Anyone else going to watch? I am beyond excited.
Right now, the special taped at the Ryman with lots of performances is on. Amazing. Rhiannon Giddens can sing.
Apparently not. It was amazing!
I love Rhiannon Giddons. Did not watch, I don’t dislike country music, but haven’t really kept up with it since 1979 when it was the soundtrack to a 9 month road trip.
I can’t wait for the Ken Burns documentary and we watched the Ryman special tonight. We go to the Ryman frequently and love country music. We have our favorites, and love living in the Nashville area where we get to see such great performances.
I saw Jason Isbell at the Ryman two years ago. Such a reat venue.
I was pleasantly surprised to hear Pancho and Lefty tonight with all the songs they could have picked from.
I just heard Pancho and Lefty today as I decide for some reason to revisit Linda Ronstadt while I was at the gym. I’d totally forgotten that I probably heard her version first.
i can’t wait to see it, and we’ve been eagerly anticipating its start next week. First episode is the same day DD is due - so there’s a slim chance I’ll have to watch in online, if she actually delivers on her due date!
I would gladly have watched it if I had known it was on.
Rhiannon Giddens is a really impressive singer, but I don’t always love her choice of material. I loved her as a Carolina Chocolate Drop and in Songs of Our Native Daughters, but her solo records have all failed to connect with me. The most recent is really interesting, but not so engaging. Including her in a “country music” category is pure NPR.
(I just looked at the lineup for the concert. It’s like Burns’ sense of “real” country music is a pure product of the late 80s/early 90s. That’s a period I loved, too. But from the standpoint of the massive business that is country music, all of those artists are a little or a lot outside the mainstream, except for that period of time. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with looking at artists a little or a lot outside of the mainstream of whatever. But if you are going to purport to assess a whole genre, you had better address the mainstream of that genre at some point.)
I heard two of the producers on the radio talking about the film. He made the point that they are historians, not journalists, so they picked a point in time to end the film rather than keep trying to stay current. They chose the mid-90s, which is likely why the performance aspect didn’t go current-day.
@JHS Here’s a link to what aired last night:
https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/country-music/live-at-the-ryman?fbclid=IwAR1oUlWW9vrfbF6bqbim7URDZjWXDI3lYFNjOEVevY0zcD2ZdSCMjcXFb_w
I heard the first few hours are a little boring- i.e. “this is a banjo…” and it’s quite a few hours before they get into the early country musicians.
I was watching the mens’ US Open final, so I recorded the concert last night and I have the dvr programmed to catch all of the series. With strong connections to Nashville, I am really looking forward to this! The most interesting thing I’ve ever done in Nashville in the tourist category was taking the Studio B Tour that is an optional part of touring the Country Music Hall of Fame.
I have friends who just did that tour and loved it. I’ve never done it but might when I’m there next month.
My DD is literally over the moon to have met him last week. She’s his daughter’s dorm proctor and is beside herself.
I finished watching the concert last night. Looking forward to watching the series as it begins tonight. It may take me a month to watch it in spurts off the dvr, but I expect it will deliver in the same way that all the Ken Burns series do.
I loved it. Learned a lot.
Just listened to your link. Loved it! Thank you!
Didn’t take ‘quite a few hours’. Last night’s premiere episode covered several of the early country musicians. It was very interesting, even if you’re not a country fan. Our DVR is set to record all of it! Looking forward to the continuation of the story.
I didn’t plan to watch it – I’m neutral on country music although I did work in Nashville for about 10 months about 30 years ago – but we ditched cable a few weeks ago and our digital antenna only picks up 2 stations - NBC and PBS. Then over the weekend our internet went out so no way to watch anything streaming until our replacement router arrives on Tuesday. NBC had on football last night when I needed something to watch while I crafted. So I turned to PBS and ended up watching most of I guess the first episode about Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family. And I really enjoyed it. I particularly like early 20th century history so it had particular appeal. And I’m still yodeling (Jimmie Rodgers reference).
I really enjoyed it. History of the instruments wasn’t boring at all. Fascinated by how easy it was to start a radio station. The marketing of the music by terming it hillbilly music and tricking out dignified looking men as poor white hill people was also interesting.
Country music is not my thing but I am from NC so it is very interesting to me history wise, if nothing else.