I've visited FolkStreams at least once a day since learning of its existence and have been amazed at the quality and scope of its documentaries. In addition to Welcome to Spivey's Corner, I recommend watching the newly added Hamper McBee: Raw Mash, "a candid portrait of the Tennessee ballad singer, story-teller, and part-time moonshiner Hamper McBee," Blues Danceparty: Music, Dance, and Stories by the Masters of the Piedmont Blues, in which you'll watch really amazing musicians reminisce about "old-time houseparties in North Carolina and Virginia," and any of the other great films on offer. Each documentary is more educational than the next, and the more I watched, the more I realized how important it is to preserve these depictions of increasingly rare pockets of American and Southern culture.
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I discovered FolkStreams, an online repository of Southern and American folklore films and documentaries, last week while catching up on Jim Thorpe's great outdoors blog,
Cold Splinters. Thorpe did a post on Welcome to Spivey's Corner, Kier Cline's 1978 documentary about the national Hollerin' Contest held each year in teeny tiny Spivey's Corner, North Carolina. (In case you're wondering what "hollering" is, this 17-minute film offers rare insight into and examples of what many believe to be one of the earliest forms of communications, originally used by rural populations to convey messages over long distances.)