Ken Burns' COUNTRY MUSIC Documentary

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!

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, 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.)

yeah, three of his 2000-2011 albums are among his best

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

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?

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.

If I Could Only Fly is an incredible album, always knocks me on my ass

Merle Haggard is an American treasure and you are making him sound terrible!

new board description

Was anyone ever named Eck aside from those that come up in this context?

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 ❤️😀

yes! perfect description

wau this one was new to me
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jsy6gqni1go

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/

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.

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.

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...”)

From what I read it tapers off a lot by the time it reaches recent decades

The last episode will be packed and rushed just like all his other chronological docs, I bet.

Or like the end of David Lynch's Dune.

It'll just be freeze frames and captions, like the end of "Animal House."

B-b-but at the very end there will be an Easter egg in which there are some Frost Giants in Stetsons planning revenge on Asgard/Nashville.

Okay, am only half-way through last week's offering- I am a Slow Watcher- and, although, I kind of resent the fact that information it took me years to accumulate is now easily available in this digest format and agree with the basic criticisms linked to about it skimping on some deeper analysis, basically finding this a pretty solid offering. Agree with others such as LL and VG about the visuals being extremely useful and about watching this being a little pocket holler universe to escape into.

Whoa, Fred Foster another one of those they interviewed just in time. Had to search and found: Rolling Obituary Thread: 2019

Last episode is supposed to go up to 1996. Why that year, I don't know. Do wonder if that means near the end they'll cover Uncle Tupelo and the 'No Depression' movement.

Of course, they could be lying, and they go ahead a little to spend 30 minutes tracing the lineage of "Wagon Wheel".

Stereogum review I linked to seems indicate that stuff will not be covered. So No No Nanette Depression.

<Sad Jay Farrar Face>

Weird James Redd factoid I feel compelled to add to thread: the first time I heard “Blue Yodel No. 1 (T for Texas) ” was at a Half Japanese show at Maxwell's.

But perhaps one of you first heard it that same way. If not,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0Olph6TlO4

Who is the Cecil Taylor of country & western?

Doug Sahm?

But perhaps one of you first heard it that same way.

Haha, I def heard that via half japanese before I’d ever listened to Jimmie rodgers

Burns is def into having protagonists

Billy Sherrill is to Waylon/Willie as George McClellan was to the Union Army

xpost Willie gets pretty free. Townes was a pretty big impactful country radical, kinda.

Lyle Lovett would be the Count Basie, I guess.

A nice, speedy (in more ways than one) five minutes on Roger Miller.

In the fifth episode?

Because he's mentioned in the fourth, along with Mel Tillis.

Sorry, I am almost caught up on last week's episodes.

Really liking the commentary from Ray Walker of the Jordanaires.

Yeah, in the fifth. They go over his career there in a 5 or so minute segment including a great anecdote from Raplh Emery about his pill use.

Speaking of pills, the whole Pete Seeger show w/June and a jacked-up Johnny is on YT:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep7Sh9XZ98A

Jack White's Pomphawk is...very Pomphawk-y.

That 'Pretty Little Lady' mastercut is something else.

when they showed the footage of Cash & Dylan at the piano Mr Veg said right away, “wow...he is gacked out of his mind”

weirdly, i’d never noticed before! how dumb is that.

all i know is that now I need a 10 part series on Merle in the worst way. just seeing him talk about his life even briefly makes me tear up. and then Dwight actually crying

i mean

oh Jack White’s pompadour = he’s gone full Ed Grimley now, no turning back.

man, tonight's episode was for me. Bakersfield, Buck, Loretta, Merle, Dolly, Cash ... whew.

Wondering if that Dwight interview was conducted in the immediate wake of Merle's passing.

BTW, I don't know how easy it is to track down, but the Haggard American Masters episode from about 10 years ago is killer: loads of great vintage footage framed by clips of Merle and his wife driving around Bakersfield looking for important places from his past.

so far my favorite line from this show is "he was named after a mule he admired"

I assume they're saving George Jones for the 70s...? He's been referenced a few times and popped up in photos, but otherwise he's conspicuously absent.