Kosodrevina, 2019

A short music documentary film

In the lower Tatra mountains of Slovakia, locals and musicians from across the border in Czechia to celebrate their love for bluegrass music and their community. This short musical documentary film provides a snapshot of this literal mountaintop event, with commentary from attendees as well as footage of stage performances and informal jam sessions—showing how music often associated with Appalachia has taken root in different mountains. Based on Lee Bidgood’s decades of fieldwork in European bluegrass scenes, continuing attention to connections between Appalachia and Central Europe featured in the documentary “Banjo Romantika”  (dir. Shara Lange, 2015 - https://www.banjoromantika.com/). 

Learn more about this project: https://www.appalachianplaces.org/post/kosodrevina-2019-documenting-bluegrass-on-a-mountain-in-slovakia

East Tennessee State University Mandolin Orchestra

ETSU Mandolin Orchestra

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The ETSU Mandolin Orchestra (founded 2014) is a course offered through the program in Bluegrass, Old-Time and Roots Music Studies (BLUE) that is housed in the Department of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State Read more
The ETSU Mandolin Orchestra (founded 2014) is a course offered through the program in Bluegrass, Old-Time and Roots Music Studies (BLUE) that is housed in the Department of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University. Director Lee Bidgood coaches mandolinists from a variety of backgrounds to cover a lot of ground: learning by ear, reading notation, learning about the history of mandolin orchestras, and exploring contemporary ways to continue the this tradition into the future.
The group recorded for this project in 2017 consists of community members, undergraduate majors in the BLUE program, graduate students in Appalachian Studies, as well as students of Exercise Science and Geosciences. Some of the players have been doing it for decades—one started just a year before the recordings were made.
Our orchestra draws from vernacular traditions of the mandolin as well as American and international mandolin orchestras. We adapt older repertoire and make new connections, balancing our musical and technical goals with the legacy of the mandolin orchestra as a social institution. Everyone is welcome in this group; music resonates as we share it.
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  1. 1
    The Home Town Band 2:01
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  2. 2
    Bull Frog Blues 2:55
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  3. 3
    Sobre Las Olas 5:29
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  4. 4
    Noites Cariocas 3:43
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  5. 5
    Cold Morning Shout 4:11
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  6. 6
    Mandolin Rag / Take Those Lips Away 2:53
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  7. 7
    Black Cohosh 4:12
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  8. 8
    Duo des Fleurs 2:43
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  9. 9
    Mandolin Concerto in C major RV 425, Allegro 3:19
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  10. 10
    Svatbarska Ruchenitsa 3:48
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Performances