Homemade Hillbilly Jam
Released 2008
An excellent music documentary that seeks out what’s left of hillbilly culture, Homemade Hillbilly Jam is a look, both visually and musically rich, at the Ozark Mountains. Focusing on the extended Bilyeu family and the Big Smith band that came out of the family’s rich musical tradition, interviews with family members are interspersed with langourous shots of beautiful Ozark countryside.
As might be expected from a documentary about this part of the Appalachians, Homemade Hillbilily Jam is chock full of first class bluegrass and gospel singing and playing that spans multiple generations. Aside from Big Smith the film also features the Branson, Missouri group The Baldknobbers, The Pine Ridge Singers and others.
While the film tends towards music, fun and the warmth of family gatherings, it does take some cursory glances at the effects of contemporary culture on the traditional mountain lifestyle in the Ozarks - the influx through the last few decades of chain restaurants and stores, population growth and the struggle to keep traditional music and family values alive.
Fans of bluegrass music will take delight in Homemade Hillbilly Jam, as will those with a curiosity about the Ozarks - a truly gorgeous countryside that is exquisiely captured here. A really good film.
