ASH GROVE Roots, Rock & Revolution – Feature Film [Format: HD]
Ash Grove: Roots, Rock & Revolution will tell the story of this very un-Hollywood club that became a sanctuary for creative people and that still influences them today long after its destruction. The film will seek to uncover why the club was destroyed as well as document the incredible present day efforts to resurrect its spirit by Pearl and the club’s many illustrious alumni.
Film Elements
The legend of the Ash Grove will be told through:
INTERVIEWS with former Ash Grove musicians, staff and fans. To date we have interviewed Ed Pearl, Pete Seeger, Ry Cooder, Taj Mahal, Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, Dave Alvin, The Freedom Singers, Barbara Dane, the Watts Prophets and Doc Watson, among others.
ARCHIVAL footage, stills, graphics and music of the performers and times. The producers have acquired an archive of stills, posters and AG artifacts not consumed by the fires and have located existing films of the Ash Grove. However, much of the archival collecting still remains to be done, pending further financing.
MUSIC
Ash Grove Archival Recordings
Ed Pearl recorded hundreds of Ash Grove concerts from 1963-1973. They feature some of the most dynamic and earliest west coast performances of many artists and convey the intimacy, character and ambience of the club. The recordings include Lightnin' Hopkins, Son House, Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon, Johnny Shines, Bukka White, Bill Monroe, Doc Watson, Ralph Stanley, Mother Maybelle Carter, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Merle Travis, Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder and the Chambers Brothers, to name a few.
Ash Grove 50th Anniversary Concert Recordings
Created for the film are excellent 24-track recordings of the stellar UCLA performances by Taj Mahal, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, The Freedom Singers, Holly Near, John Hammond, Watts Prophets, Ben Harper, Dave Alvin, Culture Clash, Michelle Shocked and many more.
ARCHIVAL-STYLE RE-ENACTMENT
Example: INTRO to Film
We see a wall of playbills and photos of Ash Grove musicians and watch as one by one they are consumed by flames and drift up into ashes; a profusion of performers who graced the Ash Grove stage over the years. A mix of Ash Grove archival music plays, as the images bursts into flames. A fire engine is heard getting louder. Smoke and crackling flames flicker, spread and fill the frame.
Fade out:
PRESENT DAY VERITE
The Ash Grove Lives
Interwoven with the legend of the club will be the present day story of Pearl’s attempts to resurrect the Ash Grove's spirit. With no money and little more than a telephone and an old contact list, Pearl envisions a massive weekend of concerts and workshops on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the club’s founding. Pearl hopes to bring together former Ash Grove performers, Taj Mahal, Ramblin' Jack Elliott, The Freedom Singers, Holly Near, Barbara Dane John Hammond and the Watts Prophets with a new generation including Ben Harper, Dave Alvin, Culture Clash and Michelle Shocked.
In Pearl's mind, these are not to be nostalgic performances, but a spark to 'start a revolution.' Pearl is counting on over one hundred performers to show up and perform two rousing concerts at UCLA's prestigious Royce Hall. He further envisions over a dozen free workshops led by his headliners covering community sing-alongs, Appalachian, gospel and world music, songwriting, civil rights protest songs, poetry, woman's culture, and more.
Our film crews shot for weeks leading up to the concerts covering: the organizing of the events, live radio and newspaper interviews to promote the concerts, and scenes of the many musicians reuniting and rehearsing back stage. All convey the scope and emotion of the historic event. The two nights of performances at Royce Hall were covered with a 5 camera HD, 24 track live audio shoot, and are of excellent content and quality - a truly a visionary, cultural phenomenon.
REMAINING TO BE SHOT
Remaining to be shot are interviews with important AG alumni, including: Ash Grove staff, eyewitnesses to the fires (subjects who have never-before-recorded information about who caused the Ash Grove's destruction) and most notably and timely, several of the surviving old masters, who have consented to interviews which we don’t currently have the funds to film. These include Buddy Guy, Mavis Staples, Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley and Del McCoury.
Soundtrack
Accompanying the film should be CD Soundtrack featuring a mix of archival and contemporary performances.
Audience
The near-mythical musical roster of Ash Grove performers will entice the millions of people world-wide who attend Americana concerts and festivals (such as the half million who annually attend San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass) and those who have seen the Academy Award nominated films made by or featuring performances by Ash Grove alumni, such as Woodstock; Monterey Pop; Ry Cooder's Buena Vista Social Club; Taylor Hackford's biopic Ray; and O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Ash Grove musicians have garnered Grammy awards, been inducted into Rock and Roll, Country and Songwriter's Halls of Fame, Presidential Medal of the Arts, Lifetime Achievement awards, and have been declared National Living Treasures — enough to fill their own museum.