Ken Burns’ Country Music on PBS

His last album was spectacular

 

Hear, hear!

 

Thanks! A shame about the editing.

 

Minnie Pearl once said she heard Hank mutter under his breath, "There ain't no light" after playing that song. He was an unhappy man.

 

I'm a fan of Ken Burns' docs.

Here's the thing about Ken Burns - I'm a fan and I look forward to his docs. But they are totally open to criticism of any kind - his efforts are in part publicly funded. And maybe more importantly, through his documentaries he helps shape the narrative for us - as a society - in how we view big events and movements. No one else will be entrusted with projects of this kind in our lifetimes - so he kind of gets the last say. And I - with a lifelong interest in the civil war and country music for examples - don't always agree with his choices. Burns relates that he was not a fan of country music - one might even surmise through his answers, he may have had some pre-conceived ideas about what he believed country music to be... He's had a change of heart obviously, but he brings his own almost reactionary filter to how he presents the material. See Country Music really is inclusive - even Charlie Parker liked it! And these are all valid stories. But let's face it while music itself is inclusive - the Country Music industry (and some of the culture around it) was racist and often in your face proudly so. This is the part that makes Ken Burns uncomfortable - as someone else pointed out and I think he shies away from it. The story about DeFord Bailey is about as much as we're going to hear and even then the viewer is left make their own conclusions. Maybe i'ts not the place for it on Public Broadcasting, but come on. By the way I'm watching it every night and enjoying it.

 

RE>DeFord Bailey ... the late Paul Hemphill, a noted Southern author, wrote a great book in 1970 called "The Nashville Sound," a look at country music. He looked up DeFord (who didn't pass until 1982) and had an entire, very well done chapter in there about him.

 

Wait a minute, have you been watching documentaries by somebody else named Ken Burns? Because we all here have got to tell you, thee Ken Burns does not shy away from racism. My God, he is just the opposite. He finds racism in everything! Baseball, racist. Jazz, racist, Prohibition, racist. Frank Lloyd Wright architecture, racist. Brooklyn Bridge, racist. I can't wait for his documentary on candy and his explanation as to why most people do not like the brown M&Ms.

 

Anything is subject to criticism, of course, and I definitely was one who wondered why the "Jazz" series ended where it did. But one does have to be thankful for what Burns does accomplish so skillfully. I have been a musician and a music fanatic for most of my life (growing up in the Bay Area in the Sixties kinda does that to ya...) but my knowledge of Jimmy Rogers increased ten fold by what I saw this week. And, as much as I knew about Hank Williams, what I now know is increased. Just seeing these guys in context adds so much to what you know about them.

And it seems to me hard to tell any American story without dealing with racism. Speaking of the 60's, I am reading a book about the era called "Hard Rain." Though I am old enough to remember much in it, it is sad and shocking to revisit the violence in Mississippi and Alabama when the Civil Rights movement kicked into gear. It feels odd to have been alive when the murder of and violence inflicted on black people was still commonplace and went unpunished.

Race relations will always be America's sad legacy and karmic burden, from the wholesale slaughter of Native Americans to the status of blacks in our culture.

But I am not here to get bogged down in that. It's the music that is important to me and thanks again to Ken Burns.

 

What did Hank Williams, Jr., say last night? Something like "Rock Around The Clock" by Bill Haley is a copy of Hank Williams, Sr., "Move It On Over"... And thus THAT is the first rock n roll song... Even the guitar solo is a copy, shazam!

Check it out:

 

I saw this too. Very convincing.

 

Could be, Willie being God's problem child.

They could've included Junior Brown as a co-talking head:

My Baby Don't Dance To Nothing But Ernest Tubb

 

The Oxford American’s new podcast features an interview with Ken Burns and Rhiannon Giddens on race and country music as well as Ken and producer Julie Dunfey about creating the soundscape for the documentary.

https://points-south.simplecast.com/episodes/episode-one-working-on-a-building-7sbJQep9

 

That statement was completely misguided, wrong, and was allowed to air only due to the director's presumed ignorance. "Move It On Over" is a standard blues progression, call-and-response, like many songs before it, all tracing their origin back to the Hokum Boys' late 1920s hit "It's Tight Like That."

 

I noticed that, too. Perhaps he'll come up later?

 

No, Floyd Tillman did not get mentioned, nor did Red Foley and lots of other big stars of the period being covered. Merle Travis was mentioned, but only as a "session musician." Huh? He did play some sessions but he was far better known as a singer on his own records.

 

Genre markers only matter to hardcore fans and marketing departments. A lot of "country" artists could have been "pop" singers, had "pop" remained popular in the South. Lonzo and Oscar stated out playing horns in a pop orchestra. Floyd Tillman started out in a pop orchestra. The list is endless.

 

Speaking for America... "We amuse you; you think we're funny, we amuse you, how do we amuse you?" < Just kidding if you didn't get it Norway. We (speaking for all America) don't want any more countries angered at us then already are.

 

In my life experience , from the late 50’s to the late 60’s wasn’t a good time to be African American. Prior to that, my reading of history tells me it was worse. So any documentary on just about any topic is going to necessarily include racism.

Blacks weren’t included in country music even though they certainly knew how to play three chords and tell a story. It was so hard to get in that Charlie Pride was recorded but was discouraged from appearing in public. There was another African American country artist who was at least as good as Charlie , maybe better.

He even had Pee Wee King in his corner, and the program director for WENO 1430 Nashville, TN. But Doug Jones would only get one record released on Dominion Records, Music Park Publishing called “Chasing The Dream.” Not sure why he never made it like Charlie Pride but maybe there just wasn’t room.

I can’t find that record on discogs, eBay or anywhere else yet. I think you’d have to go to his hometown , Chillicothe, Ohio to find out about him. But the point is, if you accept that some of country music is about hard living, poverty, working class, alcohol/drug abuse, domestic strife, trouble with the law, simple pleasures, forgetting ones hard luck and the like.....African Americans should fit right in.

 

I heard Red Foley get mentioned and saw a photo of him. Quick mention, but there.

 

Before Hank Jr. starts accusing people of stealing from his father, somebody better tell Hank Jr. that his father stole "Move It On Over" from George Thorogood.

Check it out:

 

I wouldn't by any means consider myself a Country Music scholar or even a limited aficionado; certainly beyond the general origins and major figures I consider myself a neophyte. Country is absolutely not one of my major genres of interest although as I stated in my original post I believe all genres of music are related and part of a whole... our shared language; shared by all of humanity. Like the Burns series itself as well as this thread to this point I've learned much about the genres' complex history, offshoots and associated related historical connections. I've been given a desire and roadmap to further explore the music, the artists, the circumstances for growth and prominence.

One big Right On! and thanks to y'all; Burns, his team and Hoffman members who've taken the time post. When I initiated the thread my purpose was mainly to alert the community to the airing... but a much greater purpose has unfolded; so again thanks and Right On!

I've got to buy some Life Insurance before tonights episode so I've got to go.

 

Um. Finding racism in baseball and jazz isn’t really that hard a thing to do.

 

I suspect Travis will get more run when the Nitty Gritty/Will the Circle segment hits

 

Especially not when you are looking for it.

Come on. We all laugh at Ken Burns documentaries. Sure, we love them. Informative, wonderfully put together, but we all know Ken Burns can't miss a moment to show racism. It's laughable how it pops us like clockwork in his documentaries. "Wow, Ken hasn't brought up race in about four minutes...wait for it, it's coming...it's coming...there it is!" Every five minutes. Can set your watch by it.

But I love the guy and his work anyway. I just wish he would do a doc on rock and roll and a massive one on WWII. 32 episodes!

 

I do wonder how much of this series’ choices were affected by that Jack White American Epic series.