Pure Country: Pure Heart 2017

Ada Spencer, [Kaitlyn Bausch], and her younger sister Piper, [Cozi Zuehlsdorff], grow up in a rural Tennessee farmhouse under the care of their widowed mother Elizabeth, [Amanda Detmer], and their grandmother Meemaw, [Myra Turley]. Their father died when they were young, and Elizabeth has kept his life largely private, leaving Ada and Piper with a mix of curiosity and unanswered questions about who he really was.

When a burst water pipe reveals a Silver Star and other hints about their father, the sisters feel a pull to uncover the truth behind the man they never fully knew. They secretly tell their mother they’re headed to the farm of Ada’s friend Justine, [Dara Sisterhen], but they’re really hitching rides to chase down clues about their dad’s past and his music. The discovery sets off a journey that will force the family to confront memory, myth, and the cost of keeping secrets.

Their early stops include the nearby State Veteran’s Home, where they meet Henry Monroe, [Lawrence Turner], an Iraq War veteran who says he served with their father in the Marines in 2004 and recalls how their father saved his life by leaping onto a grenade. They also encounter C.J. Simms, [Ronny Cox], a Korean War veteran and musician, whose warmth and appreciation for their singing opens a doorway to a wider world of music and storytelling. C.J. invites them to perform at a local festival, giving the sisters a taste of the stage they’ve heard about from old stories and old records.

Driven by a growing sense of identity and purpose, the girls travel to Nashville to learn more about their father’s music career. There they meet Declan Martino, [Matthew Barnes], who quickly becomes a central figure in Ada’s life as the two connect and start a romance. Declan ushers the sisters to meet Marq Dunn, [Laura Bell Bundy], the woman their father worked with to write and record songs. Marq’s warmth and professional generosity lead to an invitation for the sisters to return to Nashville and lay down a song, immersing them in the world their father inhabited.

Back home, Elizabeth confronts the mounting worries as she discovers the lies about their whereabouts. The sisters, feeling betrayed, accuse their mother of keeping the truth about their father’s music and military life from them. In a pivotal moment, Meemaw steps forward and reveals a quieter, more bittersweet truth: their father paused his music when he met Elizabeth, choosing to start a family, and that a life of art and love intersected with the ordinary demands of parenthood. The revelation helps the family understand that Brian’s choices shaped not only his own path but the paths of those who loved him.

The film closes with a poignant reconciliation: Elizabeth visits Marq Dunn and confesses a tangle of jealousy and guilt—she has sometimes wondered what might have been if Brian had stayed in music alongside Marq. In a moving finale, Ada and Piper sing one of their father’s songs on a stage shared with Marq and the legendary Willie Nelson, [Willie Nelson], at a veterans fundraiser, while the crowd responds to the voice that ties generations together. The moment blends memory, music, and gratitude, underscoring how a family’s past can illuminate a hopeful future.