Country Music

Ken Burns has delivered a 16 hours worth documentary of country music from the beginning to the current. It's addictive to watch on television but you can't look away or want too. The story of country music is so rich, diverse and never so simple. The country music series is a must see television with Peter Coyote as the narrator. You get rare archive footage from the thirties. You hear about the Carter Family Trio and Bob Wills. Whether you know country music or not, you will become easily enthralled into the country music world. Country music has inspired and influenced the world in so many ways. It has reached out to everybody in someway. I remember being lucky to visit the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee where the weekly Barn Dance became the Grand Ole Opry. To me, the Ryman Auditorium is hollowed ground and beautiful. The Grand Ole Opry found a new home in the outskirts and I was lucky to have seen a show with Loretta Lynn, Roy Clark, Jessica Simpson making her Opry debut and more. That evening was one of the best shows I have ever seen on stage. The Grand Ole Opry is a run like a well-oiled machine. The sixteen hours of this documentary flows by. Ken Burns has really outdone himself this time.

Great history of country music. Lots of personal interviews and photos. The visuals make it come alive. Very interesting and impartial facts and stories. It's like several biographies condensed into 1.

It would be impossible ( and dull ) to tell every story in Country Music . But Burn's an artist who can keep the audience glued to his documentaries . I don't think , for example , that anyone could have done a better job covering the tragedy of the 1963 plane crash at the end of Part 4 . Burns everywhere just practices his art with unique mastery and catches the humanity of various players in the different stories of our country . He's an American Treasure .

What is remarkable is that country music is generally presented as a closed shop. If it is not Nashville and was not on the Grand Ole Opre it just is not authentic.

Ken Burns has told the better story: it is all intertwined. Willie Nelson did not succeed in Nashville but he went back to Texas and did what he wanted: jazz, the Great American Song book etc. Many other country stars came from other venues of music. Rock and the always important blues music from blacks is carefully put in place.

This series varies widely from the traditional story of country. On a technical level it points out the use of violin strings, electric guitars and more modern studio techniques.

Though the size of the revenue is not discussed you cannot miss the huge financial rewards that were (and are today) involved. Burns usually leaves the money out. No problem.

I play guitar and sing as an amateur. It is a hobby to me. MAny of the country songs I have been doing for decades. They are just as valid to my music as The Great American songbook and rock. Burns did a great job and the people he used for interviews were very representative of various styles and epochs.

"Country Music" (2019 mini-series; 8 episodes) is the latest documentary mini-series from Ken Burns. This time around, Burns and his team are bringing us the story of country music. As "Episode One - The Rub (Beginnings - 1933)" opens, we are given some introductory comments from various country celebrities (Kris Kristofferson: "Country is a white man's soul music"), and then we go back to the 1920, when almost in parallel paths, the rise of both radio and the phonograph were instrumental to the exposure of country music to a wider audience. Along the way, we get a country music instruments 101 on the fiddle, the banjo (did you know the banjo was brought over from Africa?), the mandolin and the guitar (mobility of these instruments was key--hence no role in country music for the piano). The second hour of the first episode zeros in on the origins of the Grand Ol' Opry, the Carter family (yes, of June Carter fame), and Jimmie Rodgers.

Couple of comments: "Country Music" aims to achieve what Ken Burns did with the "Jazz" documentary mini-series hoped to achieve. "Country Music" comes in 8 episodes of 2 hours each. That gives Ken Burns and his team a lot of room to explore. I love how the film makers set us up for the detailed account of what happened in the summer of 1927 in Bristol, TN when the Carter family and Jimmie Rodgers are "discovered". In the end, a great documentary is all about great story-telling, and Ken Burns and his team have proven, time and again, that they are masterful at that. Having researched this meticulously (and finding a treasure trove of historical recordings, pictures and footage), only enhances the viewing experience.

"Country Music" premiered last night on PBS, and will continue with new 2 hour episodes this week and next through Thursday the 26th. I absolutely loved Episode 1, and can't wait to spend 7 more evenings watching this unfold. If you like a great documentary or are a fan of music history, I'd readily suggest you check this out, be it on TV, on VOD or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray, and draw your own conclusion. "Country Music" is HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

*Update 9/17/19* Episode 2 "Hard Times (1933-1945)" aired yesterday evening, and was more of the same (in the best possible way). "Hard times and country music were made for each other" comments someone, and that is very clear as we see the country struggling through the Great Depression, while hillbilly music continues to grow in popularity. Gene Autry gets extensive coverage, as does Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. But the star of this episode is the Grand Ol' Opry, which finally finds a permanent home in the beautiful Ryan Auditorium...

*Update 9/19/19* Episodes 3 ("Hillbilly Shakespeare 1945-1953") and 4 ("I Can't Stop Loving You 1953-1963") are now in the books, marking the half-way point of the mini-series. Episode 3 focuses on Hank Williams a/k/a the Hillbilly Shakespeare although certainly others are highlighted too: Eddy Arnold, Bill Monroe, Earle Scruggs, the Maddox Brothers & Rose, just to name those. Episode 3 feels like it is the very best of the series. Episode 4 focuses on Johnny Cash, when rockabilly almost destroyed "country" music ("country died on the vine", one comments). Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson and Ray Charles are some of the others highlighted in this episode. I get the sense that we have reached crescendo and going forward it will all start to sound quite familiar. Episode 3 marks THE highlight of this documentary mini-series.