![]() The thoughts and recollections of Yoakam, Haggard, Lee, and Parton recur throughout Country Music. And Owens' hard-driving, high-pitched "Tiger By the Tail" epitomized his desire to "sound like a locomotive comin' right through the front door," in Yoakam’s words. He admired The Beatles when many of his ilk and generation didn't. But Owens, with whom Yoakam eventually collaborated on "The Streets of Bakersfield," also was an under-appreciated visionary. Yoakam likewise was a big fan of Buck Owens, co-host of the aforementioned Hee Haw. One of the more touching moments in Country Music comes in Episode 5 when Dwight Yoakam gets teary-eyed while recalling one of Haggard's many achingly poignant lyrics. He became a model prisoner, earned early parole for good behavior and then began doing what he did so well for the rest of his life. Then Johnny Cash came to perform his famous jailhouse concert, with a highly impressed Haggard among the inmates in the audience. Haggard says he had figured out how to escape from there, too, but was swayed by inmates who convinced him that he had a real talent for writing and singing. He details his early years of constant incarceration ("I escaped 17 times from different places in California") before being sentenced to 15 years in that state's notoriously hard-core San Quentin lockdown. Not known for being particularly talkative, Haggard turns out to be a generous contributor and keeper of the flame. Among those no longer with us, none are more notable than the legendary Merle Haggard (left), who was born on April 6, 1937, and died on that same date in 2016. Seventeen of the subjects are now deceased, and 40 have plaques in the Country Music Hall of Fame. "That's what I observed."īy Burns' count, 101 new interviews were conducted during the eight-year run-up to the finished product. George was a country song."Īs for Wynette, her "snatches at happiness were few and far between," says Lee. Jones' "trials and tribulations" completely informed his music, she notes. Brenda Lee, the former kid singing sensation once known as "Little Miss Dynamite," got to know both of them well. ![]() Or George Jones (top), who married and performed with the equally volatile Tammy Wynette (top) after each endured various childhood traumas they never could conquer. The doctor who birthed her was paid with a sack of cornmeal. As the late architect of 60 Minutes, Don Hewitt, used to say, "Tell me a story." And the heart of country music beats with the lyrical, autobiographical yarns of its most famous stars, many of whom came from crushing poverty or child abuse – or both.ĭolly Parton, for instance. Whether heart-rending, soul-searching or at times just plain goofy, the music that evolved from hillbilly to country-western to just plain country is something to hear, behold and treasure throughout this long and winding masterwork. But as Burns and writer/collaborator Dayton Duncan resoundingly show, the music birthed by America's downtrodden – The Great Unwashed, if you will – is unvarnished poetry when it comes to life its own self. Nor does The Grand Ole Opry sound quite as high tone as Carnegie Hall. The long-running TV show, Hee Haw (left), had something to do with that. And as Burns writes in its preface, “It is conventional wisdom, accepted by too many, that country music is somehow a lesser art form.not befitting the scrutiny of sophisticates and – God forbid – scholars.” There is, of course, a multi-pound companion coffee table book (Alfred A. ET, check local listings), is a consistently enthralling and revealing look at a deep drawlin' genre that some have dismissed as something to wipe off their shoes. Ken Burns' latest PBS opus, this one weighing in at 16 hours and eight episodes (Sunday, September 15 at 8 p.m. You'll get the ring, not the finger, by watching Country Music. One more for the insurance company.Be assured beyond any doubt. And more often than you could possibly believe, that first take is often terrific. ![]() We get about 95 percent of the way through editing, and then we say, 'Time for Peter.' An episode might run an hour and 50 minutes. And we do not run the film while we're recording. There's a process: We would prefer that Peter not see the script and he prefers not to see the script. I would ask him for every project except those that are subject-wise African-American. ![]() In a 2019 New York Magazine interview with Coyote and Burns conducted by Tim Greiving (during the release of Burns's film Country Music), Greiving asked, "Ken, is it project-specific when you choose to use Peter?" and Burns's response was, "Yes it is. Peter Coyote, the narrator of this series, has been a frequent narrator in Ken Burns's documentaries since their first collaboration, 1996's The West.
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