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ARTS

The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, September 13, 2000 - 9

Vather of
Losngeles Times
So this musician died and went to
heaven, Richard Smith tells us,
recounting a joke that went around
-Nashville in the 1980s.
'During a tour of paradise, he and
Peter were passed by an imperious
r-haired figure, dressed impecca-
n a white suit and Stetson and
ng a mandolin. 'Who was that?'
excaimed the new arrival. 'Oh, that's
God,' replied St. Peter impatiently.
He thinks he's Bill Monroe.'
=his story gets at the heart of
th's biography of Monroe, "Can't
-Hear Me Callin'." Its subtitle --
e Life of Bill Monroe, Father of
uegrass" - correctly nails down,
r anyone who still had doubts, the
.'ns place in music history. But it
'so underscores the relationship
Smith has to his subject, and indeed
theopinion of most of the people who
kgew or heard him: Monroe was a
That's the Old Testament variety,
superhumanly strong and wrathful as
tI as life-giving and capable of mir-
Oees. If you had any other god before
him, you didn't have a prayer. He
BETTY
Ooftinued from Page 8
and constantly on the lookout for
0r. Ravell, the two hit men are
gaining ground and emotional ties
to the case.
It turns out, Charlie (Morgan
*eeman), develops a whimsical
ove interest in Betty. He tries to
figure her out while developing a
certain pride in her character. Char-
Iie's love interest balances out the
bizarre love triangle that evolves
throughout the film.
Somehow, when Betty finally
ies George McCord, the actor
that plays Dr. Ravell, he is not
kithtened by her unwavering belief
he is, indeed, his television
character.
Intead, McCord believes Betty to
bt a dedicated and talented method
0e1tr that is trying to land a part on
the soap opera. And suddenly
0etty's reality becomes the film's
reality.
Amidst all of the confusion.
Renee Zellweger pulls off an out-
standing performance. We never

Bluegrass
took liberties, social and sexual as
well as professional and instrumental.
As for a spiritual son, plenty of them
- including both of Monroe's actual
children - passed through his leg-
endary band of Blue Grass Boys, and
it was a trying gig indeed.
These are the themes and variations
of this portrait of that rare being, a
single inventor of a revolutionary
musical genre. Monroe, and the per-
fectly named "high lonesome" sound
he created, was fundamental to what
came after, as everyone from Elvis -
who chose Monroe's "Blue Moon of
Kentucky" for his first single - to
Jerry Garcia, who traveled cross
country to audition for him but was
too scared of his idol - has attested.
Bob Dylan once said, "I'd still rather
listen to Bill and Charlie Monroe than
any current record. That's what
America's all about to me."
So, too, for Smith, a mandolin and
guitar player who knew Monroe
toward the end of his life, and for
whom this book is clearly a labor of
love. This accounts for both the
tremendous strengths of his biogra-
phy and its weaknesses. One of
Smith's missions is to clear up the
doubt that her psychoses are real.
While most of the tire the audience
pities Betty, it is not the kind of pity
evoked from seeing someone who is
truly mentally unstable.
Instead it is pity that is oddly
mixed with a sort of w arm fuzzy
feeling. These mixed emotions are
entirely due to Zellweger's perfor-
mance - it is both chipper and
poignantly real.
Similarly, Morgan Freeman and
Chris Rock are a great duo. Chris
Rock is funny as hit man who loves
his job and Freeman plays an intro-
verted and thoughtful hit man very
well. So, what is wrong with this
creative, well-acted comedy?
Unfortunately, it lacks sparkle. Its
pace is too slow and takes too long
to develop.
There are numerous road scenes
that drag on and cannot even be
lightened up by the occasional joke.
In addition, because the film is so
far fetched it becomes difficult to
lose sight of the ridiculousness of
the story. Overall, the film ends up
to be a lot of hype and does not live
up to its expectations.

Bill Monroe
myths about Monroe's career, some of fell awa)
which were spun by Monroe himself, the Do
lie dismisses once and for all the music,
speculations that the bluegrass sound hardly b
was not Monroe's own: and he care- Bill wer
fully maps the feud between Monroe band, pl
and sidemen Lester Flatt and Earl coveted
Scruggs, who splintered off and, for a startedi
time, eclipsed their mentor entirely. safe groi
Clarifications aside, Monroe's life There
still has all the ingredients of a fairy mortal r
tale. A shy boy whose left eye turned changed
inward, he spent his childhood hiding an old-ti
from his older siblings and taunting ly circu
neighbors on the bustling family farm folklor
in Rosine, Ky. But nearly everyone brought
around him played an instrument - dom of
including his gifted mother, Malissa revival,
Ann; the Uncle Pen whom Monroe's most ex
songs later made famous; and a local bandlea
black laborer named Arnold Shultz ten entir
who was said to be "one of the great- The b
est blues -uitarists who ever lived"- America
and young Monroe, playing by ear about al
because of his poor vision, quickly railroad
became an adept. the Opr
Monroe and his brothers Charlie radio sh
and Birch formed the Monroe Broth- money
ers, and began touring the South on musical
the kind of grueling rural road trips depth a
we can hardly imagine today. Birch story of

profile(
iy, leaving Bill and Charlie as
rsey Brothers of country
so competitive they could
e in the same tour bus. Then
nt solo: He formed his own
ayed on the radio and got a
spot on the Grand Ole Opry,
making records and left the
und of country music behind.
he stayed, several feet above
musicians, until rock 'n' roll
everything and he became
imer, relegated to the hillbil-
it. If it hadn't been for the
ist Ralph Rinzler, who
Monroe into the second star-
the late-'50s and '60s folk
one of the 20th century's
citing instrumentalists and
ders might have been forgot-
ely.
ook is an incredible tour of
an musical history. It's just
I here, from songs sung on
tracks, porches and fields to
y and laxative-sponsored
ows. to electric guitars, big
and music videos. Smith's
expertise adds technical
nd valuable context to his
Monroe's life; he explains,

in newI
for instance, the history and archi-
tecture of the mandolin and the
innovations of Flatt and Scruggs'
finger-picking in simple, helpful
terms. And one is constantly
reminded, through portraits of Mon-
roe's influences and acquaintances,
how many brilliant musicians have
never been recorded and are lost to
history.
It's distressing, for that reason,
that the women and children in
Monroe's life remain - despite
Smith's intention to dignify them -
so oddly two-dimensional. Smith
spends more time going over tax
records than he does on the charac-
ters and motivations of Monroe's
wife, Carolyn; his true love and
muse, Bessie; or his two children,
James and Melissa. The careful
reader will find one clue in Smith's
acknowledgements, in which he dis-
closes that James (Monroe's only

biography
living child) declined to be inter-
viewed and is writing his own mem-
oir, but for a book so interested in
the emotional landscape of its sub-
ject, this seems an unjustifiable
omission.
As for the writing, it's no "Last
Train to Memphis," but it suffices.
Smith takes a colloquial approach
to much of his narrative, which
blends nicely with Monroe's Ken-
tucky cadences. This sometimes
allows for unfortunate tangents, like
the astrological sign of Monroe's
main romantic rival, or Smith's
strenuous psychologizing of events
and relationships that speak dramat-
ically, and tragically, for them
selves. "Can't You Hear Me Callin
" is a biographical cherry pie, a fill-
ing of sweet anecdotes and sour
enmities in a light and flaky crust.
But for fans of American music, it's
a treat you won't want to pass up.

12001 MEN'S LACROSSE

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INFORMATIONAL MEETING
Wednesday, Sept. 13
7:00 p.m.
CCRB, Room 3735
Call 622-9942 or email modo@umich.edu with questions
www.umich.edu/-menslax

Courtesy of USA Fims
Ign Freeman and Chris Rock star in the latest USA Films release, "Nurse Betty."

44
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