Our first featured documentary is Fiddlin’.

Old-time music, frequently featured here at the Anchorage Folk Festival and at the Alaska Folk Festival in Juneau, is at the root of a lot of American folk music traditions, including Country, Bluegrass, and Rock ’n’ Roll. Also called “mountain music” after the Appalachian Mountains, this film is about old-time’s biggest celebration: the annual Old Fiddlers’ Convention in Galax, Virginia.

This sweet and joyous documentary, filmed on location in 2015 during the convention’s eightieth anniversary, and winner of over 20 festival awards, including nine Audience Choice awards, revels in the young and old who play this music as a birthright and are keeping it alive for generations yet to come. Youthful players from Gen Y and Z make up many of the featured performances.

It’s the communal aspect of old-time music that draws people to it and keeps them playing, singing, laughing, and dancing. Families attend, play, sing, and dance together. There are many players that our audience will recognize and faces of players who are well-known now but were kids at the time of filming.

Instruments are also featured besides fiddles and fiddlers: mandolins, banjos, basses, autoharps, the handmade guitars of Wayne Henderson, and the mountain dulcimer developed in that region are also featured, along with the musicians who play them.

Sisters Julie Simon and Vicki Vlasic cowrote and respectively directed and produced the film. They grew up right there in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia, and that connection meant the sponsoring Moose Lodge allowed their professional film and sound crew into the grounds to make this documentary.

Don’t miss this award-winning, warmhearted documentary film that will keep a smile on your face and your toes tapping! Showing Sunday, October 26, at 5:00pm at the Wendy Williamson Auditorium on the UAA Campus.

Our second featured documentary is The Tao of Bluegrass.

Peter Rowan is by all accounts a Bluegrass music legend. He is a Grammy winner as well as a six-time Grammy nominee. He received the Bluegrass Star Award® from the Bluegrass Heritage Foundation for “advancing traditional bluegrass music while preserving its character and heritage.” He was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Bluegrass Hall of Fame in 2022. The musical instruments he plays professionally are guitar, fiddle, dobro, banjo, bass, mandolin, and piano. He also sings and is renowned for his yodeling.

Peter’s roots run deep in Bluegrass tradition but don’t stop there. Though he got his foot in the door by joining Bill Monroe’s band in 1964, Peter went on to collaborate with Jerry Garcia and David Grisman in the band Old & In the Way and in another band with Grisman called Earth Opera, frequently opening for the Doors. Peter’s original songs have been covered by too many artists to list here, across all American music genres. You may not think you know any of his songs, but you would be wrong. Midnight Moonlight is on the playlist rotation of every oldies station.

But did you know that he is also a Buddhist?

This wonderful documentary takes us behind the stage to meet the man, to hear his music, and to hear about him from a who’s who of musicians who have worked with Peter, recorded with him, or just admire him deeply.

Lucy Peckham, a member of the festival’s Board of Directors, recalls that “in 2001 I was honored to very briefly have Peter Rowan play and sing through my microphones. I was touring with the Alaska bluegrass band Bearfoot. It was a year of terrible fires burning all over the Southwest and particularly in Colorado.

“We were at the RockyGrass Festival in Lyons, Colorado, for the band’s performance on the main stage. The word came around that a sound person with sound gear was needed to set up and mix/amplify volunteer performers to play for the firefighters camping in a sports field nearby. By chance, I seemed to be the only person with gear available.

“It was very hot and dry as I set up gear. There were no sound checks. Maybe 20 or so firefighters sat in the bleachers to hear the music, but applause and cheers came from the tents in the field just beyond as the performers played.

“Peter was one of those who volunteered. I have no memory of what he performed, but I do remember his gentle quality behind the mic…and his personal thank-you after the performance.”

The Anchorage Folk Festival is proud to present the documentary The Tao of Bluegrass on Sunday, October 26, at 7:15pm in the Wendy Williamson Auditorium on the UAA Campus.