ALWAYS BEEN A RAMBLER

(ARHOOLIE DVD) 4 stars

It’s fitting that The New Lost City Ramblers, whose oft-stated mission for more than 50 years was to bring back alive accurate versions of old time country and other roots music (and, sometimes, the original artists themselves) before they disappeared, should have their own story and music this well-traced just as they reached what turned out to be their own last stand.  With the recent death of Mike Seeger,  the outfit memorialized by the Grateful Dead as “Uncle John’s Band” are no more.  So this well-paced and revealing hour-long overview of their history, accomplishments and impact is also a last full-group testament, via interviews with Seeger, John Cohen, Tracy Schwarz and early member and co-founder Tom Paley, and late performances caught at the 2007 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. (“We’ve been accused of playing these songs exactly as we learned them,” Cohen quips on-stage. “Well, I learned this one sitting down!”)  Excellent archival footage of the band and the older acts they fostered (Clarence Ashley, Roscoe Holcomb, Elizabeth Cotton) mixes easily with latter-day reminiscences, and contemporary performer salutes.