Country Music

In this day and age, it is difficult to hold anyone's attention on one topic for 16 hours. That only makes documentarian Ken Burns even more impressive for his ability to enthrall over the long-haul. If you have absolutely any interest in the topic at all, you'll have no trouble working your way through "Country Music" sooner rather than later.

In typical Burns fashion, he takes the deep-dive approach to this topic, beginning with the very roots of country music and continuing up until about 2000. While certainly focusing on the big names of the industry (Hank, Cash, Merle, Waylon, Patsy, Carter, Garth, etc.), he also branches off into other more subtle areas. Things such as country's roots in mining territory, its pulling from African-American culture, it's movement "West" (literally and figuratively), and it's settling in Nashville (as well as later transcending that distinctive sound and even physical place). A core group of interviewees (performers and songwriters, mostly) give their thoughts in basically every episode.

As a fan of the country genre, I have no qualms about saying that "Country Music" either entertained or informed me all the way through. In all honesty, the only reason I can't quite give it the full 10-star rating is because Burns has already set his own bar so high. Through no fault of its own, this doc just lacks the emotional punch of, say, our grandparents talking about WWII or our parents reflecting in his Vietnam doc. "Country Music" is more "informational" than "emotional" (though it will stir you, at times). Granted, in some ways this makes it all the more impressive, as it can't just rely on emotion to grab viewers.

Overall, I can easily and heartily recommend this longform series to anyone with an interest in Burns' previous work, music in general, or country music specifically. While certain eras/discs may speak to you more than others, I can almost guarantee that you'll learn something substantial from every two-hour episode.

The first episode of Ken Burns' "Country Music" was in most respects an excellent show. It was particularly interesting to see the heavy African-American influence on country music documented, including astonishing photos of Black and white musicians in the same bands at a time when the races were rigidly segregated through most of the South. Indeed, at times it seems as if all American popular music mixes Black roots with something else. Put Black music together with the white marching-band tradition and you get jazz. Put Black music together with Jewish folk music, and you get Tin Pan Alley, Broadway musicals and the "Great American Songbook." Put Black music together with the English and Irish folk traditions, mix in influences from Latin America and Hawai'i, and you get country music. The portrayals of the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers were especially interesting and moving -- including those awesome photographs of Rodgers' funeral train drawing the same mourning and apprehensive crowds that President Lincoln's funeral train had drawn nearly 70 years earlier.

But one important name in the history of country music is virtually omitted: Vernon Dalhart. (His name is briefly seen in a newspaper clipping but he's totally unmentioned in the narration.) He was an operatically trained pop singer who had signed a contract with Thomas Edison's record label in 1916. In 1922 Dalhart recorded for Edison "The Wreck of the Old 97," a song he'd written about a real-life mail train disaster outside Danville, Virginia in 1903. Two years later he remade the song for the Victor label and that version sold over one million copies, the first country record to break the million mark. It was the huge success of "The Wreck of the Old 97" that established country music as a commercial genre and led both Victor and its competitors to seek out more artists in this style. "The Wreck of the Old 97" became a country standard and had many cover versions, including ones by Johnny Mercer, Hank Snow and Johnny Cash. A history of country music that omits Vernon Dalhart is woefully incomplete.

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.

Ken Burns has delivered touchstone documentaries on many subjects, the Civil War and Vietnam War amongst them. This on its face is less serious and certainly much more enjoyable but it also delivers a story every bit as important to America's cultural, social and political life. Essential stuff

Ken Burns has made what stands now as the definitive story of country music that neatly doubles as a crash course on the history and culture of the United States through his expert narrative craft, Dayton Duncan's immaculate writing, the monumental efforts of their researchers, the depths of their archival treasure trove, and the generosity of their interviewees. There is no separating the music as heard on a record from the people doing the listening, seeing it performed live, actually performing it, and living the songs. This miniseries lays out in careful detail how country music came to be and what it represents.

The story begins by honestly assessing the racial melting pot that is the U. S. and how disparate cultures came together originally from afar to produce an authentic American artform. Songs and what we call the fiddle traveled from the British Isles, and the percussive banjo ultimately derives from Africa, whose enslaved people and their descendants' worksongs and both Black and White gospel music richly permeated the old time music that evolved into country. Credit is also given to Latin-American vaqueros for their bordertown cowboy songs as well as German immigrants for the influence of polka. The filmmakers confront head on the deep ties to minstrel acts so popular at the turn of the century. All of this and more is given due coverage for their role in creating country music.

From this basis, Burns and team chronologically cover every key style and figure, from every kind of musician to singing stars to songwriters, producers, and the industry that sprang up around the increasingly popular genre, all the while tying the story of the music to what was going on around the country itself. History tells us these were hard times indeed, and the deliberately unfolding stories of these beloved icons together with their music frequently feel like 16 hours of heartbreak. As the film points out, don't dare call country people hillbillies unless you are one. They, both the hardworking performers and devoted country fans, know the struggles they've worked to overcome to make a life for themselves and how country music brings them joy and fellowship through their trials and tribulations. Country clichés exist for a reason, not because they are always true for everybody but because there is more than a ring of truth to them generally. The jokes about the drinking, the wife walking out, and the dog dying don't come from nowhere. For some of these artists, these may be the least of their problems, as there is the recurring theme of coming from deep poverty and broken homes. Hard luck and self-destruction follow many of country's best known and loved, cutting short their lives and careers. As documentary viewing, this grimness and impending doom can be intense to overwhelming and feel repetitive, but there is no getting around this truth, it wouldn't do justice to the subjects not to tell their story, and Burns wisely weaves the stories together and adds touches of light and frivolity. That educates and engenders deep sympathy and a sense of the character of each subject, many of whom truly are characters. Classic songs and milestone albums are given sharp focus for their cultural and musical significance and popularity.

For those not necessarily country inclined, notable peripheral figures are always included along the way like Dylan and the Byrds but also Louis Armstrong, skillfully exploring links between country and jazz. Care is taken to put country music into context with other popular contemporary music and entertainment and the give and take between them.

Particular attention is also paid to the debt owed to now lesser-known but innovative African-American musicians who may not have even been recording artists but whose deep influence and mentorship to rising, young White musicians and song gathering made possible some of the biggest and brightest stars in country music and helped build its repertoire.

Bluegrass music is also not treated as somehow separate and parallel to another genre called country; its story and stars are deeply entwined here throughout, even as what is more popularly considered and listened to as country music morphs with shifts in demographics, economics, and technology, from acoustic instrumentation to the so-called Nashville Sound and onward.

Music aficionados should thrill at not just the rich history given to individual subjects and how they connect to each other, but also the musical characteristics that made these men and women great in their day and still worthy of appreciation decades later. Perhaps you've seen music documentaries that are all cult of personality and don't move beyond the superficial biographical details, gossip, and hyperbolic praise to actually examine the instrumental, vocal, or lyrical developments that set a performer or songwriter apart and perhaps even above. This isn't one of those. That shouldn't surprise anyone even faintly aware of Ken Burns' reputation for thoroughness and respect for his subjects. Still, there is no shortage whatsoever of everyone giving their opinion of what makes country music great. The interviews keep the show fun and moving.

The on-screen interviewee MVP is Marty Stuart, trailed by Vince Gill. These sweet guys are immense talents who know their music history and are eager to share it. Rosanne Cash is also notably candid, especially about "Daddy" but chiming in throughout on her family tree and the people she grew up and worked with. Repeat interview subjects from episode to episode serve as your very affable guides and constant companions and complement actor Peter Coyote's pitch-perfect series narration. Big names lent their time to give the inside story. It may even bring a tear to your eye to see Merle Haggard and Ralph Stanley appearing on camera, now posthumously.

For many, this goes without saying, but if you are a fan of classic or more recent country music and feel tempted to skip to the middle or end, do yourself a favor and make time to watch the episodes in order. With all of the people in the archive footage and newly interviewed, it's like Game of Thrones keeping track of all the players. Even so, each episode builds beautifully to the next. It's a storytelling marvel, laying a solid foundation accented by grace notes of sometimes subtle details that reveal their significance as the series progresses. See it.