Customer Reviews

Gather at the River - A Bluegrass Celebration

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've owned this on laserdisc for a few years and am anxious to receive my DVD copy. This is a concert/documentary of a bluegrass festival in the early 90s. Great footage and quality sound by the likes of Peter Rowan & band, Doc Watson, Ralph Stanley & band, Del McCoury, and many many more. I'm glad to see more bluegrass available in this format. Pick this one up, you'll enjoy it!

To the individual who gave this DVD one star and commented on the "individual I've never heard of sitting by a river [blah, blah, blah]..." If you've never heard of Peter Rowan, you have no business blasting the makers of this film. It's CLEAR you are no expert!

Yes, there is a great deal of talk and interviewing; this is not a concert film. It is; however, a must have for any bluegrass fanatic, especially those who have made the annual pilgramage to Kentucky for the IBMA's. Enjoy this one!

A well balanced collection of some of the best players. An excellent selection of music, and just enough talk to stitch the performance parts together. I listened to it nearly every day for a week after I received it... the segments by the young players and foreign players are especially entertaining. You come away thinking that Bluegrass is the music of the future... really good-time DVD.

Some of the songs on this DVD:
Shall We Gather at the River (Peter Rowan & Hazel Dickens)
That High Lonesome Sound (Nashville Bluegrass Band, Peter Rowan)
Duncan and Brady (Johnson Mtn. Boys)
Ramshackle Shack (Doc Watson)
When I Paint My Masterpiece (Tim O'Brien & Del McCoury)
Father I Stretch My Hand to Thee (Nashville Bluegrass Band)
California Traveler (California)
Sweet to Be Remembered (Mac Wiseman)
Mountain Folks (Ralph Stanley)
Wheel Hoss (Bluegrass Youth All-Stars)
The Church Steeple (Tim O'Brien)
Queen Anne's Lace (Del McCoury)
Walls of Time (Peter Rowan & the Panama Red Riders)

Interesting things about this DVD:
1. You get to see a young Alison Krauss playing with Doc Watson & the Nashville Bluegrass Band!
2. The Bluegrass Youth All-Stars (Cody Kilby, Michael Cleveland, Chris Thile, and others) show you just how good those guys were even back then.
3. You get to see what bluegrass sounds like in Russian. :)

The fault I found in "Gather at the River" was that there aren't enough chapters so it's hard to navigate. You have to pretty much memorize the order of the songs to find, for example, "California Traveler." That's a remake by the band California of "Arkansas Traveler," and it's so incredible I kept wanting to go back to it, but there's no chapter for it.
There's quite a bit of talking on this DVD, also. But that's what you want if you're really interested in the background of this music and what makes it tick.

if you're a fan of bluegrass music then you'll appreciate this dvd. the sound and video aren't the best there is, but the music and interviews are mighty fine, especially if you're a fan of del mcoury, he's featured in 3 songs on the disc. there's also a bit of a young michael cleveland jamming with doc watson that's very interesting, as well as the bluegrass youth allstars. i've had this on my wishlist for a long time, but i wish i would've bought it a lot sooner, just wasted time by waiting for the right price ($3.27). it's well worth the price that's up right now. buy it!

Some call this a concert film.
It's not.
It's various performances, pieced-together with interviews in between.
The video quality is not very good.
The music quality is okay but again not that good.
The interviews are interesting and may have to be reason enough to buy this DVD.
There's no list of songs being performed; only the producer's own titles for the various segments.

Try to get it used for under ten bucks: then it may be worth it.

I want a Refund! I have been a Bluegrass fan for 50 years but this DVD is a sad representation of what was advertised. For example, Johnny Hartford was once a fabulous banjo player, but in this DVD, his talents are confined to dialogue only. In fact, most of this DVD was down-home chatting in the absence of any form of quality sound. E.G., Some guy I never heard of sits next to a river somewhere and talks about banjo playing (he can't do any of it)while strumming a guitar - that is the entire theme of the DVD. Video quality stinks and sound quality and content is terrible. This is no Eric Weisberg (Deliverance)equivalent!