Beats of the Heart: Chase the Devil: Religious Music of the Appalachians (1983)

• 76%
• 1983
• Documentary
• Jeremy Marre

Religious music of the South Appalachians covers a wide panorama. At one extreme, the fundamentalist Baptists regard any music as "the devil's work," and at the other end the Holiness Church centers the fervour and intensity of its services on hard driving, highly rhythmic music. This film focuses on the exuberant preaching, singing, gyrations, and rituals of the Holiness Church, including footage of enraptured holiness members "speaking in tongues" and handling poisonous snakes as part of church services. Chase the Devil also captures many other aspects and byways of isolated mountain music and culture, such as the haunting archaic religious balladry of Dee and Delta Hicks and Nimrod Workman, the old-time banjo playing of Virgil Anderson, the fiddle-band stylings of the Roan Mountain Hilltoppers, a traditional baptism in a river, and a visit with an old recluse who communicates with Jesus via a broken auto antenna.