finds satisfaction in academic
kudos. She finds it in dancing barefoot in the Applachian hills.
"Lily really finds her emotions and the richness of life through the
people she meets in the hills," says McTeer. "She finds herself
through the strong, spirited women she meets and through her lover,
Tom. After a whole lifetime of trying to be a part of a man's world,
it is only in the mountains that she learns to be a woman."
Tom Bledsoe - Mountaineer
At first glance, it would seem unlikely that Dr. Lily Penleric
might fall in love with a mountain man, but Tom Bledsoe turns out to
be a very surprising person. Explains Greenwald: "Tom is a true man
of the mountains, a hard man and a sad man who has seen the outside
world and come away wary of it. He's a war veteran and he's had his
heart badly broken by tragically losing two wives. When he first
meets Lily, he's mostly trying to keep the outside world away because
he's very worried that big business is going to come in and crush the
mountain ways, including the music. But eventually Tom and Lily are
drawn together by their profound passion for the music."
From the beginning, Greenwald imagined Aidan Quinn in the
role. "He brings an amazing depth and soulfulness to every character
he portrays - and Tom Bledsoe is no different," she comments. "Aidan
is an amazing actor and watching him and Janet work together was a
wonderful learning experience."
Quinn quickly fell in love with every aspect of SONGCATCHER.
"I loved the story, I loved the music, I loved the history, Janet
knocked me out and I'd always wanted to work with Maggie Greenwald,"
he summarizes. He was also taken by the private and rugged character
of Tom Bledsoe. "Tom is truly a man caught between two worlds," says
Quinn. "He's traveled around and he's seen what the outside has to
offer so in that sense he's very sophisticated. But he also fiercely
wants to protect what's left of the mountain people's isolation. He
doesn't want anyone to ruin the place he loves."
Quinn was particularly touched by the love affair between his
character and Dr. Lily Penleric. At first, Tom Bledsoe is suspicious
of Lily, not least of all because he thinks she is only in the
mountains to exploit the local talent. "But when he sees her genuine
love for the music, that's what wins him over," explains Quinn.
"They've been butting heads like crazy, but he begins to realize he's
more than a little attracted to her."
To prepare for the role, Quinn read books about the period and
even collected periodicals of the time to get a feel for how people
lived and looked. To keep himself immersed in mountain culture, he
even lived in a Blue Ridge mountain cabin during production. He also
learned, for the first time in his life, to sing and play. "This was
the real crux for me," he laughs, "because it's pretty scary to pick
up an instrument as an adult and know that you have to look like an
expert in just a few weeks. Luckily, I had a tremendous amount of
help." In addition to guitar lessons, Quinn worked with a voice coach
to learn the shape-bending notes of Southern singing.
"It was really important that I get it right," adds Quinn,
"because music is the only place Tom can really express himself."
Quinn, who grew up on Irish traditional music, was so won over by the
ballads and folk songs in the film, he admits he may have developed a
life-long addiction. "This music was a real revelation to me - it's
so fun and full of emotion," he notes. "It inspired me to want to
keep playing the guitar, and after SONGCATCHER, I think this music
will be even more a part of my life."
The Mountain Balladeers: Viney and Deladis
While Tom Bledsoe's quiet charisma begins to open Dr. Lily
Penleric's heart, it is the local women of the hills who begin to open
up her eyes and ears to the incredibly rich fusion of music, art and
life around her. Two women in particular decide to help Lily in her
quest to learn the traditional ballads of the region: the gun-toting
mountain woman Viney Butler, played with panache by Pat Carroll, and
the orphan Deladis Slocumb, played by teen-aged operatic singer Emmy
Rossum.
The Emmy and Grammy Award-winner and Tony Award-nominee
Carroll is best known to movie audiences as the voice of the Sea Witch
in "The Little Mermaid," but here she had a chance to go in a
completely different direction - and she was drawn to the idea of
immersing herself in the rich heritage of mountain culture. "I grew
up in the South, but I never really knew about the origins of the
music until I read this script," says Carroll. "I loved it - you get
history, you get passion and you get to experience these wonderful
songs that have been handed down over the generations."
Continues Carroll: "I was very moved by the characters - they believe
in the reality of love and in the reality of great music. Coming to
the mountains to shoot the film was another revelation because the
people who live here haven't changed all that much today. That's a
long time to hold onto traditions, to hold onto songs, but it's
clearly what keeps them vital."
Carroll also adored Viney Butler's boisterous, buoyant love of life.
"Viney might be set in her ways and not too fond of strangers but
that's understandable because the mountain people know they have to
protect their ways," explains Carroll. "Still, Viney helps Lily
because she sees a bit of herself in the doctor. Lily doesn't give
up, she's strong and stubborn, and Viney takes the stripe of this
woman and decides she's all right."
Although Carroll hung out with locals and read history books like the
rest of the cast to prepare for the role, one aspect of her
preparation was entirely accidental. The day after she began shooting
her scenes, one of Carroll's front teeth fell out. Looking in the
mirror, Carroll saw herself even further transformed into Viney
Butler.
"I called Maggie and told her my tooth has fallen out and the look is
wonderful," recalls Carroll. "She said 'are you sure aren't in pain?'
and when I said no she said 'well, then let's use it.'" Carroll
waited until after production to have her dentition fixed!
While Carroll grew up exposed to Southern traditions, 13
year-old Manhattanite Emmy Rossum was thrust into a world unlike any
she had ever imagined in North Carolina. "Being part of this film has
meant learning a lot about the history of music and about this
beautiful area and that has been an incredible amount of fun," admits
Rossum. "I think it's a very important story because I don't think a
lot of people know where all this great music originated."
Trained as an opera singer who has performed with the likes of
Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti, Rossum found herself also in
new musical territory. "I love to sing no matter what the style," she
says, "but this was entirely new to me. I'd never heard songs like
this before but the more I heard them the more they won me over." The
sound came naturally to Rossum, who liked the primal expressiveness of
the singing style. "The operatic sound is more in the head, while
this kind of ballad singing is more nasal, but it is a very free
sound. I had a really great time with it," she adds.
Rossum was also interested in the challenges of playing
someone 180 degrees from her own reality. "Deladis is real wild
mountain girl," admits Rossum, "and I'm not like her at all. Being
from Manhattan, I've never really run around barefoot the way she
does! I was also very interested in Deladis' conflict, which is in
where her allegiance lies - with Lily, whom she's come to love almost
as a mother, or to Fate Honeycutt, her boyfriend who doesn't trust
Lily's outsider ways."
Once shooting got under way, another exciting aspect for
Rossum was getting out into the wilds herself. "I loved the clean air
of the mountains and the whole free-wheeling atmosphere," she offers.
"But the only thing I could have done without were the incredible
mosquitoes!"
From Banjos and Ballads to EmmyLou, Iris Dement, hazel dickens and taj
mahal:
The Music of SONGCATCHER
The very heartbeat of SONGCATCHER resides in the music - that
blissful stuff that accompanied every aspect of living, loving,
courting, praising, politicking and story-telling in Appalachia,
spreading both warnings and joy, and serving as a release from the
daily pressures of life.
Greenwald knew right from the start that the film had to be
suffused with incredible sounds from all over Appalachia, reflecting
the fantastic diversity and influence of the music. So she brought in
the acclaimed composer David Mansfield, who also happens to be her
husband, as a co-collaborator on the project. Eventually Mansfield
brought in a whole slew of musicians working in this tradition,
ranging from country and pop legend Emmylou Harris, who performs the
ending credits song, "Barbara Allen," to blues icon Taj Mahal, Iris
DeMent and Hazel Dickens, who appear in the film. "The songs of
Appalachia are basically Scots-Irish ballads and English folk songs
that have changed very little from generation to generation," explains
Mansfield. "I knew that style, but I didn't know the music in an
enthno-musicological way, which is what we got into in this film. I
had to do a great deal of research, because it was very important to
Maggie and me that we portray this world as accurately as possible,"
Mansfield continues.
"David really became a co-creator of SONGCATCHER because so
much of it is about the music," says Greenwald. For Mansfield, the
film was a chance to explore the roots of the music he had listened
to, loved and played all his life. "Like most people, I grew up
listening to rock, blues, folk and country - and what's remarkable is
that music of Appalachia is truly a mix of all of them," says
Mansfield. "What I think a lot of people will find is that this music
sounds unlike anything they've heard before, yet at the same time it
gives you a clear indication of where American pop and folk came from.
This is one of the most compellingly emotional parts of American
culture - and it effects the world at large. Kids listening to Bruce
Springsteen in Prague, Moscow and Beijing are really listening to
stuff that had its roots in Appalachia."
"What I hoped is that people watching SONGCATCHER will get
that same kind of excitement that people did when they first heard
this music almost a century ago. Sometimes when there were musicians
on the set, everybody's hair was standing on end - very few people
have experienced music with this kind of power before, but now they'll
have a chance."
Mansfield journeyed with Greenwald to North Carolina where he
had a blast discovering the music firsthand. "The music was
everywhere - on people's porches, in the back of drugstores. There
were old people singing centuries-old ballads and 10 year-old fiddlers
learning new songs. It was an exciting trip," says Mansfield. "This
music is inseparable from the culture it comes from, and that's a very
powerful thing to witness."
The more Mansfield researched the music, the more he became
aware of the broad extent of its influence. "I listened to a lot of
the first recordings of Appalachian musicians that came out in the 20s
and 30s and I realized that a lot of people in the 50s and 60s had
also listened to this stuff," explains Mansfield. "A whole generation
of musicians were so blown away by these recordings that it became a
seminal influence. People like Bob Dylan and Joan Baez were affected
by these songs - these ballads literally changed the course of pop
music."
Flipping through Cecil J. Sharp's first published collection
of ballads, Mansfield picked a lot of the original songs brought out
of Appalachia in 1915 for the film. But he also went beyond that to
reveal the many different styles of melody and rhythm that combined to
form the Appalachian tradition. "This music was the first time that
two distinct traditions met - the African rhythms joined up with
melodic Irish fiddle tunes and ballads and it produced a real variety
of sounds," comments Mansfield. "We wanted to capture that."
The filmmakers brought in several Appalachian musical experts
- including balladeer Sheila Kay Adams and country legend Hazel
Dickens - to serve as consultants. But they also brought in some of
today's most exciting roots musicians, including blues-folk icon Taj
Mahal, folk legend Hazel Dickens and haunting popular singer Iris
DeMent. "I thought it was important to involve people like Iris,
Hazel and Taj Mahal to show the continuing evolution of the music,"
says Greenwald. Mansfield comments that "it was interesting to see
how the music had changed over time. I'd sing something to people
from the region and hear things like, 'That's not the way I sing it,
but that's how my great aunt used to sing it.'" Greenwald summises,
"these are the descendants of this legacy and their music is just as
exciting today."
Mansfield notes that Taj Mahal's presence was particularly
inspirational. "Taj Mahal is someone who is so steeped in the blues
tradition and black American musical forms, that he has become a
national treasure," he adds. "He knows the music we researched for
this film firsthand. Having him involved was like having a
combination of musician, charismatic performer, legend and
musicologist all wrapped up in one."
Taj Mahal wanted to be part of the film after reading the
script, which he says carried him back to a time and place he's always
found fascinating. "Americans rarely get a good look at this kind of
music and what lengths people have gone to save this music for
posterity," he notes. "This film tells a wonderful story about real
things that happened in the development of American culture."
Taj Mahal also had a chance to give up his trademark guitar
for the banjo on the set of SONGCATCHER, even writing some original
banjo-blues tunes for the film. "I was thrilled to have the chance
to play the banjo, which is the authentic instrument of the time," he
says. "Since I've always been influenced by the songs of that time,
it wasn't hard to write in that style." Mansfield explains that Taj
Mahal used a style of banjo playing known as "Claw Hammer," which uses
down-strokes rather than up-strokes. "He brought something new to
banjo playing that people haven't heard before," says Mansfield.
If Taj Mahal brought out the note-bending blues influence,
then Iris DeMent went in the other direction - revealing the haunting
purity of the high lonesome voice. "Iris is the perfect person to
help bring audiences into this world, because she evokes the roots of
country and folk while writing incredibly contemporary and
sophisticated songs," says Mansfield. "She's helping to reinvent
traditional music with a fresh point of view."
The authenticity of SONGCATCHER's live vocal performances was
meticulously matched with period instruments. Mansfield, in fact,
handcrafted a banjo from cake tines, which Aidan Quinn used in the
film, to illustrate Appalachia's reliance on homemade instruments.
Mansifeld concludes, "The story intrigued Maggie; the music
fascinated me, and it beclame clear that it was something we could
work on together. In that way, it was a godsend."
The Back-Country: Shooting In Appalachia
SONGCATCHER was shot almost entirely on location in Madison
County, North Carolina, one of the contemporary homes of traditional
Appalachian culture. This beautiful, rustic, rural part of America
has rarely been captured on film. There was a tremendous excitement
about shooting in the mountains - and a great deal of trepidation.
Among the difficulties encountered were fields of poison ivy,
terrifying lightening storms that came out of nowhere, sopping
humidity and mosquitoes immune to any mere bug spray. And then there
were the logistical nightmares.
"Being on location in the mountains, you realize just how
reliant we have become on modern technology," comments producer Ellen
Rigas Venetis. "I mean things we usually take for granted, like cell
phones, just don't work up there." Still, the cast and crew were
amazed by the ways in which modern and primitive lifestyles mix in the
hills. "There are wild contrasts," admits Mansfield. "You have
people playing banjos on porches of cabins that have satellite dishes
and the internet."
Most of the cast and crew spent time in the mountains before
the shooting even began, meeting locals, absorbing the culture and
very special pace of life, and working closely with consultant Sheila
Kay Adams - who passed down the stories and ballads that had been
passed down to her by her mother and her mother before. "Having a
chance to hear the ballads sung in their natural home was very
moving," says McTeer. "The local people are so passionate and
enthusiastic about this music, it was a real honor to experience and
capture that," adds Ellen Rigas Venetis.
Particularly drawn to the locations was cinematographer
Enrique Chediak who worked closely with Greenwald and production
designer Ginger Tougas to give a visceral sense of Appalachian reality
on screen. Chediak, who has an extensive knowledge of American
landscape painters, was struck immediately by the lush, painterly
fertility of North Carolina. "There's just so much green," he says,
"so many different tones of it and I really wanted to work with that
texturally."
Chediak also worked to contrast the primal Appalachian scenes
with those reflecting the influx of modernism. "When we're showing
city ways, the look is cooler, more blue, whereas when we're showing
mountain life, the look is rougher, more organic, more about the
natural colors of the earth and the woods," he explains. "The
priority was always to show the mountains with total simplicity,
keeping it very, very real, and therefore very beautiful."
To film the many musical scenes in the film, Chediak wanted to
go against the usual grain of MTV-style moving cameras. Summarizes
Chediak: "Again, the idea was to keep it simple and beautiful, with
no pretensions. This is a movie about the power of the music and we
really let the music speak for itself."
# # #
ABOUT THE CAST
Janet McTeer (Dr. Lily Penleric)
Janet McTeer stars as Dr. Lily Penleric, a turn-of-the-century
musicologist who becomes an unlikely mountain heroine. A well-known
actress in her native England, McTeer has recently established herself
as one of the most sought-out actresses in America. On film, her
performance in "Tumbleweeds" was universally acclaimed, garnering her
a Golden Globe Award, an Academy Award nomination, the Best Actress
Award from the National Board of Review and an Independent Spirit
Award nomination. McTeer has drawn equal acclaim on the Broadway
stage, creating a sensation with her Tony Award-winning portrayal of
Nora in the revival of Henrik Ibsen's "A Doll's House."
Her other awards include the Perry Ellis Breakthrough Award, a
Drama Desk Award, Theatre World Award, Outer Critic's Circle Award,
London Critic Award, Time Out Award and Olivier Award.
On British television, McTeer has starred in a number of
prestigious productions, including "Portrait of a Marriage," in which
she played Vita Sackville-West, John Boorman's "My Life," "102
Boulevard Haussman" and "Precious Bane," both of which were broadcast
in the U.S. on PBS' "Masterpiece Theatre." Her prolific stage credits
include "The Grace of Mary Traverse" at the Royal Court Theatre and
"Uncle Vanya" at the Royal National Theatre, which both earned her
Olivier Award nominations.
McTeer most recently starred in Keith Gordon's "Waking The
Dead" co-starring with Billy Crudup and Jennifer Connelly and in
Kristian Levring's Dogme 95 feature "The King Is Alive" with Jennifer
Jason Leigh.
Aidan Quinn (Tom Bledsoe)
The stubborn Appalachian mountain man Tom Bledsoe is portrayed
by Aidan Quinn. Quinn has appeared in over twenty films including
"Desperately Seeking Susan," "Stakeout," "The Playboys," "Benny &
Joon" and "At Play in the Fields of the Lord." He starred for
director Neil Jordan in "Michael Collins" with Liam Neeson, Julia
Roberts and Stephen Rea and in Ed Zwick's "Legends of the Fall" with
Anthony Hopkins, Brad Pitt and Julia Ormond. Other credits include
Barry Levinson's "Avalon" and "The Assignment," in which he played
dual roles as terrorist Carlos Sanchez and his undercover
impersonator.
More recently, Quinn executive produced and starred in the
film "This is My Father" written and directed by his brother, Paul
Quinn, with another brother, Declan Quinn, serving as cinematographer.
He was also recently seen in Wes Craven's "Music of the Heart,"
opposite Meryl Streep. He portrayed pop sensation Paul McCartney in
the feature "The Two of Us" directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg.
Quinn has garnered renown for his television work, including
an Emmy-nominated role in the groundbreaking drama "An Early Frost";
HBO's "A Perfect Witness" and "A Private Matter"; and the PBS/American
Playhouse Production of Arthur Miller's "All My Sons." Quinn also
starred with Nigel Hawthorne in Hallmark Entertainment's historical
adventure "Stanley and Livingston," portraying the famed explorer
Henry Morton Stanley.
On stage, Quinn made his debut in Chicago appearing in "The
Man in 605" and "Hamlet," which won the Joseph Jefferson Award for
Best Production of the year. In New York, he appeared in Sam
Shepard's "Fool for Love" and "Lie of the Mind" which won the 1985
Drama Desk Award. Quinn also appeared on Broadway playing Stanley
Kowalski in Tennessee William's "A Streetcar Named Desire."
Pat Carroll (Viney Butler)
Pat Carroll stars as shotgun-toting matriach Viney Butler, who
introduces Lily Penleric to the world of Appalachian music. A
long-time veteran of television and award-winning theatre, Carroll is
known to children around the world as the voice of the Sea Witch in
"The Little Mermaid."
Among Carroll's many stage appearances are her Grammy-winning
performance in "Gertrude Stein, Gertrude Stein," which also brought
her a Drama Desk Award; and her Tony-nominated role on Broadway in
"Catch a Star."
Carroll's film credits include "With Six You Get Eggroll." Her
broad television appearances run the gamut from "The Sid Caesar Hour,"
for which she won an Emmy, to "The Bobby Sherman Show," "Police Story"
and "WKRP in Cincinnati." Carroll will be performing this fall at the
La Jolla Playhouse in "Thoroughly Modern Millie."
Jane Adams (Elna Penleric)
Lily Penleric's unconventional school-teacher sister Elna is
played by Jane Adams, winner of a Tony Award for her work in "An
Inspector Calls." Perhaps best known for her recurring role as Mel on
the hit series "Frasier," Adams has recently appeared in a wide
variety of film roles, from box-office hits to acclaimed independent
feature roles. She most recently starred in "Wonder Boys" with
Michael Douglas, and her credits include Todd Solondz's provocative
"Happiness," Robert Altman's "Kansas City," Alan Rudolph's "Mrs.
Parker and the Vicious Circle," Barbet Schroeder's "Single White
Female," Nora Ephron's "You've Got Mail," Charlie Peters' "Music From
Another Room" and Lawrence Kasdan's "Mumford." Jane Adams is also
starring in "The Anniversary Party," the directorial debut of Jennifer
Jason Leigh and Alan Cumming.
Greg Russell Cook (Fate Honeycutt)
Fate Honeycutt, the rebellious teenager who pursues the orphan
Deladis, is played by rising young star Greg Russell Cook, who made
his feature debut in the independent film "The Prince of Central
Park." Cook has also been seen on television in "Law & Order" and in
a recurring role on "The Babysitter's Club." On stage, he has
performed with the Steppenwolf Company in its Broadway production of
"Grapes of Wrath" and was also featured in "The Kingdom's Coming,"
written by Jeff Daniels.
Iris DeMent (Rose Gentry)
The high lonesome voice of music star Iris DeMent ends a ring
of pure-as-mountain air authenticity to SONGCATCHER. DeMent is widely
acclaimed as one of the young and promising leaders of a new movement
towards soulful, roots country music.
Born and raised in rural Arkansas as the youngest of fourteen
children, DeMent grew up on Appalachian music, learning songs from her
family and church choir. From an early age, her resonant voice drew
attention and in 1992 she released her first album, "Infamous Angel"
to widespread critical response and music industry attention.
This was followed with two additional albums: "My Life"
(1994) and "The Way I Should" (1996), all characterized by songs that
question, observe and declare with slice-of-life lyrics. DeMent has
drawn fans around the world and has collaborated with a remarkable
roster of musicians, including Earl Scruggs, Lonnie Mack, Emmylou
Harris, Nanci Griffith, Delbert MacClinton, John Prine and Merle
Haggard who called her "the greatest singer I've ever heard."
Stephanie Roth Haberle (Alice Kincaid)
Stephanie Roth Haberle, who plays local artist Alice Kincaid,
most recently starred in Tim Robbin's critically admired McCarthy-era
drama "The Cradle Will Rock." Haberle has also been seen in two Woody
Allen films - "Deconstructing Harry" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors" -
and in Jonathan Demme's Oscar-winning "Philadelphia." Best known on
the stage, her extensive theatre work includes performances at the
Globe Theatre in London, in "Two Gentleman of Verona," as well as on
Broadway, where her role in "Artist Descending a Staircase" earned her
a nomination for a Drama Desk Award.
David Patrick Kelley (Earl Giddens)
David Patrick Kelley has collaborated several times with Spike
Lee, including "Summer of Sam," "Malcolm X" and "Girl 6." Among his
other credits are such critically acclaimed independents as James
Mangold's debut feature "Heavy" and David O. Russell's "Flirting With
Disaster" as well as David Lynch's "Wild At Heart" and the television
series "Twin Peaks."
E. Katherine Kerr (Harriet Tolliver)
The winner of an Obie Award for her appearance on Broadway in
Tommy Tune's "Cloud Nine," E. Katherine Kerr, whose Harriet Tolliver
helps run the local schoolhouse, has amassed an impressive range of
film, television and stage credits over the years. Following her
break into films with such credits as "Children of a Lesser God" and
"Silkwood," her recent roles have included such blockbusters as Ed
Zwick's "The Siege" and Taylor Hackford's "Devil's Advocate," as well
as the independent film "Next Stop Wonderland," directed by Brad
Anderson, and Stanley Tucci's "The Impostors."
Taj Mahal (Dexter Speaks)
A musical star since the 1960s, blues legend Taj Mahal brings
to life the African-American influence on Appalachian roots music as
Dexter Speaks. Taj Mahal played a pivotal role in the folk music
scene of the early 60s, leading a blues revival and going on to make
his mark in the worlds of rock, soul, world beat and contemporary
blues.
In 1964, Taj Mahal joined with guitarist Ry Cooder to form the
Rising Sons. He then rose to prominence with his solo albums, "Taj
Mahal" (1968) and "The Natch'l Blues" (1968), the first of many.
Recently a three-disc compilation, anthologizing more than thirty
years of his recordings, was released entitled "In Progress & Motion:
1965-1998," acknowledging him as one of the most talented and prolific
musicians of the blues/folk genre. Throughout his career he has
performed with such artists as Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King,
John Lee Hooker, Miles Davis, Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan and the Rolling
Stones. Several remastered classics from Taj Mahal's early years,
including the albums "Taj Mahal," "The Real Thing," "The Natch'l
Blues" and "The Best of Taj Mahal," were released this summer.
Muse Watson (Parley Gentry)
After years observing the craft of acting from the vantage
point of driver on film productions, Muse Watson, a longtime
performer in community theatre, was inspired to begin pursuing film
roles himself. Since that time he has appeared in over twenty major
motion pictures including "Sommersby" with Jodie Foster and Richard
Gere, "Something To Talk About" with Julia Roberts, John Singleton's
"Rosewood" and the teen hits "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and "I
Still Know What You Did Last Summer." He most recently appeared with
Billy Zane and Kelly McGillis in "Morgan's Ferry."
Emmy Rossum (Deladis Slocumb)
The shy orphan Deladis - who turns out to be Lily's
ruby-throated entrée into the local music - is played by 13 year-old
Emmy Rossum, who makes a riveting feature film debut in SONGCATCHER.
Rossum is already an entertainment veteran, however, having
performed with the likes of Placido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti in
the Metropolitan Opera at Lincoln Center, and has sung in a Carnegie
Hall presentation of "The Damnation of Faust," conducted by James
Levine. During her tenure at the Metropolitan Opera, Rossum performed
in over twenty different operas in six different languages, and had
the pleasure of working under the direction of Franco Zefferelli in
"Carmen" and Tim Albery in "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
Rossum's television credits include a memorable guest appearance on
"Law & Order," a recurring role on "As The World Turns" and Disney's
romantic comedy "Genius." She recently starred as the young Audrey
Hepburn in the ABC biopic about the actress, also starring Jennifer
Love Hewitt, and will be seen next year in writer-director Eva Gardos'
film "American Rhapsody," opposite Tony Goldwyn, Scarlett Johannson
and Natasha Kinski.
Earlier this year Rossum was the youngest honoree to date to be
selected as one of Variety's "10 to Watch for 2000." Rossum divides
her time between Los Angeles and New York.
# # #
ABOUT THE FILMMAKERS
Maggie Greenwald (Writer/Director)
SONGCATCHER is Maggie Greenwald's fourth feature film and
continues her reputation for original, unexpected filmmaking. She
began her career with the independent feature "Home Remedy" based on
her original screenplay which won critical acclaim at the Munich,
Torino and London Film Festivals, going on to open in New York at the
Film Forum.
Greenwald next adapted Jim Thompson's searing pulp novel "The
Kill-Off," which debuted at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, garnering
Greenwald critical attention for visually capturing the dark
psychological power of Thompson's writing. "The Kill-Off" opened the
Munich Film Festival, won the award for Best Director at the Torino
Film Festival and was shown at the 1990 Sundance Film Festival.
Leaving behind film noir, Greenwald became the first woman
since the silent era to write and direct a western, "The Ballad of
Little Jo," the intriguing tale, inspired by a true story, of a woman
who made her way across the Western frontier disguised as a man. Suzy
Amis drew acclaim in the title role, joined by a cast including Bo
Hopkins and Ian McKellan. Among other accolades, the film received a
special jury award at the Rome-Florence Film Festival.
For television, Greenwald has directed several episodes of the
Nickelodeon Network series, "The Adventures of Pete and Pete." Also
for Nickelodeon, she directed the first three episodes of a new series
"The Mystery Files of Shelby Woo," creating and establishing the look
of the show. Now in its fourth season, Greenwald has directed several
episodes each year.
Greenwald is an Adjunct Professor of Directing at Columbia
University School of the Arts, Graduate Division. She also serves on
the board of directors of the Independent Feature Project.
Greenwald's recent work includes "What Makes a Family," starring
Brooke Shields, Cherry Jones and Whoopi Goldberg, for Lifetime
Television.
Ellen Rigas Venetis (Producer)
Ellen Rigas Venetis is the President of ErgoArts, the feature
film division of Rigas Entertainment, the independent film development
and production company she co-founded with her father, John Rigas, the
founder and CEO of Adelphia Communications.
Prior to her move into feature filmmaking, Rigas was an
actress and theatrical producer. Having studied various aspects of
theatre at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center at New York's Circle in
the Square and in Paris at the Theatre des Amandiers, she went on to
produce and/or act in numerous plays and workshops in New York, the
Berkshires and Florida. A singer/songwriter, Rigas released an album
entitled "God's Country," which received widespread radio play and
charted on Gavin's Americana listings. In addition, she has
co-produced several music videos and was the executive producer of a
prototype "cyberconcert," the first such event to employ cable
television technology to make a concert available on the internet.
A graduate of Harvard University, Rigas possesses a BA in
American History and Literature.
Richard Miller (Producer)
Richard Miller is an independent producer and business
consultant based in New York and London. Miller manages the
production and business activities of ErgoArts, and is also developing
other projects in both countries under the banner of his Available
Light Productions.
Miller produced the critically acclaimed "Heavy," James
Mangold's debut feature starring Liv Tyler. Among other honors,
"Heavy" won a Special Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and was
invited to the Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival. He
is also associate producer of "Copland," written and directed by James
Mangold, and associate producer of "Camp Stories" directed by Herbert
Biegel.
A former investment banker, Miller has taught the business of
producing at New York University, and at various European training
programs. He holds a BA in Theoretical Physics from Cambridge
University, an MBA in Finance from McGill University in Montreal and
an MFA in film from Columbia University in New York.
David Mansfield (Musical Director and Composer)
Award-winning composer David Mansfield, who entered the world
of Appalachian roots music for SONGCATCHER, previously collaborated
with Maggie Greenwald on "The Ballad of Little Jo." Mansfield has
composed, conducted and orchestrated scores for many feature films
including the Academy Award-nominated "The Apostle" directed by Robert
Duvall, Michael Cimino's "Heaven's Gate" and Cimino's "Year of the
Dragon," which earned him a Golden Globe nomination for Best Original
Score. His score for "Profundo Carmesi" directed by Arturo Ripstein
won him the Golden Ocelot Award at the 1996 Venice Film Festival for
Best Film Score, and the award for Best Music at the 1996 Havana Latin
American Film Festival.
He has composed scores to several network television films, such as
"Streetcar Named Desire," starring Jessica Lange and Alec Baldwin,
and cable films including the HBO feature "Truman" directed by Frank
Pierson.
Mansfield is the recipient of a Best New Artist Grammy Award for his
work with Bruce Hornsby and the Range and has earned several Gold and
Platinum Record Awards for his work with Bruce Hornsby and Bob Dylan.
Mansfield toured with Dylan at the age of 18 as part of the Rolling
Thunder Revue.
Enrique Chediak (Director of Photography)
Enrique Chediak's camerawork most recently added to the fast-paced,
visceral feel of "The Boiler Room." Chediak is quickly becoming a
sought-after cinematographer. He won the 1997 Sundance Film
Festival's Best Cinematography Award for Morgan Freeman's "Hurricane
Streets," which also won the Audience Award, and "The Faculty,"
directed by Robert Rodriguez.
His other credits include "Desert Blue" for Morgan Freeman, "Frogs for
Snakes," "Getting Off" and "Remembering Six." He made his feature
debut with "American Southern," directed by John Joshua.
Born in Quito, Ecuador, Chediak entered NYU's Graduate Film Program in
1992 and went on to win the Best Cinematography Award at the First Run
Film Festival for his short films "Angels Don't Know," "Memorial Day"
and "Darkness." He wrote and directed his NYU thesis film "El Rio" in
the Ecuadorian rainforest over a two-week period immediately before
starting production on "Hurricane Streets." "El Rio" was awarded Best
Student Short at the 1998 Hamptons Film Festival, and both Best
Student Short and the Audience Award at the 1998 Shorts International
Film Festival.
Ginger Tougas (Production Designer)
Ginger Tougas, who recreated a turn-of-the-century hill
village, previously worked with Maggie Greenwald on the design for her
western "The Ballad of Little Jo." Tougas came to attention on the
Academy Award-winning live action short entitled "Dear Diary,"
directed by David Frankel for Dreamworks. Since then, her feature
film credits have included Whit Stillman's "The Last Days of Disco,"
Bryan Buckley's "The New Jersey Turnpike," Michael Almereyda's "Nora,"
Erich Schaeffer's "If Lucy Fell" and the TNT Original "Thicker than
Blood." As an art director, she worked on the film "In The Soup" for
director Alexandre Rockwell, which won the Grand Jury Prize at
Sundance in 1992.
Keith Reamer (Editor)
Keith Reamer was also part of Maggie Greenwald's filmmaking
team on "The Ballad of Little Jo." An editor of both feature films
and documentaries, his many credits include "I Shot Andy Warhol,"
"Robinson Crusoe" and Tony Bui's "Three Seasons," which won the Best
Picture Award in 1999 at the Sundance Film Festival. Most recently he
edited "Shadow Magic" for director Ann Hui.
Kasia Walicka Maimone (Costume Designer)
Kasia Walicka Maimone, who designed the contrasting period
clothes of the refined Lily Penleric and the mountain villagers she
meets, brings a background in international theatre, opera and dance
to her work. In 1997, she won a Bessie Award for her "Les Enfants
Terribles," an opera by Phillip Glass and Susan Marshall. Maimone has
worked with many notable theatre and dance artists including Twyla
Tharp, Robert Woodroof and Baryshnikov's White Oak Dance Project.
Maimone has also worked in television, videos and commercials.
Among her feature films are "The Opportunists" and "Jesus' Son."
Sheila Kay Adams (Traditional Balladry Advisor and Vocal Coach)
Appalachian balladeer and storyteller Sheila Kay Adams
provided invaluable insight into the rustic ways of Appalachian life
for SONGCATCHER. She previously served as a dialect and music
consultant on Michael Mann's "Last of the Mohicans." A native of North
Carolina, Adams has made a career of sharing the music, stories and
heritage of mountain culture. She was introduced to the tale-telling
tradition by her great-aunt "Granny," well-known balladeer Dellie
Chandler Norton.
Sheila Kay Adams is a former public school teacher and has
also written an acclaimed collection of short stories, Come Go Home
With Me, a rare portrait of a distinctive mountain community. She is
the recipient of the Brown-Hudson Folklore Award from the North
Carolina Folklore Society.
# # #