Country Music Documentary

[Dashriprock]

After some eight years in the making, Ken Burns' newest documentary premiers this evening on your local PBS station:

Trailer | Country Music | PBS

 

[smoke33]

Obviously Ken doesn’t have any true friends. If he did they would be honest with him and tell him his hair looks ridiculous.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Ozark Marine]

Just seen that on Fox and Friends.

It's funny that just last Friday I was having a few cold ones at the American Legion Post I'm a member of with another vet when I catch a glimpse of a 1967 Plymouth Barracuda pull into the parking lot.
Guy sits at the bar stool next to me.
Long hair and long Fumanchu mustache braided. Ordered a beer & cheeseburger.
So I ask him about the car.
He said his dad bought it brand new, when he was 7 or so.
He inherited it when his dad died.
Said he lived in Arkansas when he was a kid so my buddy asked him if he knew certain places and bars in that area.
He sure did.

Long story short that man told us he was in a local band and his buddy helped co-write Garth Brooks "Friends in Low Places".
The "Oasis" in that song was a bar in a hotel there where the drank when they were young.
Interesting guy, I hope he comes in again when I'm not as buzzed as I was that time.
Going to watch cause I'm hoping Garth explains the story of how he got that song.

 

[THE PILGRIM]

Thanks for the heads up!
I will watch for sure.
One of our family stories goes like this -
During the Depression my Dad worked for the WPA.
We Pittle Around.
No - Wait - it’s Works Progress Administration.
He was building Barns and Sanitary Facilities in Arkansas.
Sanitary Facilities are Outhouses.
So this allowed my Dad to have a Ford Model A Coupe and a Victor windup record player.
And he had every Jimmie Rodgers record he could find.
For you non Country Folks, Jimmie Rodgers was the First Country Star, and one of the first recording stars of any genre.
Another other early Country Sensation were the Carter Family.
That’s why they are called The First Family of Country.

 

[Onomea]

Here are a couple of articles on the documentary:

Opinion | Country Music as Melting Pot - The New York Times

Ken Burns’s ‘Country Music’ Traces the Genre’s Victories, and Reveals Its Blind Spots - The New York Times

Ken Burns’s Delightful “Country Music” Gets the Big Things Mostly Right | The New Yorker

 

[pawngal]

I will be watching for sure, Willie's Roadhouse on XM radio has been talking about it for weeks. The part I'm looking forward to the most is probably Ken's interview with Merle Haggard done shortly before Merle's death.

The PBS website has a lot of info on the making of the documentary series including a concert at the Ryman earlier this year.

 

[DWalt]

It was given a good review in this morning's newspaper. Have never seen a Ken Burns documentary which wasn't good.

 

[Delta Expatriate]

While channel surfing last Sunday night, I accidentally stumbled on a concert from the Ryman promoting this. I am long time country music fan and look forward to this series. Willie's Roadhouse is the music I listen to most on the radio, since it takes me back to my youth.

Hasn't it been somewhere around 30 years since Ken Burns' series on the Civil War? I thought that was excellent, as I did his series on baseball in the mid-nineties. I understand a few years ago he did one on Jazz (which I did not watch - I remember thinking at the time "why doesn't he do one on country music"). Not sure what else he may have done. I hardly ever watch PBS anymore, but I am planning on watching this. I hope Ken Burns treats county music right.

Does Ken Burns do anything else besides make a documentary series on PBS every ten or so years?

 

[Rustyt1953]

I will definitely watch this as he is a masterful storyteller. My favorites from him are:

"The Civil War" (Ashokan Farewell is a permanent earworm)

"Jazz"

"Baseball"

 

[vigil617]

Just finished Episode 1, and really enjoyed it. Not knowing a lot about the history of country music, I found the documentary fascinating. Never knew anything about Jimmy Rodgers or The Carter Family or Bristol, VA being the birthplace of country. Also didn't know so many radio stations were started by businesses as mouthpieces for promoting their products, including the famed WSM in Nashville and how one of its shows evolved in The Grand Ol' Opry. Already looking forward to Episode 2 tomorrow night.

By the way, one of North Carolina's rising new country artists, Rhiannon Giddens, has several cameos as a commentatory in this episode.

 

[lkabug]

The first episode is a great history lesson and if you're a country music fan even better.

 

[Dashriprock]

That first episode is gold! Imagine the serendipity Ralph Peer must have felt when out of the blue he discovers and records The Carter Family AND Jimmie Rodgers in just a few days. I know some music history but never knew of that little nugget. This is gonna be a good week.

 

[Rule3]

All his films are so well done.

Click here and watch! Episode #1

Country Music | A Film by Ken Burns | Ken Burns

 

[pawngal]

I was familiar with the Carter Family history but not that of Jimmy Rodgers or the fact that they were originally recorded in Bristol, TN.
Saw Mother Maybelle Carter with June & Anita in the early 60's when they toured with Johnny Cash.

 

[Marshwheeling]

Watching this show was bittersweet after seeing Jimmie Rodgers’ great nephew Aaron* hold off the Vikings.

 

[Rustyt1953]

It was very entertaining. I learned that "Wildwood Flower" was the "Walk Don't Run", "Blackbird", "Stairway", "Sultans of Swing", "Eruption" and "Texas Flood" of its day. Every guitar player wore out frets scrambling to learn it.

I am a victim. Two years after I started learning to play, I begged dad for a better guitar. He said: "fine..learn to play "Wildwood Flower" and "Under the Double Eagle" for me...correctly... and I will
move you up the ladder.

I did (even though I wasn't enamored with either tune) and he did. I had pigeon-holed that memory but this show brought it, and others, happily stampeding towards the barn.

I highly recommend watching this to anyone...even if you're not a music fan. It's a large slice of history and the human condition.

 

[Muley Gil]

I'm a student (beginner level) of early country music, old time mountain music and bluegrass and live in the Blue Ridge mountains of Southwest Virginia, right near a number of places that were mentioned Sunday night. Thankfully, the music lives on down here, with lots of young folks learning to play. There is music played almost every night of the week, within 20 miles of my house.

I'm hoping that the documentary covers the old time string and bluegrass music in detail.

 

[Marshwheeling]

I'm a student (beginner level) of early country music, old time mountain music and bluegrass and live in the Blue Ridge mountains of Southwest Virginia, right near a number of places that were mentioned Sunday night. Thankfully, the music lives on down here, with lots of young folks learning to play. There is music played almost every night of the week, within 20 miles of my house.

I'm hoping that the documentary covers the old time string and bluegrass music in detail.

Perhaps surprisingly, there is a pretty active bluegrass scene here in Minnesota. I wouldn’t call myself even a student, but I usually go to a local bluegrass festival, and will catch it when I find bluegrass performed locally.

 

[vytoland]

I'm a student (beginner level) of early country music, old time mountain music and bluegrass and live in the Blue Ridge mountains of Southwest Virginia, right near a number of places that were mentioned Sunday night. Thankfully, the music lives on down here, with lots of young folks learning to play. There is music played almost every night of the week, within 20 miles of my house.

I'm hoping that the documentary covers the old time string and bluegrass music in detail.

i didnt hear them mention these guys in the program...they are one of my favorite groups from yesterdays.....

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIcnMlGrM0k&list=PLGtcag1uZGHP52x-48AQBaf7Te3aib2MO&index=11[/ame]

 

[Muley Gil]

IIRC, one of Gid Tanner and his Skillet Lickers' hits was "When it's peach pickin' time in Georgia".

Tuesday night's program is supposed to be about bluegrass and Hank Williams, so hopefully it will get into the old time string bands.

I really love me some clawhammer banjer playing!