Country Music: The Spirit of America
Encyclopedia
Country Music: The Spirit of America (2003) is a documentary film
, in the IMAX
format, written and co-produced by Tom Neff
and co-directed by Neff, Steven Goldmann
and Keith Melton. Randy Scruggs
was also a producer on the film and wrote the music score. The film traces the history of the United States in the 20th Century through country music, and is also known as Our Country.
, lauded the film, and wrote, "It's been three years coming. But now that it's here, the IMAX film Our Country, originally titled Twang, makes a rousing addition to this year's State Fair of Texas...Written and produced by Tom Neff, who produced the six-part TV miniseries America's Music: The Roots of Country for TBS, the documentary celebrates country music as a mirror of the American experience across 90 years... Vintage photos, archival news footage (including a shot of O.J. Simpson trying on that pesky glove) and Mr. Neff's intelligent, lyrical commentary, narrated by Hal "Deep Throat" Holbrook, trace the history of country music as it parallels the nation's."
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
, in the IMAX
IMAX
IMAX is a motion picture film format and a set of proprietary cinema projection standards created by the Canadian company IMAX Corporation. IMAX has the capacity to record and display images of far greater size and resolution than conventional film systems...
format, written and co-produced by Tom Neff
Tom Neff
Thomas Linden Neff, known as Tom Neff, is a film executive, director and producer, born in Chicago, Illinois. Currently, he lives in Nashville, Tennessee.-Education:Neff received his Bachelor of Arts from Lawrence University with a major in English...
and co-directed by Neff, Steven Goldmann
Steven Goldmann
Steven Goldmann is a Canadian music video and film director. He has directed over 200 music videos. Goldmann also directed the movies Broken Bridges and Trailer Park of Terror, and has additionally directed several television programs.-1990-1999:...
and Keith Melton. Randy Scruggs
Randy Scruggs
Randy Scruggs is a music producer, songwriter and guitarist. He had his first recording at the age of 13...
was also a producer on the film and wrote the music score. The film traces the history of the United States in the 20th Century through country music, and is also known as Our Country.
Cast
- Emily Lalande as Time Traveling Sprite
- Austin Stout as Austin
- Hannah Swanson as Time Traveling Sprite
- Benton JenningsBenton JenningsBenton Jennings is an American film, television, and stage actor, based in Los Angeles, CA.- Career :He attended Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas with a BFA in Theatre Arts, London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art , and The Film Actors Lab in Dallas, Texas studying under Adam...
as Comic Old West Cowboy - Tommy Barnes as Stage Manager
- Terry Ike Clanton as Crazed Prisoner
- Tony Nudo as Joe, man at the train station
- Jaclynn Tiffany Brown as Fresh Faced Teen
Interviews and music performers
- Trace AdkinsTrace AdkinsTracy Darrell "Trace" Adkins is an American country music artist. He made his debut in 1996 with the album Dreamin' Out Loud, released on Capitol Records Nashville. Since then, Adkins has released seven more studio albums and two Greatest Hits compilations...
- AlabamaAlabama (band)Alabama is a country music and southern rock band from Fort Payne, Alabama, United States. The band was founded in 1969 by Randy Owen and his cousin Teddy Gentry , soon joined by Jeff Cook...
- Jessica AndrewsJessica AndrewsJessica Danielle Andrews is an American country music singer. At age 15 in mid-1999, she made her debut on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts with the single "I Will Be There for You", from her debut album Heart Shaped World, released in 1999 on DreamWorks Records Nashville.Andrews...
- Béla FleckBéla FleckBéla Anton Leoš Fleck is an American banjo player. Widely acknowledged as one of the world's most innovative and technically proficient banjo players, he is best known for his work with the bands New Grass Revival and Béla Fleck and the Flecktones.-Early life and career details:Fleck was born in...
- Guy ClarkGuy ClarkGuy Clark is an American Texas Country artist. In his career, he has released more than twenty albums, primarily on major labels. He has also written singles for other artists, including Ricky Skaggs, Steve Wariner and Rodney Crowell....
- Charlie DanielsCharlie DanielsCharles Edward "Charlie" Daniels is an American musician known for his contributions to country and southern rock music. He is known primarily for his number one country hit "The Devil Went Down to Georgia", and multiple other songs he has performed and written. Daniels has been active as a singer...
- Joe DiffieJoe DiffieJoe Logan Diffie is an American country music singer known for his ballads and novelty songs. Between 1990 and 2004, Diffie charted 35 cuts on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, including five number one singles: his debut release "Home", "If the Devil Danced ", "Third Rock from the Sun",...
- Vince GillVince GillVincent Grant "Vince" Gill is an American neotraditional country singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has achieved commercial success and fame both as frontman to the country rock band Pure Prairie League in the 1970s, and as a solo artist beginning in 1983, where his talents as a...
- Billy GilmanBilly GilmanWilliam Wendell "Billy" Gilman III is an American country music artist. In 2000, at the age of 12, he debuted with the single "One Voice," a Top 20 hit on the Billboard country music charts and became the youngest singer to a Top 40 hit on the country music charts...
- Hal HolbrookHal HolbrookHarold Rowe "Hal" Holbrook, Jr. is an American actor. His television roles include Abraham Lincoln in the 1976 TV series Lincoln, Hays Stowe on The Bold Ones: The Senator and Capt. Lloyd Bucher on Pueblo. He is also known for his role in the 2007 film Into the Wild, for which he was nominated for...
as Narrator - Alan JacksonAlan JacksonAlan Eugene Jackson is an American country music singer, known for blending traditional honky tonk and mainstream country sounds and penning many of his own hits. He has recorded 13 studio albums, 3 Greatest Hits albums, 2 Holiday albums, 1 Gospel album and several compilations, all on the Arista...
- Alison KraussAlison KraussAlison Maria Krauss is an American bluegrass-country singer, songwriter and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in...
- Lyle LovettLyle LovettLyle Pearce Lovett is an American singer-songwriter and actor. Active since 1980, he has recorded thirteen albums and released 21 singles to date, including his highest entry, the number 10 chart hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart, "Cowboy Man"...
- Loretta LynnLoretta LynnLoretta Lynn is an American country music singer-songwriter, author and philanthropist. Born in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky to a coal miner father, Lynn married at 13 years old, was a mother soon after, and moved to Washington with her husband, Oliver Lynn. Their marriage was sometimes tumultuous; he...
- Kathy MatteaKathy MatteaKathleen Alice "Kathy" Mattea is an American country music and bluegrass performer who often brings folk, Celtic and traditional country sounds to her music. Active since 1983 as a recording artist, she has recorded seventeen albums and has charted more than thirty singles on the Billboard Hot...
- Martina McBrideMartina McBrideMartina McBride is an American country music singer and songwriter. McBride has been called the "Céline Dion of Country Music" for her big-voiced ballads and soprano range....
- Roger McGuinnRoger McGuinnJames Roger McGuinn is an American singer-songwriter and guitarist. He is best known for being the lead singer and lead guitarist on many of The Byrds' records...
- Leigh Nash
- Randy OwenRandy OwenRandy Owen is an American country music artist. He is known primarily for his role as the lead singer of Alabama, a country rock band which saw considerable mainstream success throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Although Alabama only records new albums on occasion, Owen himself has maintained a career...
- Dolly PartonDolly PartonDolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best known for her work in country music. Dolly Parton has appeared in movies like 9 to 5, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Steel Magnolias and Straight Talk...
- Minnie PearlMinnie PearlSarah Ophelia Colley Cannon , known professionally as Minnie Pearl, was an American country comedienne who appeared at the Grand Ole Opry for more than 50 years and on the television show Hee Haw from 1969 to 1991.-Early life:Sarah Colley was born in Centerville, in Hickman County, Tennessee,...
(archival) - Earl ScruggsEarl ScruggsEarl Eugene Scruggs is an American musician noted for perfecting and popularizing a 3-finger banjo-picking style that is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music...
- Marty StuartMarty StuartJohn Martin "Marty" Stuart is an American country music singer-songwriter, known for both his traditional style, and eclectic merging of rockabilly, honky tonk, and traditional country music...
- Pam TillisPam TillisPamela Yvonne "Pam" Tillis is an American country music singer-songwriter and actress. She is the daughter of country music singer Mel Tillis....
- Ernest TubbErnest TubbErnest Dale Tubb , nicknamed the Texas Troubadour, was an American singer and songwriter and one of the pioneers of country music. His biggest career hit song, "Walking the Floor Over You" , marked the rise of the honky tonk style of music...
(archival) - Porter WagonerPorter WagonerPorter Wayne Wagoner was a popular American country music singer known for his flashy Nudie and Manuel suits and blond pompadour. He introduced the young Dolly Parton near the beginning of her career on his long-running television show, and they were a well-known duet throughout the late 1960s and...
- Lee Ann WomackLee Ann WomackLee Ann Womack is an American country music singer and songwriter, who is best known for her old fashioned-styled country music songs that often discuss subjects such as cheating and lost love....
Critical reception
When the film was released, Jane Sumner, film critic for The Dallas Morning NewsThe Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News is the major daily newspaper serving the Dallas, Texas area, with a circulation of 264,459 subscribers, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported in September 2010...
, lauded the film, and wrote, "It's been three years coming. But now that it's here, the IMAX film Our Country, originally titled Twang, makes a rousing addition to this year's State Fair of Texas...Written and produced by Tom Neff, who produced the six-part TV miniseries America's Music: The Roots of Country for TBS, the documentary celebrates country music as a mirror of the American experience across 90 years... Vintage photos, archival news footage (including a shot of O.J. Simpson trying on that pesky glove) and Mr. Neff's intelligent, lyrical commentary, narrated by Hal "Deep Throat" Holbrook, trace the history of country music as it parallels the nation's."
External links
- Tom Neff interview at Big Movie Zone
- Our Country Teacher's Guide