The Road to Nashville

This movie is quite maddening in that it is truly a cinematic turkey. (Or is it a turkey in the straw?) The film quality has the quality of a very old print that hadn't been stored very well.

The plot and the acting is... well...uh...no comment.

Back in 1967, this movie was intended to turn the matinée crowd to contemporary country, the way teen-targeted movies bolster record sales of their featured stars (think HOLD ON with Herman's Hermits or HAVING A WILD WEEKEND starring the Dave Clark Five.) This movie has it all, bad plot, bad acting and bad jokes. Yet, for some strange reason, I found myself not only enjoying this guilty pleasure (YEE-haww... OK, Y'all can shoot me for feelin' all th' way Ah do. Shucks.) And as if that wasn't enough, this movie got me going through my record price guides and the internet in wild pursuit of any and all information on the featured artists and their records along with any movies or TV shows they may had starred in.

The movie, in a weird way, it a lot of fun to watch. And the music is classic country.

This movie was a Big Deal when it came to the drive in in Long Beach CA. Lots of happy viewers. We had heard the musicians on records but it was so nice to be able to see them.

Movie studio head Richard Arlen sends Doodles Weaver to Nashville to Nashville to choose acts for the country music movie they're making next week. Lots of stars lip-sync to their hits, form the Stoneman Family to the Carter Family -- who owe a lot of their success to Pop Stoneman discovering them -- who sing "I Walk the Line" and then back up Johnny Cash on a spiritua --l to contemporary acts like Connie Smith. Wherever the songs were actually recorded, about half of the 38 songs are about adultery, and almost every performance has a lot of echo.

The quality of the performances are pretty good, echo aside, and there's some fine banjo picking, and even an electric mandolin. At over 100 minutes, that's too many C&W songs for me, but fans of the genre will be pleased.

Was lucky to catch this film last friday(20 may 05)on Matinée Movies(sky digital 336). Thought it Fantastic!!Definitely compulsive viewing for all Country music fans. If anyone gets a chance to watch this film do so. Wonderful to see Marty Robbins at his very best and the Difference between the Waylon Jennings then & now has to be seen to be believed. Fantastic performances by ALL featured artists but especially Marty Robbins but as the credits give limited info please can anyone tell me who is playing the (electric)guitar behind Marty Robbins in several of his featured songs??Also if anyone knows who all not listed musicians are please let me(& anyone else interested)know??

Road to Nashville is to all intents and purposes a showcase for a selection of country music stars with an extremely flimsy plot that merely takes us from A to B allowing for song after song to be performed. For what it's worth, the story has Doodles Weaver being sent to Nashville to recruit musicians and singers to star in an upcoming movie about country music. But as I say, this is a virtually plot less affair which is aimed squarely at fans of this type of music.

I'm not really much of a fan of the genre myself, so much of the songs I didn't get too much out of. But there were some that did standout for me. The Carter Family sing a song synonymous with Johnny Cash, namely 'Walk the Line', only to then be joined by him for an emotional number entitled 'Were You There'. In this segment his future wife June Carter talks a little between the numbers too. But perhaps the real standout for me was a group I had hitherto never even heard of, The Stoneman Family. They knock out three numbers and the two women in the group easily provide the most energy and distinctive performances in the whole film. Their first song is a crazy up-tempo workout with a pretty maniacal mandolin being played in almost free-style by one of the women; in their final number the other girl takes over and knocks out some serious banjo action while maintaining an intentionally deadpan face the whole time. So, The Stoneman Family? Yeeha!

This film is ultimately a real treat for country and western fans, especially of the mid 60's variety. Some of these artists were very rarely filmed playing their songs, so it serves as a pretty cool document in that sense too. It's not in all honesty really aimed at someone like me who is pretty lukewarm on the genre but I still did get a kick out of some of it nevertheless.