I'm not sure I want much of it tbh when time would be better spent covering Billy Sherrill's production work with Columbia/Epic in the early 70s and later 70s crossover stuff like Eddie Rabbitt, et al.
That's what I don't understand about these series; not enough time to cover all the important stuff? Make a longer series!
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Wednesday, 18 September 2019 19:42 (four years ago) link
XP Rich might come up later, particularly if they get into Sherrill. He was a journeyman for years, which could get summed up in a segment in a later ep right before discussing "Behind Closed Doors" etc.
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 18 September 2019 19:45 (four years ago) link
I really hope they get into Sherrill. Very interesting and weird man.
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 18 September 2019 19:47 (four years ago) link
I have no doubt C&R will get into him in S2 if it really does revolve around George Jones, so if we don't get it here we'll get it there.
― Johnny Fever, Wednesday, 18 September 2019 20:11 (four years ago) link
My Dad wasnt a big drinker but when I was little sometimes at Christmas him & his best friend would get drunk & put Johnny Cash’s “A Boy Named Sue” on the record player at full volume & sing to it at the top of their voices. He loved all the big names from the 50’s and 60’s but didnt own a ton of records though. But I absorbed the songs he got the biggest kick out of. Then as a teen I somehow decided to reject country music completely for coolness reasons, idk :( Finally in my first year of Uni I heard the Beasts of Bourbon do a cover of Hank Williams’ Ramblin Man, and their orginal, a random b-side “The day Marty Robbins Died” and the door unlocked again. I guess hearing bands I loved profess their love for country music suddenly made it ok to openly enjoy and explore country from then on.I’ve been gently trying to convert Mr Veg into a fan - he was VERY reluctant at first & came around slowly but interestingly it was the Drive By Truckers that made him become more receptive and now he’s way more onboard. He’s watched all the Ken Burns episodes so far and has been enjoying it, which has been really great. It’s been fun being able to watch it together - if it was 10 or 15 years ago I dont think he would have.
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 18 September 2019 22:09 (four years ago) link
Drive By Truckers rule, is why
― Josh in Chicago, Wednesday, 18 September 2019 22:15 (four years ago) link
:Dotfm
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 18 September 2019 22:21 (four years ago) link
Marty Stuart and his Barry Manilow hair and banjo is my favorite commentator.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, 18 September 2019 22:33 (four years ago) link
he was born with that haircut, he gon die with that haircut
― Οὖτις, Wednesday, 18 September 2019 22:35 (four years ago) link
Gonna get a Honky Tonk haircut...Hey now hey now now
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Wednesday, 18 September 2019 22:58 (four years ago) link
marty’s hair is fkn majesticthat aint a hairdothat’s a mane
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 18 September 2019 23:07 (four years ago) link
yep
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 September 2019 00:05 (four years ago) link
we watched the live concert special from earlier this year - Marty busting out Orange Blossom Special on mandolin was fantastic, and Dwight Yoakum doing Mamas Hungry Eyes killed me.Dunno about Larry Gatlin’s Sunday Mornin Coming Down though. i love the ~idea~ of it, but in execution is just sounded weird.
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 19 September 2019 02:35 (four years ago) link
I love how Tom T. Hall sounds like an old time movie wiseguy.
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 19 September 2019 05:37 (four years ago) link
Wow, did not know that ROGER MILLER discovered the Patsy Cline crash site.
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 19 September 2019 06:25 (four years ago) link
Back to Charlie Rich for a sec, I sincerely hope this gets covered
https://classiccountrymusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/john-rich-735x413.jpg
― a bevy of supermodels, musicians and Lena Dunham (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 19 September 2019 07:35 (four years ago) link
Loved that willie had originally written the song “crazy” as “stupid” - it’s fun to sing it that way in retrospect.
― BrianB, Thursday, 19 September 2019 11:52 (four years ago) link
yeah that cracked me up
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Thursday, 19 September 2019 14:06 (four years ago) link
...singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash (daughter of Johnny) and mandolin virtuoso Marty Stuart (former child prodigy) could moonlight as music historians. But they’re all, by definition, industry insiders. There are barely any scholars or critics offering more distanced analysis, the way they might in a Burns war doc. The 85-year-old music historian Bill C. Malone is a welcome presence, and it helps to have the black banjo player Rhiannon Giddens, who has worked to reclaim that instrument’s African American roots, but they ought to have more varied company
from Carl Wilson's article on the show in Slate
He also says:
Burns pays appropriate homage to the pivotal role of Ray Charles’ 1962 cover album of Nashville hits, Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music, while omitting that it was mostly barred from country radio.
― curmudgeon, Thursday, 19 September 2019 17:45 (four years ago) link
i believe (i'm hedging here because it was in the 1980's and i was very young... could conceivably have been another daughter?) roseanne cash lived down the street from me when i grew up and she gave out full-sized candy bars for halloween. nice lady.
― Fuck the NRA (ulysses), Thursday, 19 September 2019 17:56 (four years ago) link
She would've been married to Rodney Crowell then.
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 19 September 2019 18:53 (four years ago) link
ooh pitchfork takedown
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 19 September 2019 19:03 (four years ago) link
He's right, but we're not the doc's intended audience: it's the usual PBS libs who love Johnny Cash because he's not cornpone. And even then the series has (thus far) avoided it. To avoid the Great Man Theory, maybe Burns should've concentrated on sounds, trends, myths, and iconography: bluegrass, Grand Ole Opry, yodeling, late '60s TV shows. It IS true that the documentary turns country into a sepia-tinged genre deserving respect instead of saying, "Uh, no, it's often tacky and racist, yet also absorbed gospel and the blues and sequins and awesome." Maybe Burns worries that his viewers can't handle complexity.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 September 2019 19:07 (four years ago) link
yeah the most astute criticism (and I'm only two episodes in) seems to be the "there are no villains, only heroes" line. Cuz it would be possible to walk away from this and think everyone in the country industry was an open-minded, progressive icon and that is uh definitely not true.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 19 September 2019 19:09 (four years ago) link
the racism seems to happen outside the frames and boundaries of the story - the overall racism of the country is acknowledged, but it's treated as happenstance that the first performer at the Grand Ol Opry was black also turned out to be the last one for like 50 years.
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 19 September 2019 19:11 (four years ago) link
It's a tightrope, obv, because lingering on the racism will confirm the worst suspicions of skeptics who loathe the genre anyway, which re-asks the question whom the doc is for.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 September 2019 19:12 (four years ago) link
I will say this, the doc has kinda made me want to hunt down and listen to every single Merle Haggard album (why because I am crazy)
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 19 September 2019 19:18 (four years ago) link
You should, especially his 1967-1972 and 1976-1982 runs.
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 September 2019 19:21 (four years ago) link
I have a lot of that stuff but there's gaps
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 19 September 2019 19:45 (four years ago) link
and oh look lol of course here's some old blog that has them all
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 19 September 2019 19:46 (four years ago) link
it's treated as happenstance that the first performer at the Grand Ol Opry was black also turned out to be the last one for like 50 years.
That reminds me, I wonder if he'll touch on The Pointer Sisters performing there. It might be too minor a thing in the grand scheme, but it's cool to me!
― Johnny Fever, Thursday, 19 September 2019 20:04 (four years ago) link
― Οὖτις, Thursday, September 19, 2019 3:18 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
Nothing crazy about this. Al OTMFM.
(And do not sleep on 2000's If I Could Only Fly, one of his all-time best, which is saying something.)
― Montgomery Burns' Jazz (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Thursday, 19 September 2019 20:25 (four years ago) link
yeah, three of his 2000-2011 albums are among his best
― TikTok to the (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 19 September 2019 20:33 (four years ago) link
looks like I'm not missing as much as I thought, a handful of things from the 70s, the Bonnie & Clyde album and the two live albums (Okie/Fightin Side of Me), and most of the stuff after Big City with the exception of a dozen songs or so
― Οὖτις, Thursday, 19 September 2019 21:55 (four years ago) link
singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash (daughter of Johnny) and mandolin virtuoso Marty Stuart (former child prodigy)
And one-time band member with and, later, son in law of Johnny Cash, too, joining the company of not just Crowell but also, for a time, Nick Lowe.
Anyway, racism is a cloud that hovers over all of America's history. It is indeed a tightrope, because if you bring it up as an explicit subject for further exploration, where do you stop?
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 19 September 2019 21:57 (four years ago) link
My favorite Merle Haggard story, the last time I saw him it sounded pretty bad - like, literally, it was not his fault, it was the PA or the room or something. So I went back to the soundboard hoping for something clearer, and there was this beleaguered sound guy just getting excoriated by an audience member. "Merle Haggard is an American treasure and you are making him sound terrible!" Audience guy otm, but I'm not sure the sound guy could have done much more with the shitty room.
― Josh in Chicago, Thursday, 19 September 2019 21:59 (four years ago) link
If I Could Only Fly is an incredible album, always knocks me on my ass
― “Hakuna Matata,” a nihilist philosophy (One Eye Open), Thursday, 19 September 2019 22:18 (four years ago) link
Merle Haggard is an American treasure and you are making him sound terrible!
new board description
― Brad C., Friday, 20 September 2019 00:51 (four years ago) link
Was anyone ever named Eck aside from those that come up in this context?
― Our Borad Could Be Your Trife (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 20 September 2019 13:26 (four years ago) link
I love this doc for giving me a quasi vacation to another time and place every time I sit down to watch some of it. It’s like a little daily trip to Countryville ❤️😀
― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Friday, 20 September 2019 14:04 (four years ago) link
yes! perfect description
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 20 September 2019 14:07 (four years ago) link
wau this one was new to mehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jsy6gqni1go
― Οὖτις, Friday, 20 September 2019 16:49 (four years ago) link
minor quibbles aside LL otm
https://www.stereogum.com/2058155/ken-burns-country-music-review/franchises/sounding-board/
Also,https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-country/louvin-brothers-movie-satan-is-real-ethan-hawke-836410/
― Our Borad Could Be Your Trife (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 22 September 2019 13:13 (four years ago) link
Seem to recall that Roy Acuff actually auditioned twice for the Opry. Having failed the audition the first time he amped up the waterworks when he finally got asked back again for the second go-round.
― Our Borad Could Be Your Trife (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 22 September 2019 13:28 (four years ago) link
Okay, just looked it up, he apparently auditioned multiple times over the years. In particular he came on as a guest crooning "The Great Speckled Bird" which flopped miserably but Alton Delmore saw something in him so he was invited back a little while later and he sang it again, this time in the more emotional style which made such a big impression.
― Our Borad Could Be Your Trife (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 22 September 2019 13:41 (four years ago) link
So does this go all the way up to the present day? (Peter Coyote: “Taylor Alison Swift was born on a Christmas Tree farm in Reading, Pennsylvania in 1989...”)
― Οὖτις, Sunday, 22 September 2019 13:50 (four years ago) link
From what I read it tapers off a lot by the time it reaches recent decades
― Our Borad Could Be Your Trife (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 22 September 2019 13:52 (four years ago) link
The last episode will be packed and rushed just like all his other chronological docs, I bet.
― Johnny Fever, Sunday, 22 September 2019 14:12 (four years ago) link
Or like the end of David Lynch's Dune.
― Our Borad Could Be Your Trife (James Redd and the Blecchs), Sunday, 22 September 2019 14:30 (four years ago) link