One of the earliest documentaries on Folkstreams, To Hear Your Banjo Play was described by Stu Jamieson, a participant, as an “information film” made for the U.S. State Department. Alan Lomax wrote its script to frame performances by a very young Pete Seeger, interlarded with others by Woody Guthrie, Baldwin “Butch” Hawes, and several other unidentified folk revival musicians. Traditional performers also appear in the film. Bluesmen Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee back up Woody Guthrie. They are the best known musicians in the film and the black song "John Henry" the best known American ballad. Two white Virginians Lomax had recorded for the Library of Congress are also in the film-Texas Gladden and the blind singer Horton Barker. Gladden sings most of the British ballad "The Farmer's Curst Wife" and Barker a bit of "Wondrous Love," here with others oddly harmonizing by ear.
The film closes with extended footage of folk-revival dancers in New York City. This dance group was founded in 1934 by Texas-born Margot Mayo, whose father was president of the college that became Texas A&M. The film does not identify the square-dance caller, but we know it is Robert “Stu” Jamieson. He published a 13-page account entitled “The Old-Time Kentucky Running Set” in which he tells of calling the dance in this film. He says, “Call timing is a cinch if the caller is also dancing.” But for the filming “in 1947 there were no FM mikes. If I called while dancing, the recorded volume varied too widely. So the director, sound man, and cinematographer insisted on my standing still, on a chair, on the sidelines, while the skilled members of Margot Mayo’s American Square Dance Group danced either with Margot leading the figures, or leaderless. Call timing was a very tough job, especially since I had to prerecord the entire sequence of calls in a recording studio, then had to ‘lip sync’ for the camera while the Group danced for the camera to the recorded calls.” In his account of the dance Jamieson included calls he often used for it. This helped us to transcribe the sound track. But each performance was unique and Jamieson knew many calls, so a number of them in the film remain difficult to catch. His account does clarify, however, that the basic structure of this dance is “a series of petty circle calls sandwiched between two sequences of grand circle figures.” Jamieson says, “For dramatic reasons, and to inspire dancers and musicians who are feeling the drawdown of energy from what could easily be an unbroken fifteen to twenty minutes at high speed, I like to place the fanciest, most elaborate and spectacular grand circle figures near the end.” We see that in this film.
It is the speed that gives this dance its name. “The old running set,” he says. “was danced at very high speed, using short steps, with the ball of the foot carrying the dancer’s weight in contradistinction to the usual heel-and-toe stride. At very high speeds, such as at 165 beats per minute, the dance is less strenuous…. At lower speeds dancers tend towards the normal stride, causing extra effort. The faster running set dancers seem to float, and glide along.” The film includes, then, evidence of the importance of dance in the folk revival movement. Jamieson’s booklet is further testimony to this, as is the website on which it is available, The Square Dance History Project.