"Country Music"

[K6JHU]

Watched Episode 3 last night. Despite the fact that the program covered 1945-1955, television was given short shrift with respect to radio. The only acknowledgement of television were (mostly) Kinescope clips. However, lots of pictures of radio. Maybe we are waiting for an entire episode devoted to "Hee-Haw"

 

[TheBigA]

Watched Episode 3 last night. Despite the fact that the program covered 1945-1955, television was given short shrift with respect to radio.

There wasn't as much TV for country music at that time. Most of it was local in the south.

Tennessee Ernie Ford did a variety show for NBC starting in 1956. Jimmie Dean was a few years later.

Hee Haw came in 1969. By then, you had Glen Campbell, Johnny Cash, and others.

 

[TheBigA]

BTW the video of Hank Williams singing Hey Good Looking was from the Kate Smith Show in 1952. They had some Opry members on the show that day. At the beginning of the video, he's joking with June Carter, saying he wrote the song for her. I imagine he said that to a lot of women.

 

[installLSC]

I heard an interview with Burns where they asked him about ending the show with events 20 years ago. Paraphrasing, he said that historians can't get the full picture of events (with appropriate context) until about 20 years after the fact. Thus, he wasn't comfortable covering events more recent than that. Maybe somewhat of a rationalization, but it does make sense.

I wonder if the real reason is that his narrators just don't have much interest in this era. One of the big criticisms of his "Jazz" series is he relied too much on Wynton Marsalis, who is infamous for his dislike of fusion or avant-garde jazz. That's why "Jazz" pretty much stopped at the 60s. And since most of his narrators are traditionalist country artists for this series, there's very little post-90s country they'll have interest in.

 

[Don CT]

A review of "Country Music" in Rolling Stone reveals that the story will end in 1996, with the rest of country music since then being wrapped up in a short concluding montage. I haven't been able to find any explanation by Burns as to why he would cut the documentary off just as massive changes were taking place in country music. Perhaps he doesn't like the way the genre has gone, which would be something that shouldn't affect a true documentarian. Perhaps he just didn't know how to connect Taylor Swift and Jason Aldean to Kitty Wells and Hank Williams, or even to Reba McEntire and George Strait. Whatever the reason, I'm disappointed. I'm out of the main demographic for today's country, but I still think an in-depth look at 21st-century country music and the people involved in shaping and making it would be the logical way to end the film.

Honestly I would say todays version of country is more southern pop. It just sounds so generic now. Country to me is gritty and passionate. What we have now in popular country is too mainstream and commercialized.

 

[TheBigA]

Honestly I would say todays version of country is more southern pop. It just sounds so generic now. Country to me is gritty and passionate. What we have now in popular country is too mainstream and commercialized.

Then again, the same thing could have been said of Eddy Arnold and Jim Reeves music in the 50s & 60s, or Kenny Rogers and Barbara Mandrell music in the 70s & 80s. Country music, as the documentary points out, has had many periods of commercialization and popularity. That's why it's still around.

 

[CTListener]

Then again, the same thing could have been said of Eddy Arnold and Jim Reeves music in the 50s & 60s, or Kenny Rogers and Barbara Mandrell music in the 70s & 80s. Country music, as the documentary points out, has had many periods of commercialization and popularity. That's why it's still around.

On the occasions I give the local country station a listen these days, or check to see what current stuff Garth Brooks is playing on his SiriusXM channel (a good listen, as Garth is quite open-minded and diverse in his musical tastes, going even beyond the influences his own music brought to country), I find a few songs I like and can fit comfortably into my idea of what country music should be. That was an idea nurtured in the '70s, '80s and early '90s, when I was most enthusiastic about the genre. But that doesn't mean everything I heard on country radio during those earlier years was great and gritty and authentic. You mention Kenny Rogers and Barbara Mandrell; you also had Roy Clark and Eddie Rabbitt and Juice Newton and Gary Morris and Anne Murray. You had Bill Anderson trying to go disco with "I Can't Wait Any Longer" and "Double S," and the Carpenters (from gritty, rural, down-home Fairfield County, Connecticut) covering the Beatles, and dozens of opportunists milking the CB radio craze, and whatever it was that the Oak Ridge Boys were grinding out in their later years. There was just as much of that stuff on the radio as there was the "genuine" country we revere today, truth be told.

For me, the difference is that today I can't tolerate the stuff that doesn't find into my personal country comfort zone, where back then I'd accept the occasional "Can I Have This Dance" or "Thank God For Kids." But I'm not ready to dismiss it out of hand and become another out-of-touch musical geezer. That's why I wanted Burns and his collaborators to paint a complete picture.

 

[TheBigA]

That's why I wanted Burns and his collaborators to paint a complete picture.

I think they have. If you look at what they did objectively, and then take what they said about the past and apply it to today, you'll see a lot of the same themes. You'll see music that sounds like pop, sounds like rock, and sounds like R&B. Because that's what country was and is. It's all of the above, and that's what makes it popular.

 

[boombox4]

Then again, the same thing could have been said of Eddy Arnold and Jim Reeves music in the 50s & 60s, or Kenny Rogers and Barbara Mandrell music in the 70s & 80s. Country music, as the documentary points out, has had many periods of commercialization and popularity. That's why it's still around.

Exactly. Compare those two with the old time, mountain music and hillbilly artists of the 20's and 30's. That was the real deal.

 

[vchimpanzee]

the Carpenters (from gritty, rural, down-home Fairfield County, Connecticut) covering the Beatles

I thought you were going to say "Top of the World", which sure sounded country to me.

How did Karen start singing on WNAM just as I was reading that?

 

[vchimpanzee]

Then again, the same thing could have been said of Eddy Arnold and Jim Reeves music in the 50s & 60s, or Kenny Rogers and Barbara Mandrell music in the 70s & 80s. Country music, as the documentary points out, has had many periods of commercialization and popularity. That's why it's still around.

But these styles of country-pop sounded good. At least to me. I can't say that about most of what passes for country today.

 

[vchimpanzee]

Obviously I'm not up on what HS textbooks are saying today, but the sections on 'modern history' in textbooks tend to be very short and hit only the highlights. When I was in HS a little over 20 years ago, our textbook had about 6 pages (one "lesson") on everything after Watergate. It mentioned George Bush (41) as president, but not Bill Clinton. The '88 election might have been the very last event mentioned. I was especially interested in the section on Iran-Contra, which was covered in a couple of paragraphs, and I recall a photo of Ollie North being printed along side.

I don't even remember how far we got in history class. The last time I took a history class that covered recent events, Nixon had just resigned.

Actually, I took that class in college too about the time the U.S. started trying to get the Soviets out of Afghanistan. Again, I don't remember how the class ended.

 

[TheBigA]

But these styles of country-pop sounded good. At least to me. I can't say that about most of what passes for country today.

You're at a different point in your life now. Kenny Rogers was making music for people your age then.

Today's artists are making music for people who are at that same age now.

 

[vchimpanzee]

I finally watched the first episode. Fascinating. Lots of good music.

My favorite performance was interrupted by what was coming up next and how to buy. I assume if you do buy, you hear all of "Mule Skinner Blues" by Dolly Parton.

 

[CTListener]

I finally watched the first episode. Fascinating. Lots of good music.

My favorite performance was interrupted by what was coming up next and how to buy. I assume if you do buy, you hear all of "Mule Skinner Blues" by Dolly Parton.

I caught the first four last night. There are few, if any, complete performances of any song. It's a history program first and foremost.

 

[firepoint525]

I caught the first four last night. There are few, if any, complete performances of any song. It's a history program first and foremost.

I would imagine that if a soundtrack CD collection were to come out (and it should), then they should have complete performances of all the pivotal songs in the show. Wouldn't necessarily expect performances of every song, though. That would make it quite long!

 

[TheBigA]

I would imagine that if a soundtrack CD collection were to come out (and it should), then they should have complete performances of all the pivotal songs in the show. Wouldn't necessarily expect performances of every song, though. That would make it quite long!

What do you mean by "IF?"

https://shop.pbs.org/country-music-...&creative=79783380875824&device=c&matchtype=e

 

[joebtsflk1]

As an apologist for all things Iowan, I have to voice a criticism on the segment on the Everly Brothers in the third installment of Country Music. Burns and his collaborators chose to completely ignore the Everly family's performing history, instead characterizing the Everly Brothers' father as a barber from Kentucky, which was true at the point the doc picked up the Everly's story in the mid 50s. Prior to their return to their home state of Kentucky, the Everlys spent nearly ten years as performers on Shenadoah's KMA.

This detail didn't need more than ten or fifteen seconds to present in the documentary, and probably didn't warrant more than that much anyway, as the focus of the Everlys segment was in conjuction with the topic of the Bryant husband and wife songwriting team than the Everlys themselves.

It was a small detail, but important. I wouldn't have expected the documentary to spend even thirty seconds to the Everlys time on KMA, but not even giving this detail a quick ten seconds as an aside seems a slap in the face, especially when KMA (and KFNF) received more than just a passing mention in episode 2.

 

[TheBigA]

This detail didn't need more than ten or fifteen seconds to present in the documentary, and probably didn't warrant more than that much anyway, as the focus of the Everlys segment was in conjuction with the topic of the Bryant husband and wife songwriting team than the Everlys themselves.

My guess is the only reason they were mentioned was because of Fred Rose and the Bryants. It would be interesting to see the out-takes. I'm sure they had to cut a lot, even in a 16 hour documentary.

 

[Syfy]

Just finished Episode 2 of "Country Music" on PBS. The episode is almost as much about radio as it is about Country Music. Covers the 'Barn Dances' and actually gets into an aside on radio regulations during the depression. By memory, some of the stations were WSM, WHN, WLS, WSB, KVOO, WPTF, and of course XERA and the Carters. What is interesting is how many are still carrying the original call letters. And looking at the equipment for a remote, I sometimes wonder how they ever got it to work. I could on;y wonder what Ken Burns could do if he set his sights on just radio.

Rarely listen to country I will say that country today has really changed since even mid 2000s.