Well, I don't think we will come to an agreement on this, but I will try to
make my point clearer.
To portray an evil thing as evil, is not in itself evil. The klan was made
to look stupid--well, it doesn't take much to make them look stupid, does
it? They do a good job of that on their own. Again, I must ask, how can you
have Hamlet without showing Iago, in all his perfidy? I have not thought
much about why the film used that particular song. Perhaps it was to point
up how dangerous a thing it is for a bunch of jackasses decked out in
bedsheets to mess about with anything so fearful as death itself, how
utterly terrifying (and it was) a thing it is to witness men who "know not
what they do," to sit in judgment on their fellows. If so, it was
chillingly effective.
I am not one who feels Bluegrass should be kept in cotton batting and saved
for the select few. It is fast disappearing from this world. The wonderful
Monroe is no longer with us. Let us celebrate the beauty of bluegrass while
a master musician is still with us, to teach it, to pass it on to those who
come after him, and encourage the world to join us in saving it for
posterity. It might be nice to keep bluegrass on the back porches, but the
back porches are fast disappearing.
We have children who know nothing of music but the raucous strains of what
passes for music in the popular media. Let us give them something worth
having. Let's give them music in its purest form. Let us give them Bach and
Bluegrass. At the very least, let's put it out there and give them the
opportunity (which they deserve) to choose. Dr. Ralph has never sold out.
His music is today as pure as it was on the day his mother gave him his
first banjo and passed on to him a great tradition of mountain music.
Indeed, it is as pure as it was on the dark night the first mountain man
sat down and thought to cheer himself up with a little tune, to keep away
the dark night of the soul. His voice is as pure as the wildcat's cry, as
pure as the music his forebears may have played around a peat bog in
Ireland, or lifted in song that echoed over the hills of Scotland. We need
not worry that Dr. Ralph has sold out. No, never.
Gosh, this is too long. Sorry! One more thing, only. The lovely thing about
Bluegrass musicians has always been their ability to laugh at themselves,
in the most good natured way, witness Carter and Ralph's wonderful comedy
pieces recorded in the Stanley Series. The movie carried on that tradition.
Thanks for your attention. I will hush and give someone else a chance to
get a word in.
Kathleen
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