Mass popularity made them both too big to ignore or dismiss. The early recordings of what was called “Hill-Billy Music” shared labels with “Race Music,” as well as a sort of sneering bluenose contempt from so-called respectable society. You are never allowed to forget that this sturm und twang was forged in the flaming-blowtorch fusion of the American South, incorporating melodies from English/Irish/Scottish ballads sung in the Appalachians and instruments brought over by European immigrants and African slaves. Like Burns’ 2001 deep dive Jazz, it puts the music’s cultural and geographic roots front and center. Related: 100 Greatest Country Artists of All Timeīut most of all, this epic, essential survey (which premieres on September 15th) is both a history lesson of an American art form and 20th century U.S.A. (The five-CD soundtrack doubles as a good ol’ Country 101 primer.) And by God, it’s most definitely a Ken Burns’ production in every way, shape and form, right down to the slow-zooms into sepia-toned photographs and soup-to-nuts testimonials you have not lived until you’ve heard the filmmaker’s go-to narrator Peter Coyote utter the phrase “quaint and quirky backwoods hayseeds” in his weathered baritone.
It’s a love letter to something that’s old enough, and big enough, to encompass scratchy field 78 rpm recordings of centuries-old folk songs and 64-tracked platinum albums sold by the millions. It’s a tribute to artists with colorful nicknames like “The Singing Brakeman” and “The Hillbilly Shakespeare,” and those who can be identified by a single moniker: Willie, Dolly, Merle, Emmylou, Waylon, Reba, Garth. It’s long, which is a given when you consider the authorship - clocking in at a shade over 16 hours, this eight-episode megillah’s running time falls somewhere in between Burns’ look at WWII ( The War) and his recent exploration of the conflict in Vietnam ( The Vietnam War). And we see how Nashville slowly became not just the mecca of country music, but “Music City USA.” All the while, we note the constant tug of war between a desire to make country music as mainstream as possible and the periodic reflexes to bring it back to its roots.Country Music, Ken Burns’ PBS docuseries on a musical journey that spans from hollers to honkytonks to hit parades, is a whole lotta things.
We follow the rise of bluegrass music with Bill Monroe and note how one of country music’s offspring-rockabilly-mutated into rock and roll in Memphis. And we 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 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. And like the music itself, Country Music tells unforgettable stories-stories of the hardships and joys shared by everyday people.
#COUNTRY MUSIC KEN BURNS NARRATOR SERIES#
It is 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.Ĭountry Music is a sweeping, multi-episodic series that explores the questions “What is country music?” and “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. 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 follow the evolution of country music over the course of the twentieth century, as it eventually emerged to become America’s music. Country Music chronicles the history of a uniquely American art form that rose from the experiences of remarkable people in distinctive regions of our nation.
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