PBS Country Music

Surprised there hasn't been a thread on this (if there is, I missed it, and sorry for the db).

It's outstanding. Probably a few factual errors, but that's inconsequential compared to the great interviews, photos, film/videos, background stories and just the music. There's about 3-4 guest narrators who will be this series' equivalent of Shelby Foote and Buck O'Neil.

The final episode, dealing in part with the passing of George Jones and Johnny Cash, was really moving. And how can you not love Dolly Parton? What an amazing voice.

I don't like the current "bro country" shlock but I was amazed at how much music I have of the artists on this show: Emmylou, Crowell, the Burritos/Gram Parsons, Townes Van Zandt, Dirt Band, Rosanne Cash, Steve Earle, the Dillards, Gary P. Nunn, Marty Stuart, Ricky Skaggs, Dwight Yoakam, Sweetheart of the Rodeo, etc.

Lots of these guys/women came up from absolute poverty.

 

Did they interview any current hitmakers about their influences? I mean the music still sounds the same, but I do wonder how the songs go from four chords and the truth to rambling lists of why a guy likes his girlfriends body, how he spent Saturday or Friday night and how much he partied in high schools.

 

They did not. Kind of ignored the current schlock country, other than a quick montage of current country artists. The most current guys I saw interviewed were Ketch Secor and Dierks Bentley and they were on sparingly. Stuart, Crowell, Cash, Emmylou, Vince Gill and Kathy Mattea were the mainstay artists of the last 2-3 episodes.

 

My opinion is that the series was excellent. It got harder to do at th eend because of the broad melding of American popular music in this century, but the series shrewdly made the point that much of the pre-WW2 country and western was a hybrid of different sounds as well.

 

Watched it in bits and pieces; I'll catch up on segments I missed.

I'm pretty good on rock history; I'd probably rate myself about maybe a B-minus on country history, so I can't grade it on historical accuracy.

Wonder if Burns will do (or maybe oversee/ executive produce) a series on Rock & Roll history; as the other thread notes, most of the "giants" of the genre will be gone in another 10-15 years.

I guess PBS did a fairly well-received multi episode series on rock history in the mid-80s, but that's still only about halfway chronologically through the rock timeline.

 

I’m planning on watching it backwards.

 

Marty Stuart's interviews were incredibly insightful throughout the series.

Not quite done (about halfway through the final episode) but it was phenomenal. I was really shocked of the footage and images they had of the roots of country. Also, good on Ken for getting Merle and Little Jimmy Dickens and Cowboy Jack before they passed. Just some good stuff all around.

Also, this is what an article in the Atlanta paper had to say about why they stopped the series at 20 years ago (other than the fact that the current state of country, with very few exceptions, blows):

“Country Music” purposely ends around 1996. That was also the year Monroe died. (There is one coda regarding Johnny Cash’s death in 2003.)

“We’re in the history business,” Burns said. “We’re not going to try to parse Taylor Swift. You want perspective.” ​

 

It’s classic Ken Burns in that it covers all the bases that need covering. JAZZ was also masterful storytelling and the archival footage images are amazing, like Country Music doc.
Saw Rosanne Cash last night and her appearance in the production makes me want to be part of a small group who would be able to ask her questions but mainly just listen to her speak about the history of the music.
I agree, Marty Stuart is a first rate wealth of knowledge, an amazing musician and knows the history of the styles.

 

So much plastic surgery...

He should do an entire series on Johnny Cash.

 

I loved the whole thing. But especially Vince Gill. I cannot adequately express my love for that man.

 

This just might be the greatest era in the history of country music. I think its only real competition for quality of songs is the Outlaw Country era of the late 60s into the late 70s/early 80s. Some of the finest songwriting I've ever heard has come out (and continues to come out) in the last five years. It's just most of it doesn't get any airplay on country music stations or the backing of the big Nashville labels. But I would put the music - both live and in studio - of Sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers, Colter Wall, Margo Price, Chris Stapleton, Charley Crockett and a few others up against any other era.

I've had the opportunity to see Willie, Waylon, Merle, Kristofferson, Coe and a few others as mostly old men and I'm grateful for it. Part of me wishes I'd had the chance to see them all in their prime so I could make an honest comparison. But I think the current crop is way better.

Now if you want to talk how shitty most of the music that gets played on country radio is, I am on board. In that respect it's the worst era in country history. But I can't ignore the incredible music that seems to be coming out on a monthly basis without the help of the Nashville machine.