Ken Burns' COUNTRY MUSIC Documentary

https://www.mediavillage.com/media/articles/IMG_4959.jpg.1440x1000_q85_box-0%2C0%2C596%2C413_crop_detail.jpg

...was just a category on today's Jeopardy, so let's anticipate/dread/debate whether we need this when we already have Cocaine & Rhinestones etc.

camera pans over a daguerrotype of a hill billy

I'm excited about it. But I don't listen to "podcasts"

was there a thread to talk about American Epic? it was ok.

Final episode focuses entirely on how Wynton Marsalis' collaboration with Willie Nelson revitalized country music.

I wonder if they'll do like they did w/Fusion in the Jazz doc by being handwavy re:the importance of Byrds/Gram Parsons etc. and Country Rock.

that's Rosanne Cash up there, no?

Yes.

this seems so boringly obvious to me.

and when you can say that about a ken burns endeavour, hoo boy.

was there a thread to talk about American Epic? it was ok.

They were showing some of these this afternoon as an undercard to Burns' premiere. Quite good! I really liked the Charley Patton segment.

David Cantwell has a review:

newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/ken-burns-delightful-country-music-gets-the-big-things-mostly-right

Bloody hell, WYNTON <is> in this!

It's pretty damn good so far

Bloody hell, WYNTON <is> in this!

Narrator sounds to be Peter Coyote.

It is. He's Burns go-to for narration.

first ep was pretty good to me.

_billygoat testicles_

that part just played again. archived for posterity

Great opening ep.

and the rerun of American Epic beforehand was an inspired foreword.

"this seems so boringly obvious to me."

lol @ calling 99% of what's being covered in episode 1 "obvious."

I could listen to that first a cappella bit with Dolly for hours.

otm

how many episodes are there of this? man, Ep1 was a pretty deep dive.

Eight, I think

They're showing four this week, and the other four next week (Sunday-->Wednesday each week).

All of the first 4 are already on the PBS app on Roku/FireTV/etc.

oooh! that's good. i know people dunk on wynton and his inability to see beyond his own jazz glasses but the historical information in the jazz doc is very useful for educational purposes when students have no idea what jazz is or where it came from beyond what i've said. it confirms that teacher is not crazy. i am assuming the country music one is similar?

(i don't show them the whole thing, it's too long, but the chapters about the origins are great aside from the graphic imagery of lynchings and constant talk about prostitution -- which actually caused trouble in one of my classes but that is neither here nor there nor jazz nor country)

I guess I will watch the first ep of this but I am v v skeptical

It's good!

Does anyone actual listen to Wynton Marsalis? He's released maybe 100 or so records, but I don't think I've heard a note.

wasn't he involved in a recent movie about buddy bolden?

(of course it's buddy bolden)

i listen to marsalis / have seen him play live / have talked to him once or twice. he's phenomenally knowledgable about music but also quite opinionated. he's allowed to be!

I figure he must have some sorta fanbase beyond those who might casually pick up a Jazz CD at Barnes & Noble. There's also those who might casually pick up a Jazz Christmas CD at Barnes & Noble. I haven't ever met a single Wynton fan, though.

(although a trumpeter acquaintance once told me and several other skeptics that one of Wynton's early records -- possibly his debut as a leader -- is "actually really good! Nobody believes me, but it's good!")

Something I noticed re: Wynton's interview: At one point he makes a quick hand gesture revealing he's holding his trumpet in his right hand.

Might be surgically attached.

whats weird is i get him mixed up w George Winston & think he’s the barefoot piano guy

Wynton is a really good live musician and bandleader and composer! His fans are very much of the "jazz as american classical" audience though and that puts a lot of folks off.

Does anyone actual listen to Wynton Marsalis?

i have a chico freeman album from the early 80s with wynton on a couple tracks. i'll just mirror the cliche: he sounds like mid-60s miles. passable, but it must suck to have recorded as much music as he has and never once had a unique or dinstictive thing to say.

anyway I really enjoyed the first ep, impressed that they covered so much ground but still kept it interesting

loved Merle singing Mule skinner blues ... and Vince Gill demoing the Carter Scratch ...

and man gimme some of whatever Marty Stuart is taking/bathing in to still look so great

this is admittedly not my area of expertise but this seems like a funny discussion about Wynton and whether or not he has actual fans. he's one of the most famous jazz musicians in the world!

wonder if they will gloss over the horrific story of spade cooley & how he got pardoned by reagan

it must suck to have recorded as much music as he has and never once had a unique or dinstictive thing to say.

It's one thing to be in your late teens and early 20s and talking shit about Miles Davis, because you've got your whole career ahead of you to prove and illustrate your point. But Wynton's pushing 60 now, and you have to wonder if he looks back on his career and regrets that he hasn't taken one single solitary risk in his musical life.

xpost mmm yes wondering that myself
although by the same token i dont want a super detailed account because it’s so horrific

i enjoyed last night's episode of the show but felt like it dragged a lot in the second half. i'm still "in" tho

also i think Marty Stuart is my favorite country artist ever

xp - yeah neither do i but i do want it to be acknowledged -- he was one of the most disgusting and horrible people i have ever heard of and he was pardoned by ronald mc donald reagan !!!!

I don't see any reason to make a big deal about the Reagan pardon, Cooley was dead already anyway.

I mean on the list of shitty things Reagan did it's kinda low

Cooley obviously a horrible monster who should've died in prison, but the parole board let him out (not Reagan) and then the dude died.

well i for one am glad he died

nevermind my digression. i plan to watch this ASAP.

Has there ever been a Jimmie Rodgers biopic?

The 1982 film Honkytonk Man, directed by and starring Clint Eastwood, was loosely based on Rodgers' life.

Exactly. That’s how we knew he wasn’t just a journeyman.

Well good evening,
Don’t that sun look good going down

I’m having withdrawal symptoms from/flashbacks to this. Right now hearing a mashup of “The Streets of Bakersfield” and “Delia’s Gone” in my head.

What these two songs have in common is that they were re-recorded by the artists decades later and finally became hits of a sort. Wondering what other songs from major country artists fit this bill.

Wow, Wikipedia says there have been tons of recordings by folk and country artists of “Delia” songs and that Johnny Cash alone recorded it four times.

Also is that a body double for Flaco Jiménez in the background of the video for “The Streets of Bakersfield”?

we dug up the BBC Lost Highways series on youtube and have started watching tonight. Charlie Louvin! <3

Wow, Ray Price gets an episode too.

Buck AND his producer!

Random fact that just popped into my head: believe “Ring of Fire” was first recorded by one of the other Carter sisters- Anita, I think- before Johnny had the idea to cut it with mariachi horns.

still reeling over some of these Lost Highways interviews - episode 2 interviews with Ray Price & Eddy Arnold <3

the one thing i don’t like about Lost Highways over Ken Burns is that it picks sides in a narrative way too heavily, ie Audrey drove Hank to drink; Ray Price is the “judas” of country for doing Danny Boy, etc

like sure it’s conventional wisdom of the time but as a storyteller you should try to do a little better than wallowing in the muck with everyone else.

idk. i think Burns has a lighter touch and allows for more context to tell a richer story, even when he leaves stuff out that we would want to see. i mean he has his glib moments too but they don’t feel as harsh
as some of these

Just got busted by a neighbor whilst walking home and singing along to “The Streets of Baltimore.”

breaking news update direct from the source (i coildnt take the suspense so i emailed the pod)

Holding Things Together episode 8 could hit yr feed Sunday (maybe)

quoting Don: “I’ve been traveling and traveling. Hope to get to it on Sunday. I’m actually in Nashville right now for Dolly’s 50th Opry Anniversary show so I’m keeping it country.” 🤠

Thanks. I have this far resisted using that email, but may do so soon.

i hope they continue it in some other form after the final ep. i really enjoy their convos & have learned so much!

Assuming you told them that in the email.

i wrote an itunes review for that :)

Leafing through the tie-in book, which does indeed have incredible photos and more details, more stories. Carlene Carter’s dad, Carl Smith, is discussed and there is even a photo of him and June. Random thing I never knew: the Patti Page hit version of “The Tennessee Waltz” was a B-side, the A-side being “Boogie Woogie Santa Claus.” Random thing I always forget: Jimmie Rodgers covering up the smell of his medicine with Black Narcissus perfume.

Just saw a busker presumably cashing in on the current country boom and doing Ray Charles singing “I Can’t Stop Loving You.”

Was going to get around to watching this on PBS website...but uh I guess you can't do that once it's stopped airing? That's some bullshit. I pay their salaries etc etc. (Yes I am John D and Catherine T MacArthur.)

There was a two week window when you could watch it, I think, otherwise you need a special membership

I really enjoyed the first half of this but the latter part suffers from trying to extend the narratives. The lack of Glen Campbell was severely disappointing. Also, I missed the graphical devices they used to animate the early years.

Yup.

Just barreled through to the end of the book. The afterword by Dayton Duncan sheds some light on the generally high quality of this documentary, albeit with the various caveats expressed throughout thread: he was already a serious fan for a few decades before starting this almost a decade-long project.

The bibliography is reasonably serious too.

Also wondering if we should repurpose this thread as some kind of Good Books About Old School Country Music or find or start another thread for that purpose.

*fingers crossed*

i like that idea!

Yes plz

First post should be about charlie louvin’s autobio

otm

Yes, repurpose this thread or yes, start a new one? Leaning towards the latter.

By the Time I Get to ILX: Good Books About Country Music

Okay Lefty Frizzell singing Jimmie Rodgers’s “Brakeman’s Blues” on the official Spotify playlist for episode 1 of this is totally reminiscent of Dylan’s country voice.

I don't know if this happening elsewhere, but Houston PBS is re-airing this starting tonight in weekly installments.

mr veg got me the book & the soundtrack for christmas #ahHAH

yup i saw a promo abt this re-air whilst watching antique roadshow xp

Oh, I hope it’s on near me. I had dvr’d some episodes but missed the first one. They are selling them but not otherwise making them available for free online. The 1960s and 70s episodes were very interesting

Although yes those episodes didn’t give Glen Campbell and others their full proper due

I'm in a bar for a Clash Day thing, and the TV is running the Kristofferson ep on mute, and even then, that bit where Charley Pride goes over the lyrics to "Loving Her Was Easier..." is worldbeating.

Where's his movie?

...and of course there's a Charley Pride American Masters that aired afterwards.

Charley Pride was my aunt's favorite singer. That era of country was the music I heard in the cradle.

Via re-airing, finally saw more of the one about Outlaw etc.: Good that they slipped Freddie Fender and Flaco Jiminez in there for a second (FF's bilingual "I'll Be There Before The Next Teardrop Falls"=soulful starpower), somehow thereby mentioning them as Texas Tornadoes, but not Doug...)
Can see why Alfred was querying whether Emmylou really loomed *this* large for people of the 70s lol--my impression at the time, without hearing much of her post-GP work 'til later decades, was of her as good ambassador from outside world (post-counterculture, for inst?), and contributor to the country and countryoid community, learning from and creatively responding to tradition, esp. with her bands, trying for albums of distnctive focus (with signature sound, but also striving for records you could tell apart). Still, my more recent impression, of 70s-80s concert tapes, is of a big proto-Americana jukebox/CD carousel on random (if often gorgeous) shuffle.
Several excerpts from Heartworn Highways--the DVD I have incl. an hour's worth of bonus footage, and the color edition is worth seeking, though black and white would prob be pretty effective. The mercurial Townes segments certainly demonstrate that he wasn't always dark-to-stark, as some of this doc's commentary claims. HH has other dynamics I won't spoil, just git it and see.

Can't remember if this was said upthread, but I believe one specific example of Emmylou Harris's influence was having the CMF release The Louvin Brothers' Radio Favorites, for which I think she wrote the liner notes, when almost everything they did was out of print at the time.

Cool, didn't know that!
"Gram Parsons also recorded 'Cash on the Barrelhead.' And the biggest favor that Gram Parsons ever did for The Louvin Brothers was when he introduced Emmylou Harris to the Louvin Brothers sound. He played this song for her — I don't know exactly which song it was — but her remark was, 'Who is that girl singing the high part?' And Gram said, 'That's not a girl. That's Ira Louvin.' And so Emmylou did a big favor for the Louvin Brother music catalog. I guess it's about 500 songs in all, and she recorded five or six of them, which I appreciate. I know Ira would've, too."
Good interview:
https://www.npr.org/2011/01/27/133246237/charlie-louvin-remembering-countrys-harmonizer

Parsons also brought "The Christian Life" to the Byrds for Sweetheart.

"Muh Good Friend--Mistah John Denvah!"

Damnit Ken, where was the discussion of this...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SEPfxI0BO98

Minnie Pearl Doc Coming Soon:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpBbHN1_FNg

Episode #9: TRY THAT IN A SMALL TOWN