Folklorist Alan Lomax threw a house party at his New York City home in 1961 to fete the folk musicians -- Roscoe Holcomb, Clarence Ashley and Doc Watson -- in town for a concert thrown by the Friends of Old Time Music. He wanted to mix it up a bit and invited blues musicians such as the songwriter and bassist Willie Dixon and the pianist Memphis Slim as well as the young interpreters of Appalachian music from the Northeast, the New Lost City Ramblers.

The party was filmed with the hopes of a British television broadcast, which never occurred, making the screening of "Ballads, Blues, and Bluegrass" on June 19 at the Grammy Museum its world premiere. The screening is part of the Los Angeles Film Festival.

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