Friday PBS documentary traces history of bluegrass music

Bill Monroe at the first multi-day bluegrass
music festival, in 1965 (Ron Petronko photo)

PBS viewers have been bombarded with reminders that Ken Burns's "Country Music" documentary will begin on the network Sept. 15, but have gotten relatively little notice of a similar film on bluegrass music, which will air Friday at 9 ET.

Big Family: The Story of Bluegrass Music "joyfully reaffirms" the genre's wide appeal, taking viewers from its Kentucky roots to the surprising global locales that have made it their own, Walter Tunis writes for the Lexington Herald-Leader. It's narrated by actor Ed Helms, a bluegrass enthusiast who played the banjo-playing character Andy Bernard in "The Office."

"Along with the international fascination, you’re left with the sense of how deeply a part of the American cultural fabric the music has become. Banjoist Graham Sharp of the Grammy-winning Steep Canyon Rangers states as much at the film’s onset," Tunis writes.

Sharp says, "I think of bluegrass as one of those very sort-of-ingrained American things. Like baseball."

"Big Family" was a mammoth undertaking for Kentucky PBS affiliate KET. It has footage shot over three years, including interviews with more than 50 luminaries such as Jeff Hanna of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Del McCoury, J.D. Crowe, Ricky Skaggs and Bela Fleck.

Condensing more than nine hours of material down to two hours was agonizing, according to KET producers Matt Grimm and Nick Helton, Tunis writes. Grimm told him, "We wanted to be true to the story but include all that we could. At the same time, we wanted it to have broad appeal. We wanted those who are not bluegrassers to be able to relate to it."

Helton added that they also wanted to debunk stereotypes about bluegrass musicians and show the genre's connection to American culture. "They’re serious musicians doing things most musicians can’t do. There’s the speed with which they play, the rhythm," Helton said. "One of our biggest points was to show this rich history that really does weave itself through American history, as well. I think a lot of people don’t realize how much bluegrass music played a part in pop culture."

World culture, too. Grimm told Tunis that he and Helton got an unexpected ovation in a small music club in Tokyo where a Japanese bluegrass band was about to play. When the audience members heard the two were from KET, they applauded because they recognized the station's name from its old bluegrass programming. "We couldn’t have felt more welcome," Grimm said.