Ken Burns - Country Music Documentary

I can't wait. Really looking forward to this series.

 

I'm looking forward to it as well. A couple of weeks ago my local PBS showed an hour long preview culled from the entire thing.
It was terrific primer for the 16 hour series.

 

I got a rather nice surprise from an ebay buy! I bought from someone on there what was listed as the Country Music soundtrack on vinyl, something from a press preview of the series. It's 12", looks like the soundtrack cover on vinyl, just slight differences on the front, saying when it premieres and all.

I got it yesterday in the mail, and sure enough, looked like a vinyl copy of the soundtrack, or some kind of sampler. Felt like 180 gram vinyl. I opened it, saw that it had a gatefold, and had a really nice synopsis of all the episodes. I felt what I thought was the record in the jacket, and when I pulled it out, it was a flat vinyl circle with a spindle in the middle, but with 4 DVDs mounted around it.

Turns out it's not the soundtrack, but a press preview issue of the entire 8 episodes! Watched the first episode last night to see if it was the entire one or a cut down preview version, and it was the entire 2 hour episode!

Looks like I got the series already on DVD! Probably won't watch the rest, as I want to watch as it airs. But this was an amazing surprise for $15.00!

 

Caught the Ryman Show, all these greats that get no airplay.
Vince Gill never ceases to amaze on guitar.

Really good show, Larry Gatlin notwithstanding.

 

I wasn't watching every minute. Did they introduce the band? Was that Norm Hamlet on steel guitar?

 

I don’t know if they ran their names on the credits or not. They shifted to a small screen and did ads for other PBS programs and I didn’t look. Wanted to but didn’t.

Looked too young for Norm Hamlet, to me, and it didn’t look like Paul Franklin, but it’s been a couple of years.

 

No, I watched the credits. Paul Franklin listed on steel. The doofus I referred to above is Ketch Secor founder of Old Crow Medicine show-good band but I still think he looked silly in his straw hat but maybe that was the point. Who’s Country? — THE BITTER SOUTHERNER

 

I won't post any spoilers, but I did enjoy Episode 1, titled, "The Rub". It did a fairly nice job of documenting the early stages of the regional forms of Folk Music up through the Bristol Sessions, WLS' Barn Dance, WSM's Grand Ole Opry and highlights The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers.

Some really nice archival photos and the interviews were varied quite a bit about the period. Rhiannon Giddens never ceases to amaze me. Always loved her music, and her knowledge is quite impressive.

I thought it was a solid start for the series, and a good foundation to show what the music will become.

 

The Ryman concert was shown the other day MC'ed by Ken Burns with a few segemnts from the forthcoming series. Roseanne Cash did a fantastic I Still Miss Someone I thought. Ricky Skaggs, Rhiannon Giddens, Dwight Yoakam, Riders In the Sky, Rodney Crowell, Marty Stuart, Asleep At The Wheel and many great musicians backing...

Sixteen hours? Sound heavy (but in a good way)

 

Looking forward to this, but I still can't ever forgive whomever is responsible for the absolutely criminal short-shrift that "post-1960" jazz got on Ken Burns Jazz. Absolutely unforgivable.

 

My feelings exactly.

 

I'm still bracing myself in case he does that here, but from the advance word I've read and seen, where Johnny Cash is one focal point for the series, that was a good decision. Indeed, if you look at the website for the series, the timeline goes through the major events that happen over the course the series takes, up until about 1996. Then it skips to 2003 to mention 3 events: Cash's American IV: The Man Comes Around going Gold, June Carter Cash passing and Johnny a few months later.

To me, that's perfect and very poignant.

 

One need only look at this annotated episode guide (to Jazz), to see exactly how the distribution of time within the 19 hours. All of these episodes were 2 hours, except for Episodes 5 & 6 (90 minutes each, or 3 hours total that covers just 6 years).

Episode Guide
Episode 1 "Gumbo" (Beginnings to 1917)

"Gumbo" traces the roots of jazz from the 1800s to 1917. The viewer will catch glimpses of Jelly Roll Morton, who erroneously claimed to have invented jazz, and the tragic, though influential, figure of trumpeter Buddy Bolden.

Episode 2 "The Gift" (1917-1924) – 8 years

How can one explain the genius of a Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington? Blessed with skill and talent far exceeding their peers, one can only define what they possess as a gift from the gods. These early portraits are imperative, because both figures have been so canonized that it is easy to forget the significance of their gifts.

Episode 3 "Our Language" (1924-1928) – 5 years

Colorful characters like the tragic Bix Beiderbecke, powerhouse Bessie Smith, and the braggart Jelly Roll Morton, make the study of jazz fascinating. Perhaps most touching in this episode is the extended portrait of the troubled, white cornet player, Bix Beiderbecke, whose family disapproved of his chosen profession, and who would never be allowed to record with greats like Louis Armstrong due to segregation in the music business.

Episode 4 "The True Welcome" (1929-1935) – 7 years

"The True Welcome" continues many of the stories begun in Episode 3, following several troubling years for Louis Armstrong (who was arrested for marijuana possession), Duke Ellington’s growth as a composer, and Benny Goodman discovering gold in Fletcher Henderson’s arrangements. "The True Welcome" also has a nice section on rich kid John Hammond, Sr. who would become one of jazz’ biggest promoters

Episode 5 "Swing: Pure Pleasure" (1935-1937) – just 3 years (probably 90 min)

1935 was the year that swing became the most popular music in the country and that the king of swing, Benny Goodman, became a matinee idol. Americans, stifled by the Depression, seemed determined to dance their troubles away. "Swing: Pure Pleasure" follows the continuing careers of Goodman, Artie Shaw, and Armstrong, and the discovery of Billy Holiday.

Episode 6 "Swing: The Velocity of Celebration" (1937—1939) – just 3 years (probably 90 min)

Swing would be reacquainted with its blues roots by way of Kansas City, when Count Basie and the Barons of Rhythm brought their hot sound to the Big Apple. Basie would also give Billie Holiday her first break, offering her a chance to travel, perform, drink, and gamble with the rest of the band. Another young singer named Ella Fitzgerald would get her start in Chick Webb’s band at the Savoy Ballroom, and then be named top female vocalist—over Billy Holiday—by Down Beat in 1937.

Episode 7 "Dedicated to Chaos" (1940—1945) – 6 years

"Dedicated to Chaos" finds jazz musicians teetering on the brink of the modern era, fighting against the straightjacket of clichéd, big band arrangements. The revolution started at Minton’s Playhouse, a rundown club where musicians like Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, and Charlie Christian jammed on Monday nights. When they hooked up with a young saxophone player from Kansas City named Charlie Parker, the bop insurgency had arrived.

Episode 8 "Risk" (1945—1955) – 11 years

The bop revolution’s influence would spread to other musicians, but unlike swing, it would never become a popular music. The rapid-fire solos and complicated chord structures made bop a musician’s music, unfit for dancing. Indeed, Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie’s music even alienated established musicians like Armstrong. "Risk" provides an in-depth biography of the bright, brief life of Parker, and includes interviews with his former wife.

Episode 9 "The Adventure" (1956—1960) – 5 years

Critics who had believed that Charlie Parker was "too much" musically, could not have welcomed the arrival of Ornette Coleman. Coleman and John Coltrane would edge jazz toward even more freedom, eventually dropping all traditional structures. While these artists alienated many listeners, Miles Davis would record the most popular jazz album of all time, Kind of Blue.

Episode 10 "A Masterpiece by Midnight" (1961—The Present) – everything *since* 1960 (40 years), in just 2 hours! – but not really, because the last hour is just a random mish-mash of more current live concert and live-in-the studio clips (mostly), with a few younger jazz artists saying why jazz is important to them (interspersed).

Obviously Ken Burns knows that he can’t fit the last thirty-nine years of jazz history onto two hours of video tape, so from the outset, that shouldn’t be expected. There’s an excellent biography of John Coltrane, and footage of Miles Davis’ wonderful mid-‘60s quintet. There is also a nice, small section on the magnificent Charles Mingus.
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That very last 2 hours: *Only the first hour* covers the 1960’s (incl. 4-5 minutes (10% of that hour) about the passing and funerals of Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington). And then the second hour is mostly random, lengthier clips of (then) more “current” jazz artists in various concert clips, mostly just letting the music speak for itself. So the entire 1960’s – the entire heart of jazz (to me) – is barely 40 minutes (if you ignore the ‘funeral’ stuff). And the new developments in the 1970’s are maybe 2-3 minutes (if that). Out of 19 hours total.

 

Country music going back all the way to the beginning is near and dear to my heart so I was excited to find out about this series, but I knew from watching Jazz that those choices were inexcusable. I’ve told folks in the past that I do recommend watching Jazz if they’re interested in it with that caveat. What ground it does cover, it covers well. But it seemed like an attempt to paint the genre as something much more narrow that stopped developing a long time ago.

I’m hopeful but not holding my breath that this Country series will be more broad in it’s scope. There’s so much that needs to be shown to tell the full story of the music.

 

I don't think this one is going to be as dominated by a single voice the way Burns let Wynton Marsalis do in Jazz. Marty Stuart I trust but I think Burns had other prominent voices, or I hope he does. Hope it won't be dominated by Cash's revival with Rubin or groups like Old Crow, Chatham County, Carolina Chocolate Drops, etc. I'll take some square dance music over that! YMMV. I don't think I am its intended audience

 

I got to watch the whole concert last night on the PBS streaming app, and I have to agree. Larry Gatlin was just out of place and his version of "Sunday Morning Coming Down" was something I ended up moving forward a bit until it was over. He even sang that horrible style when everyone was on stage to sing the finale of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken", which in and of itself was phenomenal!

I also think that Ketch Secor, as good as he normally is, completely missed the mark on his solo contribution, "In The Jailhouse Now". He tried to make it more a roaring 20's, wah-wah, comic style song, instead of the plaintive Rodgers style. Vince Gill even looked a little puzzled while he was performing it.

One of the highlights, to me, was Rhiannon Giddens. Both her times onstage were fantastic.

 

I could swear I saw Guy Clark in a photo on the ad for the series. That alone has me curious about this.

 

Giddens has a nice voice but I don't hear country, IMO.

 

It was great

 

I did not think she belonged there

 

Premieres Sunday, September 15 at 8/7c.

 

Not that familiar with her, just with the Sankofa Strings in the Chasin’ Gus’ Ghost film. And that was more rural blues, jugband homemade music that the film centered on.
Never tried Carolina Chocolate Drops, so no idea where they fall in the Country, Folk, Rural Blues spectrum.

Agree, great voice but not Country.

 

And Part 2 will be on Monday again at 8/7c.

 

And most PBS stations will also be rebroadcasting both episodes throughout the week at various times (afternoons, weird overnight hours maybe even), if our local PBS affiliate here in DC is any indication. I'm sure both episodes will broadcast 3x each, before the week's out.

 

That's the same with our PBS affiliate as well.