Speed Bumps on a Dirt Road is a live document of the founding fathers and mothers of country music. John Cohen shot artists at home, backstage at public events, from the wings at fiddlers' conventions, in country music parks, and in the studio for live radio show performances and recording sessions.
Back in 1961, a few of America's original country performers from the 1920s and 1930s could still be found. John Cohen, a well-known and acclaimed musician and artist, grew up in the crossroads of old time and early bluegrass music, a historic convergence of traditional and folk music. Cohen toured the country, performing, recording, and documenting a generation of musicians that would shape American music and culture for decades to come.
Cohen shot historic images of performers including Bill Monroe and Doc Watson, the country's first all-bluegrass event, and a bluegrass bar in Baltimore while traveling between the Union Grove fiddlers' convention, the Grand Ole Opry, and a mining celebration in Hazard, Kentucky. Old time music is presented as the foundation of country music in Speed Bumps on a Dirt Road.