Search - Various Artists :: Family Name (1997 Documentary)

These days it's rare to find a commercially available soundtrack that functions as more than an advertisement or product tie-in to help generate interest or income in a film. Family Name is a real anomaly at a time when it can seem like crappy movies get made primarily to sell records. Like few soundtracks before, Family Name works as an extension of its documentary counterpart. The film, a recent winner at Sundance, traces the search of director Macky Alston--a young, white New Yorker--back to his roots in Chatham County, North Carolina, for evidence of his slave-owning ancestors, the slaves they owned, and possible family links between the whites and blacks who share the Alston name. The soundtrack album features songs performed by various Alstons, black and white, northern transplants, and southern traditionalists. There's a Hank Williams song performed by the director's father, a preacher, former civil rights activist, and part-time country singer that moved north in the '60s. There's a southern black gospel song done by the local Alston-Boldin Family and Friends Choir. And there's an original song offered by Fred Alston, an African-American classical musician born in North Carolina discovered living in Manhattan, one block from Macky. As eloquently as the film itself, the soundtrack weaves a fabric of the Alston family-and by extension, the entire United States. Between Charlotte Blake Alston's howling gospel blues and Wallace Alston's blue yodel, we become acquainted with our musical (and genealogical) cousins. --Roni Sarig