Wild Frontiers

For those of you trying to chase down Into The Wild Frontier, Season 2 has recently posted on Youtube.

I provided commentary on Episode 4 on Jim Clyman’s epic 600- mile survival trek in which he kept his scalp but lost his hair, and on Episode 6, depicting Kit Carson’s duel with the French bully Choinard. I also provided commentary in Season 4, which should premier pretty soon.

Really enjoyed both shots working with Warm Springs Productions and Supervising Producer Samuel K. Dolan, whose books on law and disorder in the U.S./Mexico borderland are first-rate.

*

Another frontier doco that has been hard to track posted on Youtube last week: Eric Swanson’s The Siege of Fort William Henry.

Fort William Henry was a British fort on Lake George, the New York frontier, during the French and Indian War. In 1757 a French army of 9,000 men, including almost 2,000 of their American Indian allies, laid siege to the fort. Over several days the French cannons bombarded the fort, while the Indians harassed the men in the adjacent encampment. After 6 days the siege came to an end. The British and colonials in the Fort and adjacent encampment flew the white flag and surrendered. The following day the Indians attacked the surrendered British troops in what has become an infamous massacre. These events inspired author James Fenimore Cooper to write The Last of the Mohicans. The siege of Fort William Henry being the backdrop to his novel. This film recounts the events through journals and letters of men who were at the Siege. A report from Colonel Joseph Frye, the Journals of the French General Montcalm, his aide de camp, and many others bring the historic events to life. Hear the story from men on both sides of the Siege of Fort William Henry.

 

*

Took in some mighty fine picking last night at The Belfry as the Sisters Folk Festival presented AJ Lee & Blue Summit.

Aside from a smokin’ rendition of New Riders of the Purple Sage’s Glendale Train, my favorite piece was AJ Lee’s original The Pirate Song.