Can you explain the editing process? This must've used multiple cameras since I see cuts to different angle. Was there an audio master that you just added the different footage to?
Im from Ireland and my family and I are just amazed to see this ... because this dancing is very similar to our own .. the people in the video are doing what we call set dancing or SHAN NOS dancing .. spelled SEAN NOS in Scots-Gaelic language ...Ive heard about the cultural /blood connection between Scots- Irish and the people in south- Appalachia region in the States . there is such strong Scottish- Irish DNA in the melody of the music , the rhythm in the way they dance and move ..This makes me very proud to know that a part of our Celtic culture is alive and well in the United States.. God Bless to our American cousins X
I live in the Foothills of the Appalachians in Virginia, everyone here is of scot-irish descent; all the music, dances and even a lot of spellings came from y'all. Bluegrass is my favorite genre of music, I grew up listening to it and let me tell you it's hard to distinguish it from Irish music.
@@oliecrone12 a lot of your words/spellings would be of scots origins since the earlier scots would have taken them over to amerikay. also fiddle reel music is indigenous to scotland. a few fiddle tunes in amerikay are scottish. your dance would have it,s origins in england, wales or scotland as these were amongst the earliest settlers. irish dancing never started until 1895 after scots workers invited 2 irish co-workers to a st andrews night ceilidh, ceilidhs being of scottish origins. the irish had their first ceilidh a few years later.woody guthrie and bill monroe both credit scotland with bluegrass , as does dolly partin. irish fiddle music was introduced to ireland from scotland. 100s of scots fiddle reel made there way to ireland in the late 1700s. irish music as we see it today only started in the late 50s early 60s(i,m auld enough to know)when bands like the clancies and dubliners appeared and adopted the scots style alang with many scots and english sangs. many modern scots sangs are mistakenly classed as irish also.
@@brucecollins4729 I agree with everything you said. My family was part of that early wave from Scotland, England and Wales, and fought in the Revolution. As new territory opened to the west, with each new generation they brought the music and dance with them, from the Carolinas, through Kentucky and Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. My 3rd great grandmother sailed here from Ireland in the 1850s.
I learned how to do this mountain clog when I was just a girl. Do not be fooled, it takes a whole lot of stamina to get through a whole dance! At age 76 I can only do a few minutes. It brings back great memories of a bygone era.
Oh, I wasn't fooled a bit about the energy level needed! I'm sure it also took a lot of practice to perfect the moves and timing. I bet most of them started when they were half the size they are in the video.
Im bawling right now. My great grandmother used to have parties like this in her barn every saturday night with live music and dancing, i never thought i would hear or see something like it again for as long as i live. Thank you so much.
Well you said to find some musicians a few people know how to do it proper floor maybe that same Barn and do it you might find some time to dancers that's very very similar but not quite as strenuous there's a big contradancing community it kind of fell apart during it doesn't take nearly as much skill and stamina as this does contradancing
This is certainly a slice of old Americana at it's finest! How cool is this? The pretty little girls in their fine cotton dresses, the handsome young men. All of them, young & old, dressed in their finery for a night out at a party! Oh, that little darlin' with the bobbed hair, the sweet dimples, & a smile to melt the coldest heart, is just about the cutest thing anywhere! No zombie imitations, staring into the abyss, through the tiny screen of a cell phone! People, enjoying other people in fun & fellowship! A Joy to Behold, forever!
I grew up with this culture and miss it dearly . Mom was the oldest of 8 kids , so our home was the meeting place every sunday. We were farmers ,so there was plenty of food and with 24 first cousins there was always music and dancing. There was no money , but we knew how to have fun . These people remind me so much of the most enjoyable time of my life. I am 83 years old.
Yes! The multi-generational aspect is also enhanced by Mr. Hoffman's brilliant eye as he includes the pictures of ancestors on the walls, and slides on down to a younger sister curled up in a chair.
The adults dancing with the children stood out to me too, because today that’s virtually impossible! The youth used to get their culture handed down to them from the adults so naturally they would know the same activities! The adults would be proud that the younger generation learned what they taught and the youth would have joy that they pleased their parents and authority figures! The bond between them was strengthened and not easily broken! This by the way fosters courage, a love for previous generations and our history! That would enable the younger generations to have a national identity and quell any enemy that breaches our boundaries! Today much of the youth create their own culture apart from the adults, they deride the previous generation’s culture, due to indoctrination from the state through a Godless, secular humanist neo-Marxist system! They are separated from the adults who they rebel against, the adults don’t understand them and there is a fragile bond at best that is easily broken if they are led astray!
Singing and dancing is what the poor folks do for fun in the Appalachian's. As a girl growing up with 12 aunts and uncles on my mother's side and 9 on my father's side, we had lots of family fun like this.
I was amazed at the reaction this wonderful video has gotten. Obviously it has been meaningful to lots of people for various reasons. In this video are three of my first cousins and one old friend. We are all in our sixties now and still live in Western North Carolina within about 25 minutes driving time from each other. We stay in close contact with one another. In fact, just last week we all got together for a Christmas celebration. The cute girl who was prominently featured is Mary Ann...she still has that sweet smile! Her brother Bill is a dancer here...as is our other first cousin, Sam. They were all very talented dancers! We watched this video at Sam's home during our gathering. This is a source of pride not only for these dancers, but for our whole family. All are doing quite well still...and all have had long-term, happy marriages and successful careers. As a side note...another of our first cousins was "Bonnie Lou"...of the singing duo, Bonnie Lou and Buster. They were pretty well known regionally for playing bluegrass/mountain music. They recorded several albums and hosted a television show for many years that was syndicated all over the South. Bonnie Lou and Buster were quite influential in promoting this genre of music and the associated "hillbilly" entetainment....long before the tv show "Hee Haw". We had other connections to this mountain music. Bonnie Lou and Buster were friends with and played/traveled with Mother Mabel Carter (a trailblazing icon in mountain/country music) of "The Carter Family". I remember my Aunt Jewel recounting how they all stayed in her home over night as they traveled thru Hendersonville, NC. Cousin Sam tells of meeting "The Father of Bluegrass Music", Bill Monroe...when he would come visit my grandparents on a regular basis many years ago. During my younger years I didn't know about any of this...and probably wouldn't have been suitably impressed if I had known. Now that I know what giants they were...it's a different story. Yep, we were and still are just down home folks...and have always been proud of our heritage. Thank you to all of the people who shared these kind and meaningful comments. Bless your hearts.
A beautiful message for the holidays Steve. Thank you for sharing. A lucky man you are to have lived in that magnificent Western North Carolina culture. David Hoffman-filmmaker Did you see how many people ask me to go back and update my original film. Would not be wonderful. I don't have the money to do it these days unfortunately.
Lovely, you guys certainly had lots of energy....love clogging, though could never master it, just linedancing! Thanks for the view, it lifts the heart...Jan from australia. Using hubbies log in!
All of the folks from that long ago day..seem to step across time, and into our hearts.Indelibly, forever. A deep, common chord was struck judging from the wonderful comments. I am especially pleased to learn how many of these people (Mary Ann Dimples..) are still walking (and, I hope dancing!!) among us. I was, let's see...in my teens when this film was made. I am going to be 70 next September. I have been watching the Library of Congress series also posted on You Tube, and it brings the point home - how important 'folk culture' (that term does not do it justice!) is to our country.
Thank you for sharing your great family history. I love Bill Monroe. I live in California and we have a great love of Bluegrass & country music & dance here. We have a giant Free Festival of music here every year for 3 days featuring Bluegrass and many other types of music in San Francisco out in Golden Gate Park. There I have seen to name a few: Ralph Stanley, Earl Scruggs, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Del Macory (spelled wrong) Doc Watson, Steve Earl, Dolly Parton, and many other famous musicians & singers. The billionaire businessman who paid for the Festival has died, but his family started a Foundation to keep this event going. His name was Warren Hellman, and he had a bluegrass group who played just for fun. He played banjo. The people of San Francisco & the entire Bay Area will be forever grateful to him for this event. It brings together thousands from all races, religions, ages, and countries to enjoy music together.
From a Frenchman, this video is incredible: all generations dancing together, a fabulous orchestra, a jewel of American culture... proud to have seen it!
@@kachi9293 You haven't understood a thing! Yes, I'm proud to have seen a video I didn't know existed, proud to have learned about a tradition I didn't know existed, proud to see a people who have preserved the memory of their ancestors: did I say that French culture was better than that of the United States?
@@kachi9293I don't know the English word that expresses the feeling of having learned something that grows on you intellectually. The word proud should not be understood as arrogant, but as the definition I have just given. , sorry
I'm a 40 year old guy from northern Ireland. found this by accident and it's the best scene ever.. real music by real people.. can't get enough of this style right now.. someone grab me a banjo...😁😁
That's interesting, I'm from Dublin, and when I saw these people dancing, I immediately thought of Ulster Scotts and I'm not sure why. There's an Ulster vibe about them but I can't put my finger on what it is. It looks a wonderful tradition and worth keeping.
I wish there were still dances like this today, I'm sick of night clubs, I'd much rather be taken to an old fashioned dance, seems like way more fun than going out and getting drunk.
Contra dancing is totally a thing now in many areas. I learned to clog in the 80s in Oregon. All up and down the West Coast you can find people who do this type of dancing.
Contra dancing has made a comeback. It's easier than clogging but very similar. There might be one in your town. They have live musicians like this usually.
I'm from the Highlands of Scotland, and I am totally smitten by this video. The sheer joy of the dancers is palpable. Although all the dancers are truly wonderful, the young couple who feature most are absolutely unforgettable. I've never been to rural Appalachia, apart from the bluegrass music, this dancing could have come from a square set from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Wonderful! Bob Massie
hi,, shane here from ireland.. i used to be an irish set dancer back in the 90's.. i love this video and sadly irish set dancing is almost extinct too,,.. shame.. my set won the lenister twice and manchester international set dancing.. great memories.. i'd be out raving on a saturday night and then of to dance in competitions on a sunday morn,,, lol.. best of bought worlds..
Nothing's more fun than group dancing like this. I used to go contra dancing many years ago. Its very similar to square dancing except easier. It's so much fun you can't stop, and you wind up feeling like your legs are going to fall off a couple of hours later LOL. Drinking or eating is beside the point. All they had were some sodas and bottled water. I never had so much fun!
I loved this time when people got together as a community and just enjoyed simple wholesome entertainment. Now families just sit around and stare at their smart phones, how sad we are now.
Rose-colored glasses. I was around back then and we were doing the same thing, except TV & comic books instead of phones. Conversely, you’ll find many small-group music/dance sessions today if you seek them out. I’ve photographed many in the Cigar-box guitar & folk community
@@BenSussmanpro it's not rose colored glasses. It is a scientific FACT that society has declined drastically since the introduction of smart phones and social media. and it's by design, doing exactly what it was meant to do - and that is drive a wedge between people in their local communities. look up Active Measures - if you were around back then you might already know what that is... and you should feel ashamed of yourself for going along with it. Comic books didn't have neverending doom scroll features, comment sections where you could injure the reader, or spew hatred. television actually had standards and moral lessons. NOT the same. you can't possibly look at today and say it's no different.
Yes, yes we are. I have tried in vain to find groups to connect with. I am Liberal but I live in a very conservative rural area and the only group activity is Bingo at the Catholic church hall on Wednesday night. Kind of stationary. I have to drive way out to get to any other activty. Meetups are lame around here, mostly groups related to dog owners.. or painting miniatures.. over 20 years ago I participated in Contra Dancing that happened every week.. It was loads of fun but they moved away and I was told it was "expensive" to hire musiciians (can't we just have recordings?) Folks just don't want to do this stuff anymore.. I mean some do, but mostly it is like pulling teeth.
that young lady at the beginning looks like the girl next door, so to speak anywhere in the USA back when. i hope she has had a great life with her husband, kids, grandkids, etc. she would be ~ 70 now and my age. looks like everyone in the film enjoyed themselves.i'll bet there was a food feast afterward. WNC people are very cordial and believe in eating and love get-togethers like this film.
In 1972 my family moved to Virginia-I was nine years old, and there was still clog dancing nights we would go to in our neighborhood. It was in a big public hall and people were not self-consciously trying to make a traditional place-it was just people enjoying themselves and the fact that it was old-fashioned meant nothing compared to the pleasure of being there and either observing or learning to join in. I wish old-fashioned things weren’t always treated as narrow minded things.
The man at 2:39 is Bascom Lamar Lunsford, a man who devoted his life to recording "mountain music" he was a man who never received any laurites for what he did but the world of music owes a great deal of gratitude too.
I wonder where she is now?! She looks about 15 in the pic so would have been born around 1950 so would be about 73 today if she's still alive. Would be great to hear her memories of this...
Some years after this video has been uploaded, and the state of the world looking pretty grim here in 2022, I find myself hoping that this will soon be the way family and friends come together again. Clean and wholesome! THAT'S entertainment! Thank you for such a wonderful video depicting the true heart of America!
It might look peachy on the surface but this generation had its problems too. Imagine the civil and racial strife, a President, Attorney General and civil rights leader assassinated before everyone's eyes in the space of 5 years, the unrest at home caused by the Vietnam War and division between the generations as well as political parties. This wasn't the true heart of America for black citizens and virtually any other minority. women were still considered second class citizens and Native Americans (those who survived anyway), were hoarded into reservations. Families all have the same problems through the generations as well. That's something that never really changes. As far as media and being phones, this generation was up in arms about wasting time on "television!", the previous generation was up in arms about "radio"! I'm not saying things are good now, they suck. But let's not romanticize a time that actually never was, either. No, I'm not "woke", and I will have choice words for anyone who describes me as such, trust me. I'm simply telling the truth - and if the truth is too "woke" for you, you just don't know enough about history. But God bless them, that does look like an awful lot of fun.
If the US ever gets to host the Olympics, something like this should be performed during the opening ceremony. It's an incredible part of the US's heritage that the world needs to see.
Right, its like we never see white faces on TV or representation in D.C. The times I just think, If only people could walk a mile in my 50 yr, old middle-class white guy wing tip shoes....
@@mountaindew7190 Oh my god the whining here is so loud it’s drowning out the fiddle in the video. Stop feeling sorry for your white selves. It’s time to grow up. America is comprised of many cultures. Just because yours is criticized now and then for its absurd belief in racial supremacy does not mean the world is coming to an end. Did you know that the banjo played in this video came from the Black community? Did you know that much of this music genre bluegrass has major Black influences? This is American and Southern culture at its best and I love it. Throw the Confederate flag in the trash. Give me this all day.
My Scots-Irish Grandpa taught me this dance. It's been 50 years and I can still hear him saying "shuffle-hop-step, shuffle-hop-step" while helping 7 year old me try to keep up. He loved to dance like this, and spoke often of when he was young and they would all get together at his grandmother's house in the evenings. The uncles would bring their fiddles, banjo and harmonica and they would all sing and dance late into the night.
My great grandfather used to dance in the pubs after a long day's work my grandmother told me tales of how he and her mother would both dance. I say it's where my love of tap comes from - grandparents are precious 💖
I’m a city girl, but my husband’s family from Appalachian roots. His line runs WAY back into original Virginia settlement and colonies. I love watching these things and appreciate the skill; both the music and dancing.
A mandolin would complete the bluegrass sound here. Also the harmonica player could definitely lay back a little and let somebody else lead. (Just a musician’s perspective. I’m not trying to be a jerk or whatever)
I’m Black and 65 years old. We did this in 60s at our May Day or and it was called Square Dancing. And we had on skirts with can can sips under it to make the skirt stand out. We was having fun!
Yes its funy music, you must know i from the Netherlands. I live there 44 year, than 8 year Portugal and i year Spain. At this moment return too Portugal. Villa nova de Cacela. Its great music.
@@TheJazzyRedTalkShow I wish you the best of luck! And kids need more exercise so this is a great way to get them moving. Again, best wishes and good luck!!
No joke. This culture has heavy Scottish roots. I think their Scottish heritage might have actually been what mainly distinguished (and/or separated) them from the rest of the East Coast American culture, leading them to migrate to Appalachian region in the first place.
@TexasPROUD yeah, but I'm talking about waaaay back; mid, maybe even early 1700's.....when Florida was still held by Spain, Louisiana by France, and much of the in-between was still getting tossed between the two...
My dad's family is from the mountains of NC. It's not just the dancing, but the music as well as it reflects its roots with the Scotch-Irish people. I recently visited Inverness and went to a hootnanny. It was a HOOT! I loved it because of its connection to Bluegrass.
I think clog dancing was popular in a certain region, coming down from Ireland, where the folks had emigrated from. My family was in deep French south...no clog dancing.
Hold on there Bucko, real American, are you forgetting The Scot Irish roots of this dancing style? I guess there are some Cherokee and German steps in there too but me being an Irish musician see the predominant Irishness of this beautiful dance, made better of course by these incredible folk :)
They barely broke a sweat or were breathing heavy. Most kids today would die if they did that dance even 5 minutes. Even the old folks were getting into it. I was definitely impressed.
People have no energy today because the food is fake, the water has no ionisation, and the corporate world is too greedy , city life is very toxic unless you live in the best neighbourhood.
This reminds me of my hillbilly roots. I was raised in California and took a lot of demeaning and hurtful comments about my family history from some cruel and ignorant people. My mother's family had a radio show in the area of Melbourne Arkansas in the late 30's and early 40's . They were known as the kidwell family. My uncle's and cousins were amazing musicians. My aunt Lucille was the singer and was known as the Arkansas queen. Unfortunately some of them lost their lives in WW2. My aunt Lucille is 99 years old. My uncle Leroy was the last musician. He could play anything with strings. These people made fun of us as hillbillies while I was growing up as if we were stupid rubes. Our children have grown to be successful in business. Law and are wonderful people. My aunt Lucille is still living. I'm proud of my hillbilly roots. I think I'll call my aunt Lucille and thank her again first for the legacy she left for us "ignorant" hillbillies
I grew up on a farm in Africa with my grandma.. simple living, simple life.. living in Europe now and this reminds me of simpler times with dirt on my feet down by the creek. I think it's loverly
Yours is a great story and very interesting .I enjoy the simplicity of life.People can be cruel.But I enjoy the cloggers and there are times when I just watch them and listen to the bluegrass music.And just seeing how happy they are And it makes my day. My grandmother raised me.And gave me a strong Spiritual foundation.And her tombstone says, "She found good in everyone .I'm from upstate N.Y small town.I hope you do not think we are all like that. We can learn from each other. God bless, God speed and keep the faith Amen
Im here in Scotland. Im older and the country has changed so much. The American cloggers are brill in my eyes. They sure know how to make their connections to the motherland felt. I wish they would all come back here and cheer the place up.
It would take more than an inbred low IQ yank to cheer up the sweaty jocks. You are what you eat, less deep fried food might help with your depression levels.
Watching from New Zealand. Greatly heartened to see people in a community getting together and having good wholesome fun together and building marvellous skills in musicianship and dance along the way. This is what real human communication looks like and it’s great to see. Wonderful and full of wonder 😊👍
Back then there were no smart phones, few B/W TV channels and most homes had only a single corded phone. The thing to do was to get together with friends to dance, chat, laugh, play ball in the streets and maybe board games. Sadly those days where people needed each other are mostly behind us. Today's youth doesn't have a clue what they are missing..
Exactly because they didn't have these gadgets, families used to have 5, 6, or more kids. Without entertainment, all they could do was have kids, go to church, drink until they passed out, physically abuse their wives and kids, etc. Do we still have that today? Yeah, but with smaller families...
I’ve been watching this video for years. I can’t help but wonder what happened to everyone, especially the younger kids. The oldest girl is absolutely beautiful, and the short haired girl with the dimples is adorable. Honestly they all are. I saw a few videos of the lead dancer in his older years. So glad you captured this on video, hundreds of years from now people will still be loving it.
Amen brother. Same here. I’m gonna checkout homeboys post, but I really hope that they lived well and had a buncha o kids and raised em up right. ❤. Much love. I hope that they made it.
My family just recently discovered this video. The short haired girl with the dimples is my grandmother! I can't speak for most of the people in this video, but she's still alive and well, and near 70 years old
I watched this 3yrs ago...AND IM SEEING IT AGAIN AND IM JUST AS ELATED!!! The young lady at the very begining has the sweetest smile.thank you for this.
I'm from Iceland and I took a DNA test this summer and I'm getting many people from this area coming up as 4th to 5th cousins... still trying to figure out how as they don't seem to have any Icelandic roots... but these faces and their spirit look like family ;-)
This whole video is fascinating, the music, the people, the dancing... People entertaining themselves instead of sitting waiting for the next special effects.
Mountain folks work hard to get food out of rocky hillsides. They develop extended families and kinship with the community. They play hard in order to balance their lives
I love this video... the second cut, when you can see that they're actually shaking the furniture with their footwork, and then 1:56, when grandpaw is snoozing away; the smiles; the banjo picking; the old couple tapping it out; the little kids watching... whoever filmed this had such great eye for detail. Lotta joy in these few minutes.
The old couple tapping it out were only THE Mr Bascom Lamar Lunsford himself and I believe his second wife Freda. He was the mover and shaker that Mr Hoffman contacted, and arranged to take Mr Hoffman around and show him a great deal of the musical and other culture of rural Appalachia. The Man.
This put a smile on my face. Reminds me of Saturday nights at my great grandma's house during the summer. The 'boys' (her sons) would bring their music (instruments) and play while aunts, uncles, cousins, all clogged or 'buck danced'. My mom would harmonize with her sister and one of her cousins to sing some old bluegrass. Those were the days. :)
Anidara Lopez: Saturday nights must have been something else at your great grandma's home. I am curious of one thing, though. Where did you get the last name "Lopez".
@@DutchmanAmsterdam You have more common sense than I did when I first posted my comment. The night I posted it, I remember thinking that Anidara Lopez must be related to the dancers in the video. But I have absolutely no idea why I thought that. The video was made almost 60 years ago! Pretty absent minded of me, huh?
I wonder what happened to them all, especially the little lady with the gorgeous smile and dimples at the beginning? If anyone from this film is watching it would be absolutely wonderful if you left a message!
I don't know WHAT it is about this video. I'm into hardcore punk rock but this dancing and music is mesmerizing! I'm sure I'm not the only one who watches it regularly. I probably watch it at least once a week. Absolutely fascinating and enjoyable. Causes a longing for family, love, fun, and dedication to one's talent & hard work ethic.
That was my reaction exactly. I never get tired of this video, it really is hypnotic. I wonder if those three million-plus views are the same three thousand people who've watched it a thousand times each! And I wonder whether the dancers had any idea that they would still be enthralling a worldwide audience half a century later.
Crooked Halo, listen to what your heart is telling you...You see it in this video. Family love and remembering your past and honoring your ancestors and traditions. After all, without great effort on the part of our ancestors, we wouldn't even be here. That is what is captured in this video and you feel it and so do I. Peace my friend.
i completely agree,as mountain folk we would usually follow this with pray and some gospel songs,all singing together made us feel even closer.then home to pass out lol
My daddy was born and raised in Kentucky , in the country. This is how they had fun. I don’t know how they learned but somehow they did. And play instruments. Violin, well , fiddle, mandolin, bass guitar. The big ones that you payed standing up.and sing, Oh my, they could sing. Berea Ky. Has a great fall gathering every year In October . Thus still goes on😄
really, i once read a book about a police detective that worked from the late 40's until the earyly 70's. and what he describes was not innocent at all. it was brutal. society has always been brutal that thin red line we mankind cross all the time isn't new.
Trancelvania100 . Thank you for your comment. Actually, I got the title from a RUclips comment where someone suggested I should use that title because this old clip from my movie deserved it. I did, and so far no one has objected to it. David Hoffman-filmmaker
I was born on Inishmore, the largest of the 3 Aran Islands, off the west coast of Ireland. I recall as a boy in the 60's and through the 70's in our village hall each Friday night was step dancing, all that you see on this video took place. Men and women dancing together in a pair, under the arches, in a line and the emphasis of the feet always keeping rthymn. The musicians were fiddle players and the most revered of all, an accordion player. Such as well took place in people's homes. I now live in England and since my returns there from the 90's onwards sadly the old ways are dying out; this form of community dancing to even the Irish language not being spoken as much due to the effect of the outside world now living there and not choosing to learn the language. This, however, is a wondrous video and I can see and hear the Irish ancestors who headed to that part of America there. ps. If anybody loves wild islands, where the silence is deafening and the beauty serene head west, to The Aran Islands (all 3 of them), Ireland and find your peace.
My Grandad and his people came from coastal Ireland, settling eventually in Illinois, they became farmers and I remember the rolling up of the rugs and "cutting a rusty" is what he called it. He used to do calling, I can still dance like that when I get some liquid courage in me. I live in Maine now, a green, green place- where your soul can play it's song.
Hey Thomas, I've been to two of the three Aran Islands. In fact I've been several times & took my (youngest) daughter twice to Ireland, and my son once. They both loved the Islands. We went to the Pub & sang rebel songs. I adore Ireland & have been 7 times. I am Irish & Italian. My Ma is Irish. There is a revival of Irish language with kids & adults learning to speak Irish at summer schools in the West (the Gaeltacht) so it will not die out.
therealtoni There are a few British retirees their, didn't encounter Americans though . In truth, with the island being but 9 miles long and 6 miles wide it is not spacious for many people to live and also the island is made of stone ie no trees barely present. Dark, cold and wet in the winter, beautiful in the summer. The other 2 Aran islands Inishmann and Inishere are even smaller!
hooleyqueen Irish AND Italian!! Now THAT'S a dangerous combination lol! Agree ala language, with the young especially seeking to want to learn it. My parents came to England in the early 60's and were native speakers from the island of Inishmore, my mother told me both me and my brother spoke only Irish in our early years on arrival in Englandl. Sadly they did not speak to us in the language as we grew up in England and we subsequently lost it. I did try to learn it here in England but found it impossible and know the only way is to return to the west of Ireland.
@@juliavernon306 There are a million 'real' Americas, that's what makes it great. Maybe a few miles from this there is a different gathering of people playing blues or jazz music, or any of countless cultures within the US. This in particular only represents a small part of the country.
It's always Scots Irish, the Welsh were in the thick of it as well, but not mentioned so much, where would you have been without the Tredegar iron works, just saying.
Watched dancing like this many times when I was around 8 years old , cant remember much earlier than that except when I knocked out my 2 front teeth running on my first day of school. My parents would take me to the rooster fights Saturday morning where my mom sold homemade sandwiches and a soda to the men for 15cent and then later that evening sometimes we would travel around the mountain to meet others and watch and listen to the music. Sometimes my dad wouod even take his own fiddle with him and then is was church on Sunday as always. Life was very hard back then, but as kids we had no idea it was hard, we just enjoyed everyday,
just amazing I'm from the north of England we do traditional clog dancing here. We have different types of clogs different areas different styles for different Jobs. The steps are very similar. Up until recently I was able to listen into US Saturday night radio shows and so pleased to see these traditions are still being kept up and not lost. l often tune into the library of Congress exploring, listening. I liked Connie Dover explaining Irish/Scottish influence. Thank you for posting very grateful.
They probobly do this more in the south east where this was filmed. Living in minnesota near Canada i've never hear of clogging. Definately the highest density to scots-Irish is in south east United States.
I return to this so many times for so many reasons. For me this footage is so very important. Not just to show American culture but to clearly identify the influence of Irish and Scottish jigs and reels. Then to see the impact upon the lives of those generations of Appalachian folks is amazing..even now. Their love of the music and the steps has kept the dance alive. Worthy of the Smithsonian if that’s where the culture of the US is to be recorded and retained. Quite quite wonderful.
@@stephenmcginn6872 There's no tradition of wearing clogs in Ireland, girls tapping their clogs (English clogs wooden soles leather uppers) to the beat of the looms, started to spark their clogs on the cobbles in northern England, step dancing was done all over the British isles, every inn in England had a plate and every area it's own steps, there's no evidence the Irish step danced before the rest of the British isles, try tracing 'Irish dancing' back before the 1920s as it's done today.
@@stephenmcginn6872 No i said see if you can trace Irish dancing 'in it's present form' before 1920, the 1790-1810 census shows the vast majority of settlers to the Appalachians were English, followed by Scottish, some households state Scottish and English, Welsh and English, 10 Welsh households, 8 German Household 1 French and no Irish.
i keep stumbling across this clip again and again and it is amazing. the faces, the music, the dance, the rattling walls, so beautiful. i have been playing at old time and bluegrass festivals for 40 years and i got to thinking, "where are they now?". those youngsters would be in theirs70s and 80s now, and i wonder if i've seen them or played music with them over the many years in VA., NC, WV. . i wish i knew their names! really enjoy your work!
Two of them were actually commenting in this very video comments (this White Buffalo video). Mary Ann Morgan (dimple-smile girl). And Kay Orr, she described her as the lowest girl, dancing with the guy with glasses. All beatiful girls.
I don't think that making such absolute statements about life and the world in the past are necessarily correct or helpful. It is easy to prove that for many the world at the time was a miserable one, full of bigotry, open racism , discrimination and certainly with it's own brand of insanity. But I wholeheartedly agree, that something essential, which is present in this footage has departed our world. Having a group of kids and not a single one of them is obese or even overweight, kids who have the physical stamina that is befitting their age, the communal feeling, old and young, playing music and dancing together, boys and girls encouraged to enjoy each other's embrace in dance, There is so much that following generations at great loss will never experience.
I could watch this for hours! The dancing, the spectators, the musicians, everyone is enjoying it a different way. If I was there I’d be smiling ear to ear! This was so great! 😍
Amy, I do watch it for hours cumulatively, like twice a day every day. It's just so wholesome, happy and good old family values. Who needs aerobics? I see the one-eyed TV monster in the corner, but then they used to know how to balance life in those days. Additionally, we all focus on the marvellous dancers, but without the sheer virtuosity of these musicians, it would not have been so very, very special!
I still can't explain it. I'm a New York/Miami city guy with a thick Brooklyn accent. I simply can't explain why this music moves me. I'm drawn to this magical stuff like a moth to a flame. Just some of the best music I've ever heard. I Thank God that this part of America is still alive and well.
I dont know if it is still alive. I had some cousins clog, but I'm almost 40 and I dont think their kids clog. 17 18 years ago I did some contra dancing because it was making a comeback, but I dont think there are many families doing this anymore. (I'm from kentucky)
@C caymer To be more exact, those people came from the kingdom of Dalriada, which covered the eastern part of County Antrim(including my namesake Island Magee)and the western seashore of ´Scotland´(Hebridean Islands like Skye, Mull of Kintyre and others). Very rich Gaelic country - that´s where the powerful music and dancing comes from!
@C caymer I think the commenter was being general about the origins of the people in the film, but I agree with you. I think a lot of people don't know that Catholic Highlander Scots (persecuted after the Reformation) and Irish (mostly Catholic) were not welcome in the almost entirely Protestant United States.
Yeah, I don't think there's much of s chance of completely loosing these elements of culture. There's a clog dancing club right at the University where I worked until very recently.
@@violetbennett2407 Likely many of them had English, Anglo/Irish and Scots/Irish roots. Many Appalachian place names derive from England or native Indian tribes. But its a rich culture and melting pot. Hope it still survives todays world of high tech.
@@annetta7793 Hey Annetta this is my other youtube account LOL ~this is Foggy OU812. i remember singing rounds to songs like Whispering Hope and singing 500 Miles, Old Blue, so many old folk songs so precious! Had great old reel to reel of these shindigs but unfortunately in '94 the closet we kept all memorabilia got taken away in a big tornado but the rest of the house was pretty OK. Just in the kitchen all mom's recipes in a little 5 by 3 note card container got swooped away too LOL it was like that tornado knew the things that were the nearest and dearest to my heart. Frank Jones could play Yankee Doodle Dandy and The Star Spangled banner at the same time on his banjo ~one on the drum and one on the arm! It was more jaw dropping than my dad doing the two-step on his hands LOL :) Nice to make acquaintance! i live real close to you too! Just north of Branson! Would love to meet you! i like to swim at Table Rock Dam and at the low water bridge in Walnut Shade off of 176 on Goodnight Hollow Road low bridge over Bull Creek! We should have a meet up. I play the guitar some and can harmonize a little too.
@@foggyozarkgal348 Wow, you have a great memory if you can still remember the songs you sang! Yes, that even hurts my heart that the tornado took those things from you. I still have the card holder with my Momma's and Grandmother's (they farmed, and taught school, for many decades in Shannon County, Mo.) recipes. But I never learned to cook like them. They had to have been some of the best country cooks around! Yes, we must live within a few miles of each other. I'm up for getting together. But how and when?
My grandfather played the fiddle and his sons played banjo, guitar and mandolin. Loved going to his house when the instruments would come out, the music started and everyone was dancing just like in this video. My dad was the best of the bunch and my mom would finally give out and find a seat and he would dance with me and my sisters. So glad I grew up in Kentucky (close to Ashland).
This is great. I'm in the UK, but in the 50's and 60's my mum and dad used to play accordions for various bands, along with a bit of organ playing and piano. It takes me back to a time where human beings connected together much more, in small communities. Compared to today, we've fallen a long way.
That was pretty cool. Unknowingly, we used this step in the late 80's in NYC while dancing to house music. This is wild. This video could be paired to a classic house beat and it would go perfect. Never let this die out. It's part of the classic American culture. 👍👍👍
@@swicked86 thank you. I had to rewind when I first watched it. I had one of those "hey wait a minute" moments. And yes, as the saying goes: the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Every time I watch this video it brings me great joy!! Just look at the kids' faces. No time for loafing, depression or selfies! Just plain real living. And the elders - together in the same room with the young'uns.
Yes ….I,ve watched it time after time. And not a mobile phone or an I-pad in sight. I was recently chairman of the Community Association in our village in Hampshire UK. The last barn dance/ supper we attempted to organise sold just three tickets. The days of this video seem well and truly over …..and it's very very sad.
@atomic3939 I am in England. This dance film, and the McKinney Sisgers singing " Nothing but the blood" must be my two favourite You tube videos. Both are just so much fun to watch. Have you been to England ?
@atomic3939 I am pleased to hear that those English people you have met have made a good impression. I am rather ashamed to tell you that I could not encourage you to visit my country at the moment. We are in political turmoil as we attempt to separate ourselves from the dictatorial European Union. It seemed a good idea to join this back in the seventies. Trade with Europe without customs and import restrictions would benefit everybody. But now we realise it was simply another attempt by Europe to make Great Britain a vassal state controlled by the EU parliament in Brussels. Can you believe that we are fighting for our independence here...!!!!! The England I grew up in still exists in the small market towns and villages .... but the large cities are fast coming under Islamic control ... seven cities with Muslim Mayore already , including our capital city! So if you decide to visit you will need a guide to show you what is left of an England that is fast disappearing. Our major cities should not be on your itinerary ! I live in the south of England where we are safe and secure for the moment. With luck I shall see out my life in the Christian country I grew up in. I fear for those young people just starting out on their lives ................
It must have felt like being in the middle of a hive of bees filming this! The caller, whoever he is, was mesmerizing! He could have been Fred Astaire with those moves! People from Appalachia have been unfairly stuck with the stigma of being inbred idiots. They're some of the most compassionate and loyal people you could ever hope to meet. It seems to me that they're wiser than most of the rest of us; they already know that kindness is more valuable than any material possession.
@@mascara1777 oh that's horseshit. Stop projecting. The vast majority of America realizes there are social issues in rural areas that need attention too. Opioid epidemic, financial help, disaster relief, etc. Stop feeding into the bullshit narratives that just continue to divide people. The loudest instigators are usually the idiots.
Aldo Raine as someone who grew up in Western Kentucky in tobacco, coal mine, and Bluegrass music country, it’s still alive, just not as popular with the young people anymore, sadly.
I cried when I saw and heard this..you took me back to my southern roots and home! They say you can never go back home again, but this sure made my heart sing!!!! How I miss those clogging musical days back home in Arkansas!!!! Wow! What a treat!
This is an African American dance with the calling being an African American creation. The music aswell has influence. Ps when people say non Africans have no rhythm it's in reference to such non African failing when attempting African artforms of dance and singing which today is basically all forms of American (north and south) music and their respective dances.
@@najma2613 I know this because I'm a descendant of those Irish immigrants. I'm a descendant of the ones who settled in Kentucky. Clogging is the state dance of Kentucky.
@@CraftyLadyLinda true. Original clogging is definitely Irish/English that's a fact. All the non traditional forms found in the apalachian version however is due to africans. Given these non traditional styles are only present in regions of apalachia where Africa Americans resided where the Irish English areas kept the traditional version hence appalachian "clogging" is often not clogging but either a fusion of traditional clogging and African dances or at times purely an African dance.
@Riastrad You just took my last comment and reworded it...wow. You did exactly what you claim you are't doing. Claiming another's work as yours. Oh well, racists never care for facts. They're hellbent on "defeating" anything african with their eurasianess as if theres even competition, truly eurasians fight a one sided battle with their own inferiority. you know the african identity of american culture isn't something to be ashamed of. If it bothers you go back to your original clogging ways and british folk music and leave the african stuff alone.
Amazing piece of documentry film. It captures something that i cant put my finger on, i'm English and feel a strong sense of kinship with these people and from the comments it seems a lot of others from the British isles and Ireland feel the same. Its strange because obviousley i have never met them but i recognize something in them and just know that we are from the same stock, and i know that America was built on the back of these nice, unasuming, hardworking people and feel a tremendous amount of respect. Its good to see them at play having a good time. Well done Mr Hoffman you have captured something here that although is a small fragment of time.........i dont know how to put it.....a small masterpiece, a true gem.
Glen: So true. I feel the same connection when I watch English, Irish and Scottish country dances, which were brought to America by all those stalwart people who built this country. Even today, dances like the Virginia Reel, Cumberland Squares and others remain virtually unchanged from their original versions. Recognizing these connections is a reminder that we're all connected on a much deeper level (DNA) to our cousins across the sea. For a VERY long time, we were encouraged to forget our heritage and that connection, but I believe in the not-so-distant future, our continued survival as a distinct people in this world will depend on us all waking up to it and supporting each other.
I'm just guessing, but it's likely that the connection between the clog dancing of the American Appalachian and Southern regions comes as directly from the Scots, Irish and English traditions as the music. The keystone work by John Jacob Niles, "The Ballad Book" (Bramhall House. New York. 1960.) in which he collected the rapidly disappearing music of the oral tradition of that area revealed tunes and lyrics that paralleled the folk songs of the U.K., from which shores these citizens had immigrated.
This film is just such a classic little masterpiece of country clog and carefree dance with young people with plenty of rhythm and talent and ENERGY❗💎 LOVE IT.💖🎶💎🎶
@@thomasoflaherty3520 So I guess the fact that the Protestant religion is dominant in the South goes completely over your head? I can assure you that people in places like Alabama, Georgia, Texas and countless other States were in those times extremely anti Catholic.
tony james yes, and this was true for Oklahoma as well. I was born in 1959 and there was a lot of anti-Catholicism. I was probably the only Lopez who was not Catholic!
As a buck dancer and clogger myself,,,,,,,I love it ,,,,,,and I feel it. But as a carpenter and a builder I am more impressed ! I have danced in several living rooms and great rooms with family and friends , but when you get four or more dancing in the same rythem , the floor joist flex and vibrations run up the walls ! We have to remove the pictures and other wall hangings from the wall,,,,,,,even the back side of walls in the room you dance. Just look at the wall hangings in this home , look at the number of dancers dancing out the rythem ! It's a struggle for me when it comes to dancing and well built structures cause it's hard to pick which I love the most ! From the heart of the Smokies , God Bless
I can't help coming back to this...Amazingly well filmed event. And the bobbed haired girls smile conveys the heart of all involved. Great piece of film making!!!
I am lost at words here. I have never been lost at words before. Just wow. I am not even from the west. This is so enlightening, People talk about how there is no culture and nonsense. They should really look at this beauty of a shot. Mr.Hoffman is there no end to your awesomeness. I am so grateful you started a RUclips channel. Thank you!
This is the story behind my 1964 clog dance scene - ruclips.net/video/vJB_HGdGfic/видео.html
thanks
Thank you David Hoffman. Where did this year's go were familys were familys and you saw the happiness on people face beautiful video.
Just realised I already commented on this Masterpiece 7 years ago .?? 🏆😂
Can you explain the editing process? This must've used multiple cameras since I see cuts to different angle. Was there an audio master that you just added the different footage to?
I guess since I grew up in east Tennessee I'm not as amazed as some viewers. You learned to do this shortly after you could walk.
Im from Ireland and my family and I are just amazed to see this ... because this dancing is very similar to our own .. the people in the video are doing what we call set dancing or SHAN NOS dancing .. spelled SEAN NOS in Scots-Gaelic language ...Ive heard about the cultural /blood connection between Scots- Irish and the people in south- Appalachia region in the States . there is such strong Scottish- Irish DNA in the melody of the music , the rhythm in the way they dance and move ..This makes me very proud to know that a part of our Celtic culture is alive and well in the United States.. God Bless to our American cousins X
Such a lovely comment. Much love to you across the pond, as well.
It’s Celtic based from the Scottish and Irish migration to the south. Some other forms “buck dancing” is even older. It’s closer with tap..
I live in the Foothills of the Appalachians in Virginia, everyone here is of scot-irish descent; all the music, dances and even a lot of spellings came from y'all. Bluegrass is my favorite genre of music, I grew up listening to it and let me tell you it's hard to distinguish it from Irish music.
@@oliecrone12 a lot of your words/spellings would be of scots origins since the earlier scots would have taken them over to amerikay. also fiddle reel music is indigenous to scotland. a few fiddle tunes in amerikay are scottish. your dance would have it,s origins in england, wales or scotland as these were amongst the earliest settlers. irish dancing never started until 1895 after scots workers invited 2 irish co-workers to a st andrews night ceilidh, ceilidhs being of scottish origins. the irish had their first ceilidh a few years later.woody guthrie and bill monroe both credit scotland with bluegrass , as does dolly partin. irish fiddle music was introduced to ireland from scotland. 100s of scots fiddle reel made there way to ireland in the late 1700s. irish music as we see it today only started in the late 50s early 60s(i,m auld enough to know)when bands like the clancies and dubliners appeared and adopted the scots style alang with many scots and english sangs. many modern scots sangs are mistakenly classed as irish also.
@@brucecollins4729 I agree with everything you said. My family was part of that early wave from Scotland, England and Wales, and fought in the Revolution. As new territory opened to the west, with each new generation they brought the music and dance with them, from the Carolinas, through Kentucky and Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, and Oklahoma. My 3rd great grandmother sailed here from Ireland in the 1850s.
I learned how to do this mountain clog when I was just a girl. Do not be fooled, it takes a whole lot of stamina to get through a whole dance! At age 76 I can only do a few minutes. It brings back great memories of a bygone era.
Kept you very very fit!
Dancing is such a joy and great for everyone getting together
Oh yes, you can definitely see that it is an aerobic workout, and such a wonderful way to do it!
I was wondering the whole time I was watching it how on earth they kept goin so long!
in utah clogging is still popular
Oh, I wasn't fooled a bit about the energy level needed! I'm sure it also took a lot of practice to perfect the moves and timing. I bet most of them started when they were half the size they are in the video.
Im bawling right now. My great grandmother used to have parties like this in her barn every saturday night with live music and dancing, i never thought i would hear or see something like it again for as long as i live. Thank you so much.
That is an amazing story about your great grandmother! Thank-you for sharing! 🥰🥰
I wish they still did that today
Why didn’t your parents continue the tradition?
We have let too much of our culture slip away. God I miss those days when family and friends came together on a regular basis.
Well you said to find some musicians a few people know how to do it proper floor maybe that same Barn and do it you might find some time to dancers that's very very similar but not quite as strenuous there's a big contradancing community it kind of fell apart during it doesn't take nearly as much skill and stamina as this does
contradancing
I watch this once a week, like a tonic, a vermifuge or an elixir, to keep my negative thoughts away. This is the BEST.
Never get tired of rewatching this.
I would have probably watched a lot in the summer in 2020 if I had known it was here.
So do I
@Dawkinsbulldog How can you tell they are the same dancers? The footage in that is too grainy and the camera is too for away for me to see.
I'm going to start doing the same. Love this music and video.
This is certainly a slice of old Americana at it's finest! How cool is this? The pretty little girls in their fine cotton dresses, the handsome young men. All of them, young & old, dressed in their finery for a night out at a party! Oh, that little darlin' with the bobbed hair, the sweet dimples, & a smile to melt the coldest heart, is just about the cutest thing anywhere! No zombie imitations, staring into the abyss, through the tiny screen of a cell phone! People, enjoying other people in fun & fellowship! A Joy to Behold, forever!
Loved watching this great music 🎵 and great dancing 🕺 😊
So true.
I have to watch this every once in a while to reaffirm my faith in humanity.
Me too.
Appalachia has largely lost this culture. Without a revival it will go. But it does persist in Texas somehow
Erm, this is from like 300 years ago.
Humanity became a fail since.
Sorry to scatter your dream ... .
@@Xogroroth666Ten confianza todavía habemos pocos seres humanos que sacaremos adelante por el bien de todos.
That little girl with the short hair and dimples just jumps out of the film....that's star quality.
And what a gorgeous smile!
That face, as they used to say, has "the map of Ireland written all over it."
She looks like Scout from To Kill a Mockingbird, doesn't she?
@@johnurquhart4614yes she does.
i wonder where that little girl is now?@@shaggydogg630
There are so many camera men and women throughout the years we owe a debt of gratitude for documenting moments like this ❤
Agree, from Denmark
I grew up with this culture and miss it dearly . Mom was the oldest of 8 kids , so our home was the meeting place every sunday. We were farmers ,so there was plenty of food and with 24 first cousins there was always music and dancing. There was no money , but we knew how to have fun . These people remind me so much of the most enjoyable time of my life. I am 83 years old.
You mean white culture . Sad we lost it all forever .
Ma'am we still around I'm only 30 and my young are growin in the same tradition as far west as Colorado
@SAJAG PARAJULI you welcome to join us at the jam
@William Muradasilova ohhhhh shut the fuck up lol idiot s everywhere
💃🏻💐
What makes this so special to me is seeing the adults and children both participating and everyone has a smile going on!
Yep the smiles I noticed that too.Dancing just does that to ya..Feeling down do a lil jig
Yes! The multi-generational aspect is also enhanced by Mr. Hoffman's brilliant eye as he includes the pictures of ancestors on the walls, and slides on down to a younger sister curled up in a chair.
The adults dancing with the children stood out to me too, because today that’s virtually impossible!
The youth used to get their culture handed down to them from the adults so naturally they would know the same activities! The adults would be proud that the younger generation learned what they taught and the youth would have joy that they pleased their parents and authority figures! The bond between them was strengthened and not easily broken! This by the way fosters courage, a love for previous generations and our history! That would enable the younger generations to have a national identity and quell any enemy that breaches our boundaries!
Today much of the youth create their own culture apart from the adults, they deride the previous generation’s culture, due to indoctrination from the state through a Godless, secular humanist neo-Marxist system! They are separated from the adults who they rebel against, the adults don’t understand them and there is a fragile bond at best that is easily broken if they are led astray!
@@superdude1759 Ya told it the way it is ........!
Singing and dancing is what the poor folks do for fun in the Appalachian's.
As a girl growing up with 12 aunts and uncles on my mother's side and 9 on my father's side, we had lots of family fun like this.
I was amazed at the reaction this wonderful video has gotten. Obviously it has been meaningful to lots of people for various reasons. In this video are three of my first cousins and one old friend. We are all in our sixties now and still live in Western North Carolina within about 25 minutes driving time from each other. We stay in close contact with one another. In fact, just last week we all got together for a Christmas celebration. The cute girl who was prominently featured is Mary Ann...she still has that sweet smile! Her brother Bill is a dancer here...as is our other first cousin, Sam. They were all very talented dancers! We watched this video at Sam's home during our gathering. This is a source of pride not only for these dancers, but for our whole family. All are doing quite well still...and all have had long-term, happy marriages and successful careers. As a side note...another of our first cousins was "Bonnie Lou"...of the singing duo, Bonnie Lou and Buster. They were pretty well known regionally for playing bluegrass/mountain music. They recorded several albums and hosted a television show for many years that was syndicated all over the South. Bonnie Lou and Buster were quite influential in promoting this genre of music and the associated "hillbilly" entetainment....long before the tv show "Hee Haw". We had other connections to this mountain music. Bonnie Lou and Buster were friends with and played/traveled with Mother Mabel Carter (a trailblazing icon in mountain/country music) of "The Carter Family". I remember my Aunt Jewel recounting how they all stayed in her home over night as they traveled thru Hendersonville, NC. Cousin Sam tells of meeting "The Father of Bluegrass Music", Bill Monroe...when he would come visit my grandparents on a regular basis many years ago. During my younger years I didn't know about any of this...and probably wouldn't have been suitably impressed if I had known. Now that I know what giants they were...it's a different story. Yep, we were and still are just down home folks...and have always been proud of our heritage. Thank you to all of the people who shared these kind and meaningful comments. Bless your hearts.
A beautiful message for the holidays Steve. Thank you for sharing. A lucky man you are to have lived in that magnificent Western North Carolina culture.
David Hoffman-filmmaker
Did you see how many people ask me to go back and update my original film. Would not be wonderful. I don't have the money to do it these days unfortunately.
Were the dancers performers?
Lovely, you guys certainly had lots of energy....love clogging, though could never master it, just linedancing! Thanks for the view, it lifts the heart...Jan from australia. Using hubbies log in!
All of the folks from that long ago day..seem to step across time, and into our hearts.Indelibly, forever. A deep, common chord was struck judging from the wonderful comments. I am especially pleased to learn how many of these people (Mary Ann Dimples..) are still walking (and, I hope dancing!!) among us. I was, let's see...in my teens when this film was made. I am going to be 70 next September. I have been watching the Library of Congress series also posted on You Tube, and it brings the point home - how important 'folk culture' (that term does not do it justice!) is to our country.
Thank you for sharing your great family history. I love Bill Monroe. I live in California and we have a great love of Bluegrass & country music & dance here. We have a giant Free Festival of music here every year for 3 days featuring Bluegrass and many other types of music in San Francisco out in Golden Gate Park. There I have seen to name a few: Ralph Stanley, Earl Scruggs, Willie Nelson, Emmylou Harris, Del Macory (spelled wrong) Doc Watson, Steve Earl, Dolly Parton, and many other famous musicians & singers. The billionaire businessman who paid for the Festival has died, but his family started a Foundation to keep this event going. His name was Warren Hellman, and he had a bluegrass group who played just for fun. He played banjo. The people of San Francisco & the entire Bay Area will be forever grateful to him for this event. It brings together thousands from all races, religions, ages, and countries to enjoy music together.
From a Frenchman, this video is incredible: all generations dancing together, a fabulous orchestra, a jewel of American culture... proud to have seen it!
Glorious. I love the spirit of the centuries of European culture which coalesced in USA
@@kachi9293 You haven't understood a thing! Yes, I'm proud to have seen a video I didn't know existed, proud to have learned about a tradition I didn't know existed, proud to see a people who have preserved the memory of their ancestors: did I say that French culture was better than that of the United States?
@@kachi9293I don't know the English word that expresses the feeling of having learned something that grows on you intellectually. The word proud should not be understood as arrogant, but as the definition I have just given. , sorry
@@jean-pierrecharpentier2546
Don't feed the Moron Troll. Let it starve in the loneliness of the wilderness.
{:o:O:}
@@kachi9293j’ai bien peur que Kachi ait raison ;)
I'm a 40 year old guy from northern Ireland. found this by accident and it's the best scene ever.. real music by real people.. can't get enough of this style right now.. someone grab me a banjo...😁😁
You want a banjo, I'm here in the USA, without Irish heritage, playing Irish whistles/pennywhistles/tinwhistles!
@@usernamemykel well I only went and got a banjo,lol.still picking away. I also happen to know an irish champion on tin whistle.
Lee Grissam
I enjoyed Joannie Madden with her Irish band “Cherish the Ladies” when they performed in Florida.
i'm sure Irish and Scots are responsible for this dancing in the USA.
That's interesting, I'm from Dublin, and when I saw these people dancing, I immediately thought of Ulster Scotts and I'm not sure why. There's an Ulster vibe about them but I can't put my finger on what it is. It looks a wonderful tradition and worth keeping.
I wish there were still dances like this today, I'm sick of night clubs, I'd much rather be taken to an old fashioned dance, seems like way more fun than going out and getting drunk.
Oh, I think lots of people went out and got drunk and those old time dance ... some of them, anyway ... !
Contra dancing is totally a thing now in many areas. I learned to clog in the 80s in Oregon. All up and down the West Coast you can find people who do this type of dancing.
Go to Marshall NC or any of the surrounding mountain towns. They still do this regularly. Better believe they're sipping moonshine
Contra dancing has made a comeback. It's easier than clogging but very similar. There might be one in your town. They have live musicians like this usually.
kara, what? no twerking?
I'm from the Highlands of Scotland, and I am totally smitten by this video. The sheer joy of the dancers is palpable. Although all the dancers are truly wonderful, the young couple who feature most are absolutely unforgettable. I've never been to rural Appalachia, apart from the bluegrass music, this dancing could have come from a square set from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.
Wonderful!
Bob Massie
Scots/irish my friend. That's their roots. Northern ireland Presbyterians. Their ancestors are still there in County Antrim, Down, Fermanagh etc.
@@peterdarnley7115 you forgot Wells my Celtic Earth brother.🤠
hi,, shane here from ireland.. i used to be an irish set dancer back in the 90's.. i love this video and sadly irish set dancing is almost extinct too,,.. shame.. my set won the lenister twice and manchester international set dancing.. great memories.. i'd be out raving on a saturday night and then of to dance in competitions on a sunday morn,,, lol.. best of bought worlds..
Reminded me of the Gay Gordon dance a bit.
Fantastic, I could not stop smiling
This is what's missing in society today people of all ages getting together and having some good clean fun.
Exactly .
Absolutely 👍
We have good clean fun quite a lot and so do many of the people we know. Get up and make it happen.
Happy folks.
Nothing's more fun than group dancing like this. I used to go contra dancing many years ago. Its very similar to square dancing except easier. It's so much fun you can't stop, and you wind up feeling like your legs are going to fall off a couple of hours later LOL. Drinking or eating is beside the point. All they had were some sodas and bottled water. I never had so much fun!
No drugs just laughter and smiles makes makes my heart soar
IOt looks so much fun
Probably not a drop of liquor in the house 🤣
Surely you could not do this without taking drugs😂😂😂😂😂😂
I love when people pretend alcohol isn't a drug 😂
drugs arent the issue in 2024. its that everyones hating each other on the internet.
I loved this time when people got together as a community and just enjoyed simple wholesome entertainment. Now families just sit around and stare at their smart phones, how sad we are now.
Rose-colored glasses. I was around back then and we were doing the same thing, except TV & comic books instead of phones. Conversely, you’ll find many small-group music/dance sessions today if you seek them out. I’ve photographed many in the Cigar-box guitar & folk community
We stare out our smart phones watching people having fun in other times and places.
I'll send this now to my kids in Moscow.
@@BenSussmanpro it's not rose colored glasses. It is a scientific FACT that society has declined drastically since the introduction of smart phones and social media. and it's by design, doing exactly what it was meant to do - and that is drive a wedge between people in their local communities. look up Active Measures - if you were around back then you might already know what that is...
and you should feel ashamed of yourself for going along with it.
Comic books didn't have neverending doom scroll features, comment sections where you could injure the reader, or spew hatred. television actually had standards and moral lessons.
NOT the same. you can't possibly look at today and say it's no different.
Yes, yes we are. I have tried in vain to find groups to connect with. I am Liberal but I live in a very conservative rural area and the only group activity is Bingo at the Catholic church hall on Wednesday night. Kind of stationary. I have to drive way out to get to any other activty. Meetups are lame around here, mostly groups related to dog owners.. or painting miniatures.. over 20 years ago I participated in Contra Dancing that happened every week.. It was loads of fun but they moved away and I was told it was "expensive" to hire musiciians (can't we just have recordings?) Folks just don't want to do this stuff anymore.. I mean some do, but mostly it is like pulling teeth.
this was a pre-orgy workout.
That young lady at the beginning with the lovely smile and dimples. I bet she grew up to break a few hearts. Great to see them enjoying themselves
Indeed. Her thumbnail-pic makes watching the vid irresistable. Imagine being her ... "are you filming me? Oh, no!" And then she was the star :-)
We need this type of social dancing and gatherings to learn how to build community again
@@cooldiscodan1992 so everyone can stand around and film it on their phones....
Wee cutie pie!
that young lady at the beginning looks like the girl next door, so to speak anywhere in the USA back when. i hope she has had a great life with her husband, kids, grandkids, etc. she would be ~ 70 now and my age. looks like everyone in the film enjoyed themselves.i'll bet there was a food feast afterward. WNC people are very cordial and believe in eating and love get-togethers like this film.
In 1972 my family moved to Virginia-I was nine years old, and there was still clog dancing nights we would go to in our neighborhood. It was in a big public hall and people were not self-consciously trying to make a traditional place-it was just people enjoying themselves and the fact that it was old-fashioned meant nothing compared to the pleasure of being there and either observing or learning to join in. I wish old-fashioned things weren’t always treated as narrow minded things.
I agree !
The man at 2:39 is Bascom Lamar Lunsford, a man who devoted his life to recording "mountain music" he was a man who never received any laurites for what he did but the world of music owes a great deal of gratitude too.
Thank you John. I completely agree. But you did read my description I hope.
David Hoffman filmmaker
3rd cousin, twice removed
I'm totally captivated by the smile that the girl gives at the beginning. How wonderful it all looks.
She looks like she could be Jennifer Garner’s mom
She looks like a little pixie. Those dimples though lol ❤
Yes !
I wonder where she is now?! She looks about 15 in the pic so would have been born around 1950 so would be about 73 today if she's still alive. Would be great to hear her memories of this...
Yep, that's part of our beautiful America before cell phones - chat groups.
My heritage- my people. Proud of where I came from. Look at those wholesome young people!
Some years after this video has been uploaded, and the state of the world looking pretty grim here in 2022, I find myself hoping that this will soon be the way family and friends come together again. Clean and wholesome! THAT'S entertainment! Thank you for such a wonderful video depicting the true heart of America!
I understand completely. Life used to be simple and fun.
Well said. The world is a crap show now
Forget about getting together again with all that internet cell phones and games they don't even have time to say hello
It might look peachy on the surface but this generation had its problems too. Imagine the civil and racial strife, a President, Attorney General and civil rights leader assassinated before everyone's eyes in the space of 5 years, the unrest at home caused by the Vietnam War and division between the generations as well as political parties.
This wasn't the true heart of America for black citizens and virtually any other minority. women were still considered second class citizens and Native Americans (those who survived anyway), were hoarded into reservations.
Families all have the same problems through the generations as well. That's something that never really changes. As far as media and being phones, this generation was up in arms about wasting time on "television!", the previous generation was up in arms about "radio"!
I'm not saying things are good now, they suck. But let's not romanticize a time that actually never was, either.
No, I'm not "woke", and I will have choice words for anyone who describes me as such, trust me. I'm simply telling the truth - and if the truth is too "woke" for you, you just don't know enough about history.
But God bless them, that does look like an awful lot of fun.
But you can we have the freedom
to be different now and go live as we please. Start it up. Amish do this, roll out.
If the US ever gets to host the Olympics, something like this should be performed during the opening ceremony. It's an incredible part of the US's heritage that the world needs to see.
Now it would be criticized for being too white and some sort of symbol of oppression :( It is sad to see where we have gone as a culture.
It would be considered racist. Wouldn’t be Lebron James approved
Right, its like we never see white faces on TV or representation in D.C. The times I just think, If only people could walk a mile in my 50 yr, old middle-class white guy wing tip shoes....
@@Troutdreams Judging by the paragraph you just wrote, walking in your shoes is something no man should have to do.
@@mountaindew7190 Oh my god the whining here is so loud it’s drowning out the fiddle in the video. Stop feeling sorry for your white selves. It’s time to grow up. America is comprised of many cultures. Just because yours is criticized now and then for its absurd belief in racial supremacy does not mean the world is coming to an end. Did you know that the banjo played in this video came from the Black community? Did you know that much of this music genre bluegrass has major Black influences? This is American and Southern culture at its best and I love it. Throw the Confederate flag in the trash. Give me this all day.
My Scots-Irish Grandpa taught me this dance. It's been 50 years and I can still hear him saying "shuffle-hop-step, shuffle-hop-step" while helping 7 year old me try to keep up. He loved to dance like this, and spoke often of when he was young and they would all get together at his grandmother's house in the evenings. The uncles would bring their fiddles, banjo and harmonica and they would all sing and dance late into the night.
You can still hear him ?? check the auto playback on your tape recorder 😂
My great grandfather used to dance in the pubs after a long day's work my grandmother told me tales of how he and her mother would both dance. I say it's where my love of tap comes from - grandparents are precious 💖
I’m a city girl, but my husband’s family from Appalachian roots. His line runs WAY back into original Virginia settlement and colonies. I love watching these things and appreciate the skill; both the music and dancing.
A mandolin would complete the bluegrass sound here. Also the harmonica player could definitely lay back a little and let somebody else lead. (Just a musician’s perspective. I’m not trying to be a jerk or whatever)
Стоит телевизор, и никто в него не пялится. Замечательное времяпрепровождение! Музыка, общение, танцы - живая проявленная жизнь.
I’m Black and 65 years old. We did this in 60s at our May Day or and it was called Square Dancing. And we had on skirts with can can sips under it to make the skirt stand out. We was having fun!
Yes its funy music, you must know i from the Netherlands. I live there 44 year, than 8 year Portugal and i year Spain. At this moment return too Portugal. Villa nova de Cacela.
Its great music.
*@JazzyRedTalk*
Bless you and your family for keeping this music alive!!
@@donarthiazi2443 you gave me an idea I will work on getting some kids to Square Dance on my TV show coming soon!
@@TheEdwin1961 This was good clean fun!
@@TheJazzyRedTalkShow
I wish you the best of luck! And kids need more exercise so this is a great way to get them moving.
Again, best wishes and good luck!!
Every blessing to my brothers and sisters across the pond!
God bless them 🏴
Bless y’all too from across the pond. Shoutout from a Scott Irish ☘️ 🏴 Appalachian American. We never forget where we come from!
No joke. This culture has heavy Scottish roots.
I think their Scottish heritage might have actually been what mainly distinguished (and/or separated) them from the rest of the East Coast American culture, leading them to migrate to Appalachian region in the first place.
@TexasPROUD yeah, but I'm talking about waaaay back; mid, maybe even early 1700's.....when Florida was still held by Spain, Louisiana by France, and much of the in-between was still getting tossed between the two...
BeardedScotsman - Blessings to y'all too from Texas! So proud of my Scot -Irish Ancestry!
Love this footage, will always cherish it. The cute girl with the dimples is my aunt and the young man at :45 is my father.
I hope they're peeking in from time to time and enjoying their fame.
BJ Laughter Hi. Can you provide more details on your aunt, Mary Ann?
You should be very proud. I´m sure you are.
Who's the boy dancing with your aunt? They're adorable together.
BJ: come on BJ there is a lot of people wondering about your family. Can you please provide an update.
My dad's family is from the mountains of NC. It's not just the dancing, but the music as well as it reflects its roots with the Scotch-Irish people. I recently visited Inverness and went to a hootnanny. It was a HOOT! I loved it because of its connection to Bluegrass.
This is a video of American heritage. This is what Americans lived for before technology. The real American way
We fuck in front of people but we hide it with dance in 2010s and up
Make America Great Again!!!
This is what the corporations took from us. All of us.
I think clog dancing was popular in a certain region, coming down from Ireland, where the folks had emigrated from. My family was in deep French south...no clog dancing.
Hold on there Bucko, real American, are you forgetting The Scot Irish roots of this dancing style? I guess there are some Cherokee and German steps in there too but me being an Irish musician see the predominant Irishness of this beautiful dance, made better of course by these incredible folk :)
They barely broke a sweat or were breathing heavy. Most kids today would die if they did that dance even 5 minutes. Even the old folks were getting into it. I was definitely impressed.
Not a single one was overweight - quite a contrast just looking around today.
@gertibell
"Even five minutes"? Though I agree with you, the video is only six minutes long and the kids danced for only the first half of it.
@@lisahinton9682 they didn't film every second back then like people do now. They probably danced many times over
People have no energy today because the food is fake, the water has no ionisation, and the corporate world is too greedy , city life is very toxic unless you live in the best neighbourhood.
They're definitely not lazy people lol. These were hard working folks. Tough as nails
This reminds me of my hillbilly roots. I was raised in California and took a lot of demeaning and hurtful comments about my family history from some cruel and ignorant people. My mother's family had a radio show in the area of Melbourne Arkansas in the late 30's and early 40's . They were known as the kidwell family. My uncle's and cousins were amazing musicians. My aunt Lucille was the singer and was known as the Arkansas queen. Unfortunately some of them lost their lives in WW2. My aunt Lucille is 99 years old. My uncle Leroy was the last musician. He could play anything with strings. These people made fun of us as hillbillies while I was growing up as if we were stupid rubes. Our children have grown to be successful in business. Law and are wonderful people. My aunt Lucille is still living. I'm proud of my hillbilly roots. I think I'll call my aunt Lucille and thank her again first for the legacy she left for us "ignorant" hillbillies
There are those of us who appreciate the cultures of others.We can learn from you.Keep the faith you have a beautiful talent.
In
I grew up on a farm in Africa with my grandma.. simple living, simple life.. living in Europe now and this reminds me of simpler times with dirt on my feet down by the creek. I think it's loverly
Yours is a great story and very interesting .I enjoy the simplicity of life.People can be cruel.But I enjoy the cloggers and there are times when I just watch them and listen to the bluegrass music.And just seeing how happy they are And it makes my day. My grandmother raised me.And gave me a strong Spiritual foundation.And her tombstone says, "She found good in everyone .I'm from upstate N.Y small town.I hope you do not think we are all like that. We can learn from each other. God bless, God speed and keep the faith Amen
Aunt Lucille would probably love to see this video
Im here in Scotland. Im older and the country has changed so much. The American cloggers are brill in my eyes. They sure know how to make their connections to the motherland felt. I wish they would all come back here and cheer the place up.
It would take more than an inbred low IQ yank to cheer up the sweaty jocks. You are what you eat, less deep fried food might help with your depression levels.
Fellow Scot here....I feel the same way. We need some clogs, my friend. Clogs, music and a smile.
Watching from New Zealand. Greatly heartened to see people in a community getting together and having good wholesome fun together and building marvellous skills in musicianship and dance along the way. This is what real human communication looks like and it’s great to see. Wonderful and full of wonder 😊👍
When the world made sense.....
Watching from New Zealand too...
Christchurch ❤️
Yep. How come New Zealanders don't keep up the old traditions? Have some folks over on a Saturday night and cook up a neighbour? 🙄😱🙃
Auckland here and I agree
Back then there were no smart phones, few B/W TV channels and most homes had only a single corded phone. The thing to do was to get together with friends to dance, chat, laugh, play ball in the streets and maybe board games. Sadly those days where people needed each other are mostly behind us. Today's youth doesn't have a clue what they are missing..
Exactly because they didn't have these gadgets, families used to have 5, 6, or more kids. Without entertainment, all they could do was have kids, go to church, drink until they passed out, physically abuse their wives and kids, etc. Do we still have that today? Yeah, but with smaller families...
I’ve been watching this video for years. I can’t help but wonder what happened to everyone, especially the younger kids. The oldest girl is absolutely beautiful, and the short haired girl with the dimples is adorable. Honestly they all are. I saw a few videos of the lead dancer in his older years. So glad you captured this on video, hundreds of years from now people will still be loving it.
Check out the post by Steve Simpson 5 posts above yours. He was part of this family and gives a lengthy update!
I wonder about them too! Such lovely and happy people.
Amen brother. Same here. I’m gonna checkout homeboys post, but I really hope that they lived well and had a buncha o kids and raised em up right. ❤. Much love. I hope that they made it.
My family just recently discovered this video. The short haired girl with the dimples is my grandmother! I can't speak for most of the people in this video, but she's still alive and well, and near 70 years old
@@KRvira Oh my god, She's nothing short of adorable! Her smile! Tell her a stranger in Texas says hello!
Made my heart burst. Thank you for showing the depth of Americana. 🇺🇸
Mountain music is very similar on many continents......Mountain music from the Appallacians carries the joy and weight of Celtic history
I watched this 3yrs ago...AND IM SEEING IT AGAIN AND IM JUST AS ELATED!!! The young lady at the very begining has the sweetest smile.thank you for this.
My peeps. The most resilient people in the USA.
God bless Appalachia.
Pronounced Appa-latcha, of course!
Good Ulster Scots stock!
Amen!
I'm from Iceland and I took a DNA test this summer and I'm getting many people from this area coming up as 4th to 5th cousins... still trying to figure out how as they don't seem to have any Icelandic roots... but these faces and their spirit look like family ;-)
I am from the North West of the UK and in the eighties I remember dances like this. What a small world
This whole video is fascinating, the music, the people, the dancing... People entertaining themselves instead of sitting waiting for the next special effects.
And the videographer in the mirror!
no netflix 🙂
Mountain folks work hard to get food out of rocky hillsides. They develop extended families and kinship with the community. They play hard in order to balance their lives
Where's the clogs ? Nobody's wearing clogs.
I keep coming back to this video, it lifts my spirits 🍀
I love this video... the second cut, when you can see that they're actually shaking the furniture with their footwork, and then 1:56, when grandpaw is snoozing away; the smiles; the banjo picking; the old couple tapping it out; the little kids watching... whoever filmed this had such great eye for detail. Lotta joy in these few minutes.
The filmer picked out all the relatives! Brilliant film-making.
The filmmaker was David Hoffman. It’s a wonderful film.
And of course the young man with the newfangled electric guitar playing with the seasoned veterans on the acoustics!
My husband plays the banjo 😊❤
The old couple tapping it out were only THE Mr Bascom Lamar Lunsford himself and I believe his second wife Freda.
He was the mover and shaker that Mr Hoffman contacted, and arranged to take Mr Hoffman around and show him a great deal of the musical and other culture of rural Appalachia. The Man.
This put a smile on my face. Reminds me of Saturday nights at my great grandma's house during the summer. The 'boys' (her sons) would bring their music (instruments) and play while aunts, uncles, cousins, all clogged or 'buck danced'. My mom would harmonize with her sister and one of her cousins to sing some old bluegrass. Those were the days. :)
Anidara Lopez: Saturday nights must have been something else at your great grandma's home. I am curious of one thing, though. Where did you get the last name "Lopez".
@@marielongoria6714 Perhaps she married a latin?
@@DutchmanAmsterdam You have more common sense than I did when I first posted my comment. The night I posted it, I remember thinking that Anidara Lopez must be related to the dancers in the video. But I have absolutely no idea why I thought that. The video was made almost 60 years ago! Pretty absent minded of me, huh?
David Hoffman your work is a national treasure
Not sure how to check if it already is, but it should be in the Smithsonian.
I wonder what happened to them all, especially the little lady with the gorgeous smile and dimples at the beginning? If anyone from this film is watching it would be absolutely wonderful if you left a message!
I wondered the same thing. It would be nice to see how those kids of that day turned out.
I don't know WHAT it is about this video. I'm into hardcore punk rock but this dancing and music is mesmerizing! I'm sure I'm not the only one who watches it regularly. I probably watch it at least once a week. Absolutely fascinating and enjoyable. Causes a longing for family, love, fun, and dedication to one's talent & hard work ethic.
That was my reaction exactly. I never get tired of this video, it really is hypnotic. I wonder if those three million-plus views are the same three thousand people who've watched it a thousand times each! And I wonder whether the dancers had any idea that they would still be enthralling a worldwide audience half a century later.
Crooked Halo, listen to what your heart is telling you...You see it in this video.
Family love and remembering your past and honoring your ancestors and traditions.
After all, without great effort on the part of our ancestors, we wouldn't even be here.
That is what is captured in this video and you feel it and so do I.
Peace my friend.
i completely agree,as mountain folk we would usually follow this with pray and some gospel songs,all singing together made us feel even closer.then home to pass out lol
Crooked Halo - it's lovely and does bring to mind all these fine qualities of life!
ps- I was a teenage punk rocker 40 years ago lol
Crooked Halo Me too! I watch this video when I need a lift. It represents a simpler time with clearer, cleaner values.
My people. My mountains. The heart of the mountain folk is music, the good Lord, tradition, and love. This video makes me long for days gone by.
My God, it's a Norman Rockwell painting that moves.
My daddy was born and raised in Kentucky , in the country. This is how they had fun. I don’t know how they learned but somehow they did. And play instruments. Violin, well , fiddle, mandolin, bass guitar. The big ones that you payed standing up.and sing, Oh my, they could sing. Berea Ky. Has a great fall gathering every year In October . Thus still goes on😄
That's a good way to put it.
My gosh, it is!
Very witty comment Roger.
That comment should be in the Smithsonian along with this video..
Those were the innocent days. And the little girl smiling with the dimples is so cute and just adorable ❤️
No such thing as the innocent days but yes it's a lovely moment captured ❤
really, i once read a book about a police detective that worked from the late 40's until the earyly 70's. and what he describes was not innocent at all. it was brutal. society has always been brutal that thin red line we mankind cross all the time isn't new.
It's like a piece of history captured forever.
The title says "Best Bluegrass Clog Dancing Video Ever Made" and nobody could possibly disagree with that,
Trancelvania100 . Thank you for your comment. Actually, I got the title from a RUclips comment where someone suggested I should use that title because this old clip from my movie deserved it. I did, and so far no one has objected to it.
David Hoffman-filmmaker
+Trancelvania100 Agreed...Awesome to watch this...The young girl in the plaid skirt reminded of Scout from To Kill A Mockingbird.
David Hoffman Any chance in identifing any of these people?
These people are totally and utterly beautiful.
Ah, the world was a better place when it was not lived in a television set.
A remarkably simple statement which sums up what was right about yesterday and what is wrong about today.
I was born on Inishmore, the largest of the 3 Aran Islands, off the west coast of Ireland. I recall as a boy in the 60's and through the 70's in our village hall each Friday night was step dancing, all that you see on this video took place. Men and women dancing together in a pair, under the arches, in a line and the emphasis of the feet always keeping rthymn. The musicians were fiddle players and the most revered of all, an accordion player. Such as well took place in people's homes. I now live in England and since my returns there from the 90's onwards sadly the old ways are dying out; this form of community dancing to even the Irish language not being spoken as much due to the effect of the outside world now living there and not choosing to learn the language. This, however, is a wondrous video and I can see and hear the Irish ancestors who headed to that part of America there. ps. If anybody loves wild islands, where the silence is deafening and the beauty serene head west, to The Aran Islands (all 3 of them), Ireland and find your peace.
is there room on Aran for American retirees?
My Grandad and his people came from coastal Ireland, settling eventually in Illinois, they became farmers and I remember the rolling up of the rugs and "cutting a rusty" is what he called it. He used to do calling, I can still dance like that when I get some liquid courage in me. I live in Maine now, a green, green place- where your soul can play it's song.
Hey Thomas, I've been to two of the three Aran Islands. In fact I've been several times & took my (youngest) daughter twice to Ireland, and my son once. They both loved the Islands. We went to the Pub & sang rebel songs. I adore Ireland & have been 7 times. I am Irish & Italian. My Ma is Irish. There is a revival of Irish language with kids & adults learning to speak Irish at summer schools in the West (the Gaeltacht) so it will not die out.
therealtoni There are a few British retirees their, didn't encounter Americans though . In truth, with the island being but 9 miles long and 6 miles wide it is not spacious for many people to live and also the island is made of stone ie no trees barely present. Dark, cold and wet in the winter, beautiful in the summer. The other 2 Aran islands Inishmann and Inishere are even smaller!
hooleyqueen Irish AND Italian!! Now THAT'S a dangerous combination lol! Agree ala language, with the young especially seeking to want to learn it. My parents came to England in the early 60's and were native speakers from the island of Inishmore, my mother told me both me and my brother spoke only Irish in our early years on arrival in Englandl. Sadly they did not speak to us in the language as we grew up in England and we subsequently lost it. I did try to learn it here in England but found it impossible and know the only way is to return to the west of Ireland.
That is pure down home Americana. Keep it alive!
A blessing to my soul!
Please don't forget the Welsh. My mother was English, Scottish, Irish, & Welsh and she could clog up a storm.
Exactly. This is the real America
@@juliavernon306 There are a million 'real' Americas, that's what makes it great. Maybe a few miles from this there is a different gathering of people playing blues or jazz music, or any of countless cultures within the US. This in particular only represents a small part of the country.
These dancers are the salt of the American earth.
And these boys and their Scots-Irish ancestors were the finest soldiers this country ever produced.
It's always Scots Irish, the Welsh were in the thick of it as well, but not mentioned so much, where would you have been without the Tredegar iron works, just saying.
Watched dancing like this many times when I was around 8 years old , cant remember much earlier than that except when I knocked out my 2 front teeth running on my first day of school. My parents would take me to the rooster fights Saturday morning where my mom sold homemade sandwiches and a soda to the men for 15cent and then later that evening sometimes we would travel around the mountain to meet others and watch and listen to the music. Sometimes my dad wouod even take his own fiddle with him and then is was church on Sunday as always. Life was very hard back then, but as kids we had no idea it was hard, we just enjoyed everyday,
just amazing I'm from the north of England we do traditional clog dancing here. We have different types of clogs different areas different styles for different Jobs. The steps are very similar. Up until recently I was able to listen into US Saturday night radio shows and so pleased to see these traditions are still being kept up and not lost. l often tune into the library of Congress exploring, listening. I liked Connie Dover explaining Irish/Scottish influence. Thank you for posting very grateful.
They probobly do this more in the south east where this was filmed. Living in minnesota near Canada i've never hear of clogging. Definately the highest density to scots-Irish is in south east United States.
"Song of the Mountains" on PBS is one of the best for bluegrass. Tune in Saturday nights at 8 or 9 EST.
I return to this so many times for so many reasons. For me this footage is so very important. Not just to show American culture but to clearly identify the influence of Irish and Scottish jigs and reels.
Then to see the impact upon the lives of those generations of Appalachian folks is amazing..even now.
Their love of the music and the steps has kept the dance alive. Worthy of the Smithsonian if that’s where the culture of the US is to be recorded and retained. Quite quite wonderful.
It's English clogging and English jigs.
Not so sure about that my friend. This dancing cane to England due to the Irish diaspora and clearly is seen in the places where the Irish settled
@@stephenmcginn6872 There's no tradition of wearing clogs in Ireland, girls tapping their clogs (English clogs wooden soles leather uppers) to the beat of the looms, started to spark their clogs on the cobbles in northern England, step dancing was done all over the British isles, every inn in England had a plate and every area it's own steps, there's no evidence the Irish step danced before the rest of the British isles, try tracing 'Irish dancing' back before the 1920s as it's done today.
hetrodoxly sonov . No Irish dancing before 1920!!! Yer kidding? Well agree to differ
@@stephenmcginn6872 No i said see if you can trace Irish dancing 'in it's present form' before 1920, the 1790-1810 census shows the vast majority of settlers to the Appalachians were English, followed by Scottish, some households state Scottish and English, Welsh and English, 10 Welsh households, 8 German Household 1 French and no Irish.
These people are all so happy ☺️ this is how life should be. Enjoying fun experiences with family and loved ones ☺️ I LOVE this❤
Unfortunately all was ruined by the arrival of Tv . . . ! That's progress for you folks. 🤔
Yes Jennyb. 100% Agree 😀 the GOOD OLD DAYS YarHoo 😃.
SLIGHTLY better than staring at a phone...
Превосходное видео ! . . . Спасибо , вам за доставленное эстетическое удовольствие ! ! ! ( танцевали с удовольствием и от ДУШИ ! )
i keep stumbling across this clip again and again and it is amazing. the faces, the music, the dance, the rattling walls, so beautiful. i have been playing at old time and bluegrass festivals for 40 years and i got to thinking, "where are they now?". those youngsters would be in theirs70s and 80s now, and i wonder if i've seen them or played music with them over the many years in VA., NC, WV. . i wish i knew their names! really enjoy your work!
Two of them were actually commenting in this very video comments (this White Buffalo video).
Mary Ann Morgan (dimple-smile girl). And Kay Orr, she described her as the lowest girl, dancing with the guy with glasses. All beatiful girls.
I am an African American from down south I love clogging and blue grass best I ever seen on this video how old is it
Read the description please.
David Hoffman - filmmaker
Mamie It was recorded in 1965.
@@themermaidstale5008 Thank you I was wondering what year this was recorded.
It was a happier, healthier and saner world then!
For some.
I don't think that making such absolute statements about life and the world in the past are necessarily correct or helpful. It is easy to prove that for many the world at the time was a miserable one, full of bigotry, open racism , discrimination and certainly with it's own brand of insanity.
But I wholeheartedly agree, that something essential, which is present in this footage has departed our world. Having a group of kids and not a single one of them is obese or even overweight, kids who have the physical stamina that is befitting their age, the communal feeling, old and young, playing music and dancing together, boys and girls encouraged to enjoy each other's embrace in dance, There is so much that following generations at great loss will never experience.
No obese people in this video. The girls knew they were girls and the boys knew they were boys.
I could watch this for hours! The dancing, the spectators, the musicians, everyone is enjoying it a different way. If I was there I’d be smiling ear to ear! This was so great! 😍
That makes two of us
Amy, I do watch it for hours cumulatively, like twice a day every day. It's just so wholesome, happy and good old family values. Who needs aerobics? I see the one-eyed TV monster in the corner, but then they used to know how to balance life in those days. Additionally, we all focus on the marvellous dancers, but without the sheer virtuosity of these musicians, it would not have been so very, very special!
I still can't explain it. I'm a New York/Miami city guy with a thick Brooklyn accent. I simply can't explain why this music moves me. I'm drawn to this magical stuff like a moth to a flame. Just some of the best music I've ever heard. I Thank God that this part of America is still alive and well.
JC I agree GOD bless you and America!
I dont know if it is still alive. I had some cousins clog, but I'm almost 40 and I dont think their kids clog. 17 18 years ago I did some contra dancing because it was making a comeback, but I dont think there are many families doing this anymore. (I'm from kentucky)
Memory of a previous life maybe ?
I love this! And I can't believe all this is being lost.
You can really see the influence of Scottish and Irish ancestry.
@C caymer To be more exact, those people came from the kingdom of Dalriada, which
covered the eastern part of County Antrim(including my namesake Island Magee)and the western seashore of ´Scotland´(Hebridean Islands like Skye, Mull of Kintyre and others). Very rich Gaelic country - that´s where the powerful music and dancing comes from!
@C caymer I think the commenter was being general about the origins of the people in the film, but I agree with you. I think a lot of people don't know that Catholic Highlander Scots (persecuted after the Reformation) and Irish (mostly Catholic) were not welcome in the almost entirely Protestant United States.
I believe that of Elvis 🕺Elvis has great taste in music 😃❣️🕊️🔥✝️
Yeah, I don't think there's much of s chance of completely loosing these elements of culture. There's a clog dancing club right at the University where I worked until very recently.
Clogging is not exclusive to the Scots and Irish, it's traditions are from all over the British Isles.
I never get tired of seeing the joy in the faces of the most beautiful people in our country ❤️ ♥️ 💕 😍 💛 💖 ❤️
Excellent! Pure Scots-Irish Appalachian culture. A national treasure. Thanks for posting.
I wonder if these dancers have Scottish ancestry?
@@violetbennett2407 probably quite a lot.
@@violetbennett2407 Likely many of them had English, Anglo/Irish and Scots/Irish roots. Many Appalachian place names derive from England or native Indian tribes. But its a rich culture and melting pot. Hope it still survives todays world of high tech.
@@gray3553 also scots roots.
@@violetbennett2407 This part of the country is know for having a lot of Scots-Irish people
When the soul shines through, they become beautiful.
Only vibrant young folks can dance like that full of energy for so long. Love the young ladies...every one of them is beautiful.
Wonderful dancing and violin play. How I wish society was more wholesome like this again.
My mothers aunts still do this type of dancing in the Ozark mountains. They're 80 years old...
Arkansas!!! Or Missouri?
I live in Ozark, Missouri and my famous great grandfather was Fiddlin' Sam Weatherman. He played for all the dances . . .
@@annetta7793 Hey Annetta this is my other youtube account LOL ~this is Foggy OU812. i remember singing rounds to songs like Whispering Hope and singing 500 Miles, Old Blue, so many old folk songs so precious! Had great old reel to reel of these shindigs but unfortunately in '94 the closet we kept all memorabilia got taken away in a big tornado but the rest of the house was pretty OK. Just in the kitchen all mom's recipes in a little 5 by 3 note card container got swooped away too LOL it was like that tornado knew the things that were the nearest and dearest to my heart. Frank Jones could play Yankee Doodle Dandy and The Star Spangled banner at the same time on his banjo ~one on the drum and one on the arm! It was more jaw dropping than my dad doing the two-step on his hands LOL :) Nice to make acquaintance! i live real close to you too! Just north of Branson! Would love to meet you! i like to swim at Table Rock Dam and at the low water bridge in Walnut Shade off of 176 on Goodnight Hollow Road low bridge over Bull Creek! We should have a meet up. I play the guitar some and can harmonize a little too.
@@foggyozarkgal348 Wow, you have a great memory if you can still remember the songs you sang! Yes, that even hurts my heart that the tornado took those things from you. I still have the card holder with my Momma's and Grandmother's (they farmed, and taught school, for many decades in Shannon County, Mo.) recipes. But I never learned to cook like them. They had to have been some of the best country cooks around!
Yes, we must live within a few miles of each other. I'm up for getting together. But how and when?
My grandfather played the fiddle and his sons played banjo, guitar and mandolin. Loved going to his house when the instruments would come out, the music started and everyone was dancing just like in this video. My dad was the best of the bunch and my mom would finally give out and find a seat and he would dance with me and my sisters. So glad I grew up in Kentucky (close to Ashland).
Brings a tear to my eye when I think of what this has been replaced with. It wasn't just the music that changed.
True Bluegrass at its best and great dancing.Thankyou for this.Just great.😊
This is great. I'm in the UK, but in the 50's and 60's my mum and dad used to play accordions for various bands, along with a bit of organ playing and piano. It takes me back to a time where human beings connected together much more, in small communities. Compared to today, we've fallen a long way.
That was pretty cool. Unknowingly, we used this step in the late 80's in NYC while dancing to house music. This is wild. This video could be paired to a classic house beat and it would go perfect. Never let this die out. It's part of the classic American culture. 👍👍👍
I love that you were able to correlate this with step!
Nice to see someone else noticed how much closer everything is together than different.
@@swicked86 thank you. I had to rewind when I first watched it. I had one of those "hey wait a minute" moments. And yes, as the saying goes: the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Does the step have a name in house dance?
@@alicequayle4625 great question. I cannot remember off the top of my head.
Every time I watch this video it brings me great joy!! Just look at the kids' faces. No time for loafing, depression or selfies! Just plain real living. And the elders - together in the same room with the young'uns.
Yes ….I,ve watched it time after time. And not a mobile phone or an I-pad in sight. I was recently chairman of the Community Association in our village in Hampshire UK. The last barn dance/ supper we attempted to organise sold just three tickets. The days of this video seem well and truly over …..and it's very very sad.
@atomic3939 It warms my heart to hear you say that. Do you live in that area ?
@atomic3939 I am in England. This dance film, and the McKinney Sisgers singing " Nothing but the blood" must be my two favourite You tube videos. Both are just so much fun to watch. Have you been to England ?
@atomic3939 I am pleased to hear that those English people you have met have made a good impression. I am rather ashamed to tell you that I could not encourage you to visit my country at the moment. We are in political turmoil as we attempt to separate ourselves from the dictatorial European Union. It seemed a good idea to join this back in the seventies. Trade with Europe without customs and import restrictions would benefit everybody. But now we realise it was simply another attempt by Europe to make Great Britain a vassal state controlled by the EU parliament in Brussels. Can you believe that we are fighting for our independence here...!!!!!
The England I grew up in still exists in the small market towns and villages .... but the large cities are fast coming under Islamic control ... seven cities with Muslim Mayore already , including our capital city!
So if you decide to visit you will need a guide to show you what is left of an England that is fast disappearing. Our major cities should not be on your itinerary ! I live in the south of England where we are safe and secure for the moment. With luck I shall see out my life in the Christian country I grew up in. I fear for those young people just starting out on their lives ................
I have watched this video 100 times and can’t get enough. Great genuine people, beauty in their hearts and culture
Right at the start...that young girl's smile.......that there is worthy of watching this all on it's own.
I come back and review this video every now and then just to see her once more. 🥰
Track her down
It must have felt like being in the middle of a hive of bees filming this! The caller, whoever he is, was mesmerizing! He could have been Fred Astaire with those moves! People from Appalachia have been unfairly stuck with the stigma of being inbred idiots. They're some of the most compassionate and loyal people you could ever hope to meet. It seems to me that they're wiser than most of the rest of us; they already know that kindness is more valuable than any material possession.
Amazing - lovely to watch - America should celebrate having these kind of individuals and their culture. They are so talented.
Amen❣️
Tell them😃
🕊️🔥✝️
What are you talking about? Country music is the most popular genre of music in America, and Bluegrass/folk isn't exactly obscure.
@@mascara1777 oh that's horseshit. Stop projecting. The vast majority of America realizes there are social issues in rural areas that need attention too. Opioid epidemic, financial help, disaster relief, etc. Stop feeding into the bullshit narratives that just continue to divide people. The loudest instigators are usually the idiots.
The question I have is why did this disappear? How did this stuff stop being a thing?
Aldo Raine as someone who grew up in Western Kentucky in tobacco, coal mine, and Bluegrass music country, it’s still alive, just not as popular with the young people anymore, sadly.
Thank you David Hoffman for preserving this beautiful history.
I cried when I saw and heard this..you took me back to my southern roots and home! They say you can never go back home again, but this sure made my heart sing!!!! How I miss those clogging musical days back home in Arkansas!!!! Wow! What a treat!
And they say us white folks ain't got no rhythm..........HA!
This is an African American dance with the calling being an African American creation. The music aswell has influence.
Ps when people say non Africans have no rhythm it's in reference to such non African failing when attempting African artforms of dance and singing which today is basically all forms of American (north and south) music and their respective dances.
@@najma2613 actually, it is a style of dance brought over by Irish immigrants.
@@najma2613 I know this because I'm a descendant of those Irish immigrants. I'm a descendant of the ones who settled in Kentucky. Clogging is the state dance of Kentucky.
@@CraftyLadyLinda true. Original clogging is definitely Irish/English that's a fact. All the non traditional forms found in the apalachian version however is due to africans. Given these non traditional styles are only present in regions of apalachia where Africa Americans resided where the Irish English areas kept the traditional version hence appalachian "clogging" is often not clogging but either a fusion of traditional clogging and African dances or at times purely an African dance.
@Riastrad You just took my last comment and reworded it...wow. You did exactly what you claim you are't doing. Claiming another's work as yours. Oh well, racists never care for facts. They're hellbent on "defeating" anything african with their eurasianess as if theres even competition, truly eurasians fight a one sided battle with their own inferiority. you know the african identity of american culture isn't something to be ashamed of. If it bothers you go back to your original clogging ways and british folk music and leave the african stuff alone.
Amazing piece of documentry film. It captures something that i cant put my finger on, i'm English and feel a strong sense of kinship with these people and from the comments it seems a lot of others from the British isles and Ireland feel the same. Its strange because obviousley i have never met them but i recognize something in them and just know that we are from the same stock, and i know that America was built on the back of these nice, unasuming, hardworking people and feel a tremendous amount of respect. Its good to see them at play having a good time.
Well done Mr Hoffman you have captured something here that although is a small fragment of time.........i dont know how to put it.....a small masterpiece, a true gem.
Glen: So true. I feel the same connection when I watch English, Irish and Scottish country dances, which were brought to America by all those stalwart people who built this country. Even today, dances like the Virginia Reel, Cumberland Squares and others remain virtually unchanged from their original versions. Recognizing these connections is a reminder that we're all connected on a much deeper level (DNA) to our cousins across the sea. For a VERY long time, we were encouraged to forget our heritage and that connection, but I believe in the not-so-distant future, our continued survival as a distinct people in this world will depend on us all waking up to it and supporting each other.
Mr. Parker, I believe you expressed it most eloquently.
I'm just guessing, but it's likely that the connection between the clog dancing of the American Appalachian and Southern regions comes as directly from the Scots, Irish and English traditions as the music. The keystone work by John Jacob Niles, "The Ballad Book" (Bramhall House. New York. 1960.) in which he collected the rapidly disappearing music of the oral tradition of that area revealed tunes and lyrics that paralleled the folk songs of the U.K., from which shores these citizens had immigrated.
@@L1623VP I was going to say, that's truer than you know... But you know.
Glen Parker I know exactly what you mean. I grew up in this time, not where they are but in East Texas. Same kind of folks, same heritage.
This film is just such a classic little masterpiece of country clog and carefree dance with young people with plenty of rhythm and talent and ENERGY❗💎
LOVE IT.💖🎶💎🎶
The spirit of what made America the greatest country on earth is right there in these peoples faces, fantastic. Englander.
The Ulster Scots
@@slantsix6344 Irish actually
what makes America the greatest country on earth ... such shite
@@thomasoflaherty3520 So I guess the fact that the Protestant religion is dominant in the South goes completely over your head? I can assure you that people in places like Alabama, Georgia, Texas and countless other States were in those times extremely anti Catholic.
tony james yes, and this was true for Oklahoma as well. I was born in 1959 and there was a lot of anti-Catholicism. I was probably the only Lopez who was not Catholic!
As a buck dancer and clogger myself,,,,,,,I love it ,,,,,,and I feel it. But as a carpenter and a builder I am more impressed ! I have danced in several living rooms and great rooms with family and friends , but when you get four or more dancing in the same rythem , the floor joist flex and vibrations run up the walls ! We have to remove the pictures and other wall hangings from the wall,,,,,,,even the back side of walls in the room you dance. Just look at the wall hangings in this home , look at the number of dancers dancing out the rythem ! It's a struggle for me when it comes to dancing and well built structures cause it's hard to pick which I love the most ! From the heart of the Smokies , God Bless
I didn't think about this but it makes sense. Probably the best "stage" there is for this type of dancing. You can feel it even through the video.
My mother was an excellent buck dancer/clogger. Our Irish/Scottish blood is strong ❤lol
How fun!
They know how to party! Cant be mad or sad listening to bluegrass
I can't help coming back to this...Amazingly well filmed event. And the bobbed haired girls smile conveys the heart of all involved. Great piece of film making!!!
I am lost at words here. I have never been lost at words before.
Just wow.
I am not even from the west. This is so enlightening, People talk about how there is no culture and nonsense. They should really look at this beauty of a shot.
Mr.Hoffman is there no end to your awesomeness.
I am so grateful you started a RUclips channel.
Thank you!
Thank you Salf.
David Hoffman-filmmaker
Strangely, I am vastly proud at this moment of my Southern American roots. That was wonderful.
I don't think it's strange at all. You have a lot to be proud of!
I am from the UK and think the music and dancing is brilliant.