'The High Lonesome Sound: Kentucky Mountain Music' explores the lives of Appalachian mountain people in a depressed area of Kentucky through spiritual and folk music. Shows how the poverty-stricken people maintain their traditions and dignity through their music. A religious evangelical church congregation gathered by a river under railway tracks for a ceremony. Men, women and children among the crowd. The church preacher sings gospel while wading in the water. The congregation joins in. A Christian baptism ceremony, possibly pentecostal or charismatic, takes place as a women is immersed in the river. Several women jumping and flailing in celebration. Sound of rail cars filled with coal moving on tracks. Coal Miners seated in mine cars at a coal mine. People sit outside a building on a street. Cars pass by. The men talk. In Daisy, Kentucky: An old house amidst wooded mountains. Hens around the house. Roscoe Holcomb, an unemployed construction worker and musician in Hazard, Kentucky, on a swing at the house. A spider in a large web at the house. Holcomb plays the banjo and sings 'Across the Rocky Mountain' (example of Appalachian music and bluegrass influence). Clothes hang on the wall by a bed inside the house. A bed side table between twin beds, a lamp in the window, a banjo, wardrobe, and clothes by the window. A single stalk of corn. Clouds over the mountains. Miners at work. They carry small boxes. Coal Miners seated in a coal mine car as it enters a tunnel. Light of the car as it disappears into the tunnel.
The lives of Appalachian mountain people in a depressed area of Kentucky, and how they cope with poverty and maintain their traditions and dignity through music. Farmer Shepherd's family house in Old House Branch, Harlan County: Women by the window of a house look out. Farmer Shepherd and his daughters walk up the path towards the house. A dog follows them and barks. Farmer Shepherd, who works in the big company mine, waves as he approaches the house. The family seated inside. A girl with a kitten. A boy plays the banjo and sings appalachian folk music or bluegrass. Framed pictures on the table. dog on the patio, path leading to the house. A girl on the path, a boy milks a cow, women and young girls peel corn cobs. A woman lays the table, girls with cats enter the house. Pictures on the wall inside. The family seated for supper. They eat and talk. Utensils hang on the wall. They put away the utensils after the meal. Daisy, Kentucky: Unemployed construction worker, Roscoe Holcomb walks up a path with his family. They approach their house amidst the mountains. Holcomb works on the farm. A woman dances to music with a little girl. People on a dance floor dance the twist to the tune of a band playing in the background.