>>America's Heartland is made possible by....

The United Soybean Board , America's soybean farmers and their checkoff.

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And by the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture dedicated to building greater awareness and understanding of agriculture through education and engagement.

Hi, I'm Sarah Gardner.

We're taking you cross-country this time for some very special music from the heartland.

We'll introduce you to bluegrass legend Rodney Dillard, singer/songwriter Jewel, country music star Michael Martin Murphey, and some other folks who combine their creative talents with their love of farming and ranching.

It's all ahead on this special edition of America's Heartland .

♪ You can see it in the eyes of every woman and man ♪ ♪ in America's Heartland living close to the land.

♪ ♪ There's a love for the country ♪ ♪ and a pride in the brand ♪ ♪ in America's Heartland living close, ♪ ♪ close to the land.

♪ >>American music has played an important role in rural life for centuries!

♪ ♪ >>And today you'll discover North Carolina farmers who find pleasure in creating bluegrass music.... ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ >>....as well as Arkansas farmers who raise their voices to sing a hymn as they dedicate a new silo.

♪ Nearer my God to thee.... ♪ ♪ Nearer my God to thee.... ♪ >>You can't talk about real American music without touching on the themes of hardship and emotion that come from those who make their living on the land.

And that's true on this family farm in eastern Missouri.

It's home to a man who's made music his life but now has come back to the farm to reconnect with his roots.

♪ ♪ >>Rodney Dillard may be more comfortable with a guitar in his hands than tools for working the land.

But after four decades of traveling the country playing bluegrass music, Rodney is happy to add an additional career to his repertoire: entertainer and farmer.

>>I'm doing it for my children, my family, and my grand kids.

I want them to have that opportunity.

I want them to be part of a farm that's been here over a hundred years and to at least get a piece of that in this day and time where nothing is really tangible.

We have a throw away society.

I want them to experience that other side, to give them the strength, and maybe to deal with later what might be happening.

We get some trees out of there.

We'll get some lumber out of this, huh?

>>Rodney's not the only person who's ever gone home to the farm.

Lots of folks raised in rural areas move back to the land after another career music or otherwise.

Working the land has tangible benefits.

But it's the intangibles that he says are the best part of coming home >>That is the most difficult part to explain.

It's like trying to put sunlight in a bottle or going out and taking pictures of a rainbow with a black and white camera.

It comes from within.

And I believe it comes up from the soul and the spirit.

It's comforting.

It's peaceful.

It's real.

♪ ♪ ♪ It's been ten long years since I'd been home.... ♪ >>The Rodney Dillard success story dates back to the 50's when trying to make a career choice.

And frustrated with college, he focused on what seemed natural in his life.

>>My first early imprinting memories were of my mom and dad playing music, and my uncles.

And being a kid, you don't realize that we all just thought that was a part of our lives, that everybody played music, and everybody sang or played a guitar or fiddle or banjo.

So that just became part of my imprinting growing up.

And I guess in that way?

Those times, I can remember, were comforting times as a child.

And I think that had a lot to do with the passion that grew with the music.

>>So along with his brother and a couple of childhood friends, Rodney formed a bluegrass band called The Dillards and set out for Hollywood.

They landed a recording contract within two weeks of arriving.

>>They put a blurb in Variety that said, "Elecktra Records signs these weird looking rangy guys from the mountains that play this real funny kind of music."

And Andy Griffith had a script in his hand the day they got Variety.

And it said, "The Darlings are coming: these rangy mountain guys that come down and play bluegrass music and give Andy a hard time."

He picks up the phone, and whoever the people were?

....and calls (at the time we had a manager) and said, "Could you send these boys over to audition?"

And so we went over to Desilu Studios .

And Andy was shooting an episode.

I'll never forget this.

He and Bob Sweeney, the director, stopped the production, pulled up a couple of chairs, and said, "Okay, show us what you got."

So we started playing, singing and playing.

And Andy slapped his knee and said, "That's it!"

And I thought he was kicking us out.

He said, "Where you going?

You got the job!"

♪ ♪ >>That job was to perform on The Andy Griffith Show the song that has become one of the signature tunes of the Dillards: Dooley!

♪ Now Dooley was a good ol' man who lived below a mill.

♪ ♪ Dooley had two daughters and a 40 gallon still.... ♪ >>The Andy Griffith Show was just the beginning.

It led to a host of performances with well known entertainers and groups.

>>Steve Martin, Bill Cosby, Earl Scruggs.... Gosh, who else?

Elton John, The Byrds.... Back in the 60's, a lot of the rock groups ('cause we traveled) for some reason they didn't know what to do with us.

And somehow we fit into the rock genre.

So we were traveling with these rock-and-roll tours which was a lot of fun.

But those are some of the folks that I've played with over the years.

>>Rodney, this was the second home that you lived in on the property?

>>Yeah, this was our summer home.

>>Despite a career in the bright lights , Rodney has not forgotten his roots like those early years on the farm and what could only be called some unique lodgings.

>>Actually when we started working on the new house, we left Grandma and Grandpa, And my aunt and I came over here.

And we lived in the chicken house which was a little newer than this.

And there were no chickens in it.

>>....not yet, anyway!

>>If there would have been, we would have run them out.

But we lived in here until we got the newer place built.

But this was my home for a long time with a cook stove and a barrel out back with a hand pump.

>>Did you build this?

>>My family?

Yeah, we all did!

We all had a hand.

If I wasn't carrying nails or doing something, they had me clearing brush.

>>I see your name down in that concrete.

>>Oh yeah, there it is: my hand print.

>>Oh wow, that's amazing!

>>I'd forgotten that was there.

>>What year do you think that was?

>>1940!

It was after '45, I think.

Yeah, you know what?

I hadn't noticed that.

I had forgotten all about that.

Look at that!

>>Rodney says those small town and rural experiences later became the basis for much of the music he's known for.

>>Our songs came from our part of the country.

And a lot of our songs are about characters.

We wrote one about a moon shiner.

They were from real people, real characters, and real situations.

And it wasn't that we were making fun of hillbillies.

We were pointing out the humor.

>>Rodney says it's time to reestablish the values he grew up with on the family farm, and to share them with the next generation of Dillards.

>>If you work and extend the family and their memories, that you really got a solid way of life?

And I think that is what farming is all about.

You ask a lot of farmers to describe it to you, and it's very difficult.

It's very difficult to describe what it's like to be out on your own place.

And someday this will all be my little grandchild's, Mattie's.

This will all be hers.

>>We'll visit more with Rodney in just a bit.

But first we'll take you to the Texas ranch of singer/songwriter Jewel and her husband Ty.

It's a place where the emphasis is more on cattle than celebrities.

>>As they saddle up to move cattle on this late summer morning, Jewel and her husband Ty Murray are a long way from the bright lights they often find themselves in: Ty, a world champion rodeo rider, and Jewel, a singer/songwriter whose albums have sold millions of copies worldwide.

>>My favorite memories of growing up were probably horses and music.

Those 2 things were bright spots in a life that was challenging and difficult.

>>The hardships that pre-date Jewel Kilcher's rise to fame are well documented: leaving her rural Alaska home at age fifteen for a prestigious arts school in Michigan, hitchhiking cross-country, singing in coffee houses to pay the bills, and learning first hand what it meant to be homeless in America.

>>But I just fell on hard times: I had sick kidneys!

I couldn't afford antibiotics.

I almost died in the parking lot of the hospital because they wouldn't see me because I didn't have insurance.

It was just this vicious cycle.

I'd get a job but then get too sick to keep the job and would end up getting fired again.

>>Chronicling those hard times with honest, lyric-driven songs would whisk Jewel out of the car she lived in and onto the car radios of millions of listeners.

♪ I am my father's daughter.... ♪ >>Well, I'm a 4th generation cowboy.

So you know I grew up around it my whole life.

>>....growing up in a family where both his parents had riding backgrounds, Ty was at the top of the rodeo game by the age of 21.

>>You know, I was horseback before I could walk.

You know, riding rough stock and rodeos and ranching?

Those were the two things that I was crazy about.

♪ The stakes are high.

♪ ♪ How will we find the courage to believe.... ♪ >>The past decade has been a whirlwind for both Ty and Jewel: new album hits and tours on the music and rodeo circuit.

Out of the spotlight, their 22 hundred acre cattle ranch is where Jewel and Ty come to decompress from their busy professional lives.

>>I think it's a great place to stay grounded.

I mean, our job is a blessing, and it's amazing.

But it can also be really silly, and you can get caught up in the wrong things.

And I think this helps you stay really grounded.

It's nice to do chores.

We'll be doctoring a calf one day and at the Oscars the next.

>>When you get out here and the gates are shut and you don't even know the rest of the world is going on?

And I think we both really enjoy that.

>>Ranching has proven to be the common thread drawing Jewel and Ty together.

>>So how does a guy go about finding a girl who'll come out here and live in the middle of nowhere and will help you work the ranch?

>>Just look at me!

>>It was the smile, right?

>>I don't know.

You know, me and Jewel met about 11 years ago.

And at the time Jewel and I met, she was touring really hard, and I was rodeoing really hard.

And we were both just on the road constantly.

>>Life on the ranch gives Jewel time to explore different avenues of creativity.

>>I really enjoy drawing, sculpture and visual art as much as I enjoy singing, as much as I enjoy writing poetry.

It all feels like the same body.

It's just different limbs that I need to exercise.

>>And she makes time to support global projects like providing clean water for impoverished communities.

>>While I was living in my car, I had bad kidneys and was having to drink a gallon of bottled water a day!

And that was expensive.

I couldn't afford it.

And I thought if we're having such a hard time in America drinking our tap water, I wonder what it's like in the rest of the world.

>>Ty's work in advancing the profile of the Professional Bull Riders Association is a natural fit with his love of the heartland's wide open spaces.

And time on their ranch provides Jewel and Ty a setting to continue their work as they look to the future.

Lots of people who visit our America's Heartland website take time to click on the video of Michael Martin Murphey singing our America's Heartland theme song.

Michael has been an important part of the program from the beginning.

And our Akiba Howard says he's a man who enjoys taking his music to fans all across the country ♪ There's a love for the country ♪ ♪ and a pride in the brand.... ♪ >>On this late summer afternoon, singer/songwriter Michael Martin Murphey has brought his award winning music to this high mountain meadow in southeast Colorado.

♪ ....in America's Heartland close to the land.

♪ >>It's a performance that taps into his country roots and his admiration for people who make their living on the land.

>>I kind of grew up more in the piney woods of Texas and saw people clear the land and work really hard.

That piney woods country, to get a pasture?

You got to really work hard to clear it.

>>Murphey's rendition of America's Heartland has been the show's theme song from its beginning.

Performing keeps him on the road.

But he works his schedule to spend a significant amount of time here in the rolling hills and mountains of northern New Mexico and southern Colorado.

♪ There's a lost river that flows ♪ ♪ and a valley where no one goes.

♪ ♪ Where the wild wonders.... ♪ >>The settings here allow Murphey to perform in some unique venues.

The outdoor stage at Bobcat Pass Adventures is a cowboy campfire for his music and others.

>>A lot of our cowboy songs don't come from people that look like me or look like Clint Eastwood, right?

Or Roy Rogers, right?

They come from the Indians.

The come from the ex-black slaves, the ex-slaves from the south.

They come from the Spanish people.

>>But throughout the summer, many of Murphey's shows begin with a train ride on board The San Luis and Rio Grande Railroad.

>>All aboard!

>>Narrow gauge came in mainly during the gold mining era.... >>The San Luis and Rio Grande takes audience members up some 9 thousand feet to Colorado's La Veta Pass .

♪ On a pony she named Wildfire.... ♪ >>With sidemen Gary Roller and Pat Flynn, concert goers are entertained with music.... ♪ ....on a cold Nebraska night.... ♪ ....and some tongue-in-cheek country humor.

>>For a great farm to run or a great ranch to survive, it takes a couple.

Boys, when you're dating?

Date anybody you want and have a good time!

When you get married, you make sure that you marry a woman who can run a bobcat and back a trailer!

>>There's a theme that runs through the music that Murphey's written and the songs he performs: a celebration of those who provide the food, fuel and fiber we enjoy as a nation.

>>Working hard is something that I just really respect.

You don't find harder workers than people who work the land.

>>When you think of music from the heartland, you can't overlook the rich history of country music and blues that come from the south.

Jason Shoultz says that deep in Mississippi?

It's music with a link to agriculture's past and present.

♪ We going to have a party.... ♪ >>It's a sultry summer night in Jackson, Mississippi!

After the sun has set, singer Jackie Bell is heating things up inside the 930 Blues Café.

♪ ....at the 930 Blues Cafe.... ♪ >>Like most nights, it's standing room only tonight at one of Mississippi's hottest spots for live blues music.

Of course in these parts, blues isn't just a musical style.

It's a way of life.

>>For generations this fertile soil has produced cotton by the truckload.

But the rich soil didn't make everyone in these parts wealthy.

Out of this region's extreme poverty grew something else: blues music!

♪ You know the blues will make you feel ♪ ♪ like you lost everything you had.... ♪ >>About 30 miles from Jackson, in the tiny town of Bentonia, is Jimmy Duck Holmes' and his Blue Front Café .

>>My parents got it back in 1948, and they ran it 'til the early 70's.

Then I came on board.

My mother, sort of like, kind of mentored me through it.

And then she cut it loose completely.

>>Bentonia sits just on the edge of Mississippi's delta region, a swath of land that stretches along the Mississippi River in the western part of the state.

The origins of Delta Blues can be traced to juke joints around Mississippi: small gathering places for dancing, drinking and just relaxing after a hard days work.

>>See, when I was a kid?

This uh, June, we probably would still be in the fields chopping cotton all day long, as hot as it is right now, trying to get finished before the fourth of July in the hot sun, hot sun, chopping 'til the sun goes down!

>>The most famous blues musician from these parts is B.B.

King.

Here in Bentonia, they even have their own brand of blues.

>>This is your tribute wall right here?

That's Jack Owens.

He's one of the ones that carried the music, Bentonia style of music, to the world.

Matter of fact, he carried it to the world.

Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Bobby Rush?

Of course, those guys was known as professional.

>>People love to talk about good times they had.

And they also like to talk about bad time.

Blues tell a story.

♪ Got up early one morning, I was on my way to school.... ♪ >>You would have actually worked in a cotton field to understand what those guys was talking about.

>>Many of the juke joints that thrived 80 years ago are gone.

The blues scene in these parts isn't what it used to be.

But there are still people working hard to keep it alive.

In the town of Leland, visitors can find out about the Delta Blues past and present at the Highway 61 Blues Museum .

Not far away?

A mural honoring delta blues musicians!

One of them?

Local farmer Harry Bub Branton!

♪ ♪ >>The first guitar I ever saw was in my dad's shop.

I had a tractor driver, a black guy, showed me some blues.

And a white guy showed me some Chuck Berry.

So that was my first taste of it.

♪ Mama bought a chicken, thought it was a duck, ♪ ♪ put it on the table with the legs stickin' up!

♪ ♪ You've got to bottle it up and go.... ♪ >>We're growing about 1000 acres of corn this year, 1000 acres of cotton, and they're balancing soybeans....

>>....I heard 10!

Five and then five!

>>....with 600 acres of catfish.

♪ She ain't too old for shifting gears.

♪ ♪ She's got to bottle it up and go.

♪ ♪ Bottle it up and go.... ♪ >>When I was grown up, it was still a plantation.

And they had mules and picked cotton by hand.

And the laborers singing the, you know, in the field how they worked?

And it was really interesting.

Agriculture was tough, you know, back 50 years ago?

I think that's where, you know, the blues were born out of?

It was really rural hand labor agriculture of that era that probably died around 1955 or so, you know, when mechanization went in?

♪ ....Bottle it up and go!

♪ >>With the exception of Harry Branton, there are very few blues musicians farming these days.

But the stories of hard work and heartache that grew out of the rich Mississippi soil are still a part of today's blues scene.

>>Well it's so expressive!

It's easier to relate to the emotions that are being expressed through that music because it's not intellectual music at all.

It's not a head trip.

It's a, you know, it's a gut trip and a heart trip .

♪ ♪ ♪ You know blues ain't nothing.... ♪ >>Back in Bentonia, Jimmy Duck Holmes isn't getting rich playing the blues, but he doesn't mind.

It's nothing but a storyteller with an instrument.

And most blues singers tell it where they feel it from the heart.

And what makes that so.... if you....

I mean, if you had a bad night or a bad week or a bad year and want to tell somebody about it, what's wrong with that?

♪ ....You know the blues will make it feel ♪ ♪ like you lost everything you had.

♪ >>So Rodney, what is the best part about being back on the family farm?

>>You know, I think it's the sense of.... Well, it's a sense of security and comfort to be back.

I don't know if it's memories of childhood that were really great with grandma cooking on the stove?

I know that sounds like a fantasy, but it was true.

And it gives me that sense of peace.

>>....that at the end of the day, what we're all looking for.

>>I think so.

I think that's part of the human condition.

Just a little peace!

>>You take us out with a little Dooley?

♪ Dooley was a trader.

♪ ♪ Went into town and come.

♪ ♪ Sugar by the bushel and the molasses by the drum.

♪ ♪ Dooley slipin' up the holler.

♪ ♪ Dooley tryin' to make a dollar.

♪ ♪ Dooley give me a swaller, and I'll pay you back ♪ ♪ someday.

♪ >>Don't forget, we have lots more stories and information to share with you online.

Just log onto americasheartland.org.

Thanks for traveling the country with us.

We'll see you next time on America's Heartland .

♪ You can see it in the eyes of every woman and man ♪ ♪ in America's Heartland living close to the land.

♪ ♪ There's a love for the country ♪ ♪ and a pride in the brand ♪ ♪ in America's Heartland living close, ♪ ♪ close to the land ♪ >>America's Heartland is made possible by.... Farm Credit , owned by America's farmers and ranchers, celebrating 95 years of service to U.S. agriculture and rural America.

Learn more at farmcredit.com.

The United Soybean Board , America's soybean farmers and their checkoff.

And by the American Farm Bureau Foundation for Agriculture dedicated to building greater awareness and understanding of agriculture through education and engagement.

♪ ♪