Ken Burns turns focus to country music

I look forward to seeing Ken Burns documentaries. Imo he is a very good storyteller. But some here don't particularly care for his style? He tries to tell it as if you were there, bringing history alive through a 1st-person narrative. Projects yet to be seen are Vietnam 2017, Country Music 2018 (discussed here), Ernest Hemingway 2019, and Standup Comedy TBA.

 

I'd like to be a member of SABR one day. I wonder how many people know the names you listed. Heinie My-tush - a little running gag I have with myself. Well, you see I'm from NY and I don't mind that one bit, but it was the lack of a character like Babe Herman or an underrated HOFer like Manush that made me think Burns glossed over so much.

I haven't seen it in some time also and I should probably re-watch, but I was so let down originally, I haven't forgotten. I remember each era had maybe 5 players mentioned that were major stars and then Ken would cover other details-again, not quite ones that had to do with actual results; more like what kind of equipment or how the fans were-which is important too.

My favorite old time team the Philadelphia A's dynasty was spoken of in a couple of minutes-that's Philly-a major city that had 2 teams. I barely remember hearing or seeing Al Simmons; Foxx, Cochrane, Grove barely (if at all) get a mention too. You would think a doc that long would serve the hardcore baseball fan, but it felt catered to the 'human' side and the casual-moderate fan. Maybe I'll rent from Netflix and watch that instead of the NY Mets getting injured every day!

 

Will Ken Burns cover the Hee-Haw honeys? That is the question.

 

Interviews need more Tanya Tucker, Mike Nesmith and Chris Scruggs.

 

Ken Burns The Origin Of The Furries
See Fur And Loathing season 4 of CSI

 

Any progress on this project?

 

Now listed as 2019.

 

Why does the film keep getting pushed?

 

My guess would be this 18 hour doc which is coming in September.

The Vietnam War - Ken Burns

 

I have a problem with his Jazz series, because he not only ended it at about 1965, but then said that virtually everything after 1965 is not worthwhile. He provided a negative viewpoint to over half of the music's history, in a quick, dismissive way, without supporting his point of view. That was very disappointing to me. It would be like presenting a history of American film, cutting it off at 1941, and then in one hour stating that every development in American film from 1941 on was not worthwhile. It is not just that he only emphasized the beginnings of jazz, which I would have no problem with. He was too brief in negatively portraying huge amounts of the musical history, including a lot that I love and find extremely worthwhile from an overall historical perspective.

 

Burns' Prohibition documentary was unexpectantly super-involving. But, I should have known that after being enraptured, like the rest of the country, with his Civil War epic, which forced us all to confront our painful past.

I have tons of respect for him, and his way of manipulating photos, letters, & rare footage.

 

It's been awhile but I do remember the Jazz thing including modern artists like Cassandra Wilson at the end.

I think the one on three pioneers of radio, Empire Of the Air, was very good. Not sure he had all that much to do with it though...

 

That doc was Awesome, with a capital "A"! Shout-out...Jason Robards!
Brooklyn Bridge is also very well done, his first in '81.
I recall that he had "credibility" issues early, especially when he did Baseball. After it aired, USA Today published a list of errors. e.g: In the Babe Ruth episode and his 1927 season when he hit 60 home runs, footage was used of one of his home runs at Yankee Stadium and as he rounded First base, you saw his iconic #3 on his uniform. Problem was, the Yankees only started wearing uniform numbers in 1929.

 

It says 2019 at the beginning of this thread.

 

Brad, thanks for posting this information. I'm excited to hear about this series. I like Ken's work. I have the Jazz set and have watched it a couple times all the way through. I was a little unhappy with the final episodes regarding Jazz after the early sixties but all in all, I enjoyed the series and look forward to the Country Music series.

 

There likely are good books on the subject, right? I learned a lot about jazz from this book - Jazz: America's Classical Music: Grover Sales: 9780306804915: Amazon.com: Books I do like the pictures and film clips in Burns documentaries, and those you cannot get from a book. Burns seems to like to advance his view of racial injustice in his documentaries, and I imagine there will be no shortage of that in any treatment of country music.

 

I know, Kenny G and the whole "smooth jazz" thing are totally dissed out!

Ah, I know what you mean...kinda. He certainly omits fusion with that timing, though many purists might agree. And I kinda feel-admittedly with some exceptions and admittedly perhaps with a ton of ignorance-that jazz has become mostly derivative. At least, when I read reviews and listen, I find some nice stuff, but seems pretty much in established styles. Miles Davis repeatedly said Maybe I need some way-pointing-out of new jazz styles to listen to.

 

I recall at about the time the documentary aired Burns made a point of saying he intentionally hired writers and researchers who were not knowledgeable about baseball. He thought that would give the documentary a fresh approach of sorts. I thought that was odd at the time and still do. I'm not sure if he used the same approach for his jazz documentary, but I would not be surprised if he did.

 

I was told by a very informed source that renowned Canadian author Pierre Berton did the same sort of thing. He hired grad students to do the "leg work" for him but really didn't follow up on the accuracy of his underling's work. A result, some of his works are rife with errors.

 

That is not what I meant. He ignored or dismissed all of the vast universe of very original music of the 1960s and 1970s, and of every decade since, probably because he is not familiar with hardly any of it.

 

Tell me more tell me more-I suspect I'm not too familiar either, aside from jazz funk or whatever you want to call Bitches Brew and Chick Corea and such. Actually now I'm thinking about Grover Washington Junior's lovely Winelight, and one of my favorite records ever George Benson's Give Me The Night and now I'm thinking about Anita Baker. And Swing Out Sister who OK are kinda pop but definitely some jazz...though they and Anita are based on earlier stuff and not breaking new ground IMNSHO.

 

I'm not sure he showed much interest in any of the great jazz guitarists, in fact I only remember much about Charlie Christian being included (I think maybe he did have Robert Cray near the end). In a way he dissed Django, Les Paul, Gabor Szabo, Larry Coryell, Lenny Breau and other notable string benders.

 

Cannot be as good as when Ken had the country in focus (dvd set is great); here's over three hours

 

Yeah, his National Parks book and film are truly spectacular.