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Welcome to the Club: The Women of Rockabilly General Admission Tickets: $12
SCREENING OF “WELCOME TO THE CLUB: THE WOMEN OF ROCKABILLY” AT ARLINGTON’S REGENT THEATRE ON THURSDAY, APRIL 7 TO BENEFIT NEW CARTER/CASH MUSIC DOCUMENTARY About Beth Harrington Beth Harrington (Producer/Director) is a Boston-born independent filmmaker, transplanted to the Pacific Northwest. She has been writing and producing media work professionally for 28 years. Her most recent independent production was the Grammy-nominated Welcome to the Club: The Women of Rockabilly, a feature-length music documentary about the pioneering women of rock and roll. The film, narrated by Rosanne Cash, aired nationally on PBS stations and at film festivals throughout the world. This film marks Beth's first foray into combining her two loves - film and music - since, in a previous lifetime, she was a rock & roll singer, most noted for her years as a member of Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers (Sire Records). At Boston's Documentary Guild, she worked as a line producer and associate producer on various shows for PBS, among them programs for NOVA, FRONTLINE and THE HEALTH QUARTERLY, in addition to two PBS specials. These shows have been honored with a number of awards, including a Peabody (Dating in the Age of AIDS) and two National Emmy nominations (In The Path of a Killer Volcano and Apollo 13: To the Edge and Back). As an independent contractor for Oregon Public Broadcasting, she has developed and produced a number of new shows for national broadcast, including Digital TV, one of the first HDTV offerings on PBS?s inaugural night of high definition broadcasting, and the two-part series, Aleutians: Cradle of the Storms for PBS and Natural History New Zealand. Her focus is often on media work that looks at American folk traditions, ethnicity and religion, including three films about her adopted neighborhood, Boston’s North End. Among these productions is her award-winning creative non-fiction? film The Blinking Madonna & Other Miracles, a personal story of the filmmake’?s brush with a miracle/media event of her (inadvertent) making which aired on PBS stations in 1996. Background for April 7 benefit film screening – Arlington’s Regent Theatre Contact: Cathleen O’Connell Tel: 978-430-9469 About Welcome to the Club: The Women of Rockabilly Their stage antics were sassy, bordering on aggressive. Their vocal styles featured distinctly "unladylike" growls, hiccups and moans. Their lyrics spoke of parties and hot rods, flirtations and teen angst. To say that women such as Wanda Jackson, Brenda Lee, Janis Martin and Lorrie Collins were ahead of their time is a gross understatement. Uniquely American artists, yet loved by enclaves of dedicated fans the world over, these were the women of rockabilly music, rock and roll's country cousin. For a few brief moments, they burst onto a predominantly male scene with an unprecedented musical message of female assertiveness. They not only bucked the staid notion of what was appropriate to sing as a country star, but they also rejected the models of post-war femininity that were being marketed in the wider culture, models of suburban wedded bliss and a return to "traditional" motherhood. Some of these women were part of a natural evolution in country music, others were the product of calculating music producers looking for a Rockabilly Queen to Elvis Presley's King. Although their day in the sun was short-lived, many of these women perform today and speak with pride of a time when they were genuine trailblazers, personifying an exuberance, sexuality and defiance that was burgeoning in the music of 1950s America. Welcome to the Club - The Women of Rockabilly is their story. * * * * * Welcome to the Club: The Women of Rockabilly has been seen throughout the U.S. on public television, beginning in 2002 and has screened at numerous film festivals. It was nominated for 2003 GRAMMY award and won a 2002 Cine Golden Eagle Award. It was funded by the Independent Television Service, The Pacific Pioneer Fund, The Wellspring Foundation and Artist Trust. "Packed with tales of oppression, born-again Christianity, romance, divorce, second chances, and foot-stomping, barn-burning rock 'n' roll, the documentary Welcome to the Club - The Women of Rockabilly is as captivating as any episode of Behind the Music." - Nylon "Most thumbnail sketches of '50s rockabilly make it look like an exclusive club of young, wild men...But filmmaker Beth Harrington knows better...Harrington clearly states her argument: These and other rockabilly women made raw, powerful music deserving of more recognition, both now and then." - Country Music magazine "......a rockabilly girls' Mount Rushmore come to life...” - RockabillyGirls.com Background for April 7 benefit film screening – Arlington’s Regent Theatre Contact: Cathleen O’Connell Tel: 978-430-9469 About The Circle Still Unbroken This feature-length music documentary interweaves two important stories. One thread is the story of the Original Carter Family -- their music, their struggles, their triumphs and their commitment to family -- and their often misunderstood but undeniable effect on the shape of American popular culture. The other thread relates the story of the current day Carters/Cashes who have kept the memory of this trio and their musical legacy alive and who view this task with a strong sense of ancestral responsibility. The film will include interviews and scenes featuring current Carter family members who continue to live in Hiltons, Virginia, and who, for thirty years, have played on a weekly basis at the Carter Family Fold, a country music stronghold. It will also highlight the work of John Carter Cash, the son of Johnny and June Carter Cash, a Nashville record producer who maintains the tradition through a series of Grammy-honored collections of Carter songs. The film will include moments from the ?Unbroken Circle? recording sessions with artists like Johnny and June Carter Cash, George Jones, Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Del McCoury, Rosanne Cash, and others. The scenes in Nashville and Hiltons will illustrate how the present generation continues to honor the music and yet operates under the very real weight of this task. Produced in association with the Center for Independent Documentary. Funded in part by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities.
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