Banjo Romantika Band
Recorded by Ben Bateson at the Down Home, Johnson City, TN, 2012.
Lee Bidgood - lead vocals and mandolin
Richard Ciferský - banjo
Dan Boner - guitar
Ed Snodderly - dobro
Jeff Elkins - bass
Lee first heard this song at a bluegrass jam in Prague, and worked to find versions of it to use in the film - beginning a years-long search. In 2015, some friends finally directed us to Lubor Hejda, a bass player from Brno who wrote and performed it with his band NaEx during the early 1990s. In a 2016 interview, Lubor recalled coming up with this song while driving delivery trucks through the Czech landscape. His vision of Tennessee became a theme for this film, and provides the soundtrack for the opening and closing scenes. This version is in English, translated from the Czech text that Lee adapted from several versions of the song that circulate in performance and on the internet.