Ken Burns: Country Music (September 15th on PBS)

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CagleMtnVol

CagleMtnVol

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Ken Burns' Country Music

Premier Date: Sunday, September 15, 2019
Network: PBS

Synopsis:

Country Music will be a sweeping, eight-part, 16 1/2-hour series set to premiere Sept. 15 on PBS, exploring the questions, “What is country music?” “Where did it come from?” while focusing on the biographies of the fascinating characters who created it—from the Carter family, Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Wills, to Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Charley Pride, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard, Emmylou Harris, Garth Brooks and many more—as well as the times in which they lived. And like the music itself, Country Music will tell unforgettable stories—stories of the hardships and joys shared by everyday people.

Country Music will chronicle the history of a uniquely American art form, rising from the experiences of remarkable people in distinctive regions of our nation. From southern Appalachia’s songs of struggle, heartbreak and faith to the rollicking western swing of Texas, from California honky tonks to Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, we will follow the evolution of country music over the course of the twentieth century, as it eventually emerged to become America’s music.
It will be directed and produced by Ken Burns; written and produced by Dayton Duncan; and produced by Julie Dunfey—Emmy-award winning creators of PBS’s most-acclaimed and most-watched documentaries for more than a quarter century, including The Civil War, Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, The Dust Bowl, and many more.

We will trace its origins in minstrel music, ballads, hymns, and the blues, and its early years when it was called hillbilly music played across the airwaves on radio station barn dances. We will see how Hollywood B movies instituted the fad of singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, and watch how the rise of juke joints after World War II changed the musical style by bringing electric guitars and pedal steel guitars to the forefront. We will follow the rise of bluegrass music with Bill Monroe and we will note how one of country music’s offspring—rockabilly—mutated into rock and roll in Memphis. And we’ll see how Nashville slowly became not just the mecca of country music, but “Music City USA.” All the while, we will note the constant tug of war between the desire to make country music as mainstream as possible and the periodic reflexes to bring it back to its roots.



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"Ken Burns turns to 'Country Music' for his next PBS docu-series
By Randy Lewis, Los Angeles Times

There was a moment, however fleeting, when documentary filmmaker Ken Burns thought a change of pace might be in order after more than a decade of emotionally draining, logistically nightmarish work on his 10-part, 18-hour exploration of the history and bitter legacy of the Vietnam War.

A colleague piqued his interest by suggesting country music, though Burns thought the subject might be too lightweight.

"It seemed that this could be a frivolous agenda," Burns, 65, says by phone from his Florentine Films office in Walpole, N.H., where he and his team are putting the finishing touches on "Country Music," an eight-part, 16 1/2-hour series set to premiere Sept. 15 on PBS.

"It's not. It's as elemental, and in fact, there were more tears shed by warm bodies in the editing room for this than for 'Vietnam.'"

The project promises a deep exploration. Burns theorizes that through country music, we can get a better understanding of the American experience.

"All these elemental things - birth, death, falling in love, falling out of love, seeking redemption and erring and all the things human flesh is heir to - that's the stuff country music is about," says Burns, who collaborated with writer-producer Dayton Duncan, producer Julie Dunfey and the general manager of Nashville, Tenn.'s Grand Ole Opry and the Ryman Auditorium, Sally Williams.

"What we've done over the last eight years is to tear away the undergrowth and look at this magnificent stuff as a new way of focusing on America, seeing race, seeing people who think their stories aren't being told. It's all a good story to tell and a good story to tell now."

He's referring to the Americans disenchanted with the political process, as reflected in the results of the 2016 and 2018 elections, and how that feeling mirrors the story of country music, which was born as an expression of people and subjects largely ignored by other styles popular in urban areas.

"It's the Mark Twain school of history - that idea attributed to him that 'history doesn't repeat itself, but it rhymes,'" Burns says. "We just proceed working with our films and trying to master the story, but it never surprises me when we look up and find that they are speaking to the moment."

Many of the contemporary musicians interviewed for the project will take part in an all-star concert March 27 at the Ryman Auditorium, widely known as the "Mother Church of Country Music"; it's also the longtime home of the influential Grand Ole Opry revues and radio broadcasts. That concert, for which Burns and Dayton worked closely with Williams, SVP and GM of the Ryman and the Grand Ole Opry, will be filmed and broadcast in the fall in conjunction with the film series itself.

In many respects, the new series will reflect the signature Burns style: slow pans across, in and out of historical photos, vintage film and video footage, on-camera interviews, exhaustive historical research and even-handed narration by actor Peter Coyote.

In this case, as with his 10-part, 19-hour "Jazz" series in 2001, "Country Music" also incorporates dozens of musical performances plus archival and new interviews with key musical figures. They reflect on music that has roots reaching back hundreds of years to antecedents in Europe and Africa, illustrating the genre's evolution up through the predetermined historical cutoff point of 1996.

While Duncan notes that they interviewed Bill Malone, who Duncan calls "the patriarch of country music historians," the series puts a heavy emphasis on artist insights. Marty Stuart, for instance, figures prominently. In the words of Duncan, "We discovered we didn't need to go [extensively] to historians who were an arm's length away to bring this story to life."

"Rosanne Cash [Johnny Cash's daughter] also knows a lot about it, is passionate and articulate about it and also is able to see the big picture," adds Duncan. "So are Vince Gill, Ricky Skaggs, Emmylou Harris and many others. For our storytelling, we've got the material we need from these people, and that gives it a little different flavor."

Veteran songwriter, singer and multi-instrumentalist Stuart, who got his start as a teenage prodigy hired by bluegrass pioneer Lester Flatt, is well known in country circles as an obsessive historian, collector and cataloger of country's history.

"Ken and his team understand how to educate and entertain at the same time," Stuart, 60, says in another interview. "A few years ago, my wife, Connie [Smith, a longtime country star in her own right], said she heard Ken Burns say he was thinking about doing something on country music. I sat down and wrote him and Dayton a fan letter, because I was always a fan of their work. About three months later, I wound up meeting with them."

Burns and Duncan conducted 175 hours of interviews with 101 subjects - noting that roughly 20 percent of the people they talked with have since died. They've also incorporated 3,200 photographs and hours of archival film footage.

Stuart cites four elements in the series he finds most rewarding.

"They found evidence of Jimmie Rodgers film footage and photographs that the world has never seen," he says of the early 20th century singer, songwriter and recording star from Meridian, Miss., regarded as the "Father of Country Music." "To me, that's worth the price of admission alone."

Other aspects he singles out include the way the filmmakers "have done a better job giving proper credit to women's role in country music and the lasting effect they've had on the genre."

Likewise, the influence of African Americans in country music is brought into sharper relief. Many a monumental country figure was mentored by or collaborated with African American artists - see Hank Williams and blues singer-guitarist Rufus "Tee Tot" Payne or A.P. Carter and guitarist Lesley Riddle. Additionally, some of Rodgers' influential early recordings also feature jazz titan Louis Armstrong prominently.

The series spans more than a century of music history and touches on regional centers beyond Nashville, examining the California country wing with Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and dozens of others, and country's Texas contingent, with superstars Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, George Jones and Kris Kristofferson.

It also folds in revered but lesser-known singer-songwriters such as Guy Clark and Townes Van Zandt and references various regions in the South that gave rise to Rodgers, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and Tammy Wynette.

"One of the things I love about this project is that it is so multi-dimensional," Sally Williams says.

That reflects the discovery process that was as much a part of the creation of the series at it promises to be in the final film.

"One of the themes of ours is that country music isn't, and never was, just one style of music," says Duncan, an amateur musician who noted that the song he chose for his first public performance at age 8 in a Quaker church in rural Iowa was Marty Robbins' 1957 country-pop crossover hit "A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation)."

"It's been a mixture of hymns and blues and minstrel songs and work songs and sentimental songs and old work songs from the British Isles," Duncan says. "It never did congeal into any one thing. It came from many roots and then started its own branches."

All are ready for any criticisms may be thrown their way about artists or events viewers may think were overlooked or underplayed.

"We're not an encyclopedia," Burns says. "We're not a dictionary, and yes, we're probably going to miss something in your favorite decade. We probably had a great scene on it, but in the merciless triage of editing, it was left out because there were too many words.""


Full Article - Ken Burns turns to 'Country Music' for his next PBS docu-series
 
#4
#4
Ken Burns always does good work. Modern country music does absolutely nothing for me but legends of the golden age are still great today.
 
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#7
Watched a special on PBS about Ken titled A Conversation with Ken Burns. It was pretty good talking about his life and career.

They got around to future projects and after this falls Country Music they will do a special on Ernest Hemingway (2022 or 23) but the big news is they are already working on a massive project about the American Revolution to hopefully air in (2025) for the 250th anniversary of the beginning of the war.

Said it would be the hardest thing they have done because there are no videos and unlike The Civil War there are no photos either.
 
#8
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Heads up!

Special tonight on most PBS Stations.

Country Music Live at the Ryman, A Concert Celebrating the Film By Ken Burns

 
#10
#10
Great Documentary. Part 1 much focus on Jimmy Rodgers and the Carter family. Dolly singing Jimmy Rodgers Mule Skinner ended tonight's episode.

 
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#13
#13
Finally got around to seeing Part 3 tonight and man was it heavy the story of Hank W. was like slow-motion train wreck you could see coming but there wasn't a thing you could do about it.

The number of great songs he had and dies at only 29 years old is simply amazing. You can only imagine the hit songs he could have had written by him and others. What possible songs he could have written for others or the collaborations had he lived long enough to meet Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins or Merle Haggard.
 
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#15
#15
Wow, Can you imagine what could have been if these superstars hadn't passed so young Jimmie Rodgers (35, 1933), Hank Williams (29, 1953), Patsy Cline (30, 1963) and Keith Whitley (34, 1989) it's been said would have been as popular as Garth Brooks and George Strait.
 
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#16
#16
Finally watched the last two episodes last night and they were amazing. If you say you are a fan of music but did not watch this series then shouldn't ever listen to a note of music again.

IMO, this was Burns best series since The Civil War. I was disappointed with The War (WWII) and Vietnam but this was really good.

 
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