Country Music

September 18, 2019 5:26 AM

Anyone watching the new Ken Burns doc Country Music? Thoughts?

I have...opinions...so far. But, it's early in the series, so I should wait and see where things go, I guess.

posted by Thorzdad (1 comment total)

I'm watching and enjoying it, but I didn't know a lot about Country Music, so it's all new and interesting.

I felt like the first episode was the best (so far), because it dealt with some bigger issues about race and culture and influence in the formation of the genre. Last night's was just The Stories of Hank Williams, Ernest Tubb, the Carter Sisters, Bill Monroe vs. Flatt & Scruggs, and and and ...

But maybe that's inevitable in a documentary series. Like, the first Civil War episode was about causes, while the middle episode was mostly a bunch of battles.

If you already know about the history of Country Music then you probably will find this unexciting. There isn't any bigger picture to see here, and he's not re-contextualizing a story we thought we knew. But as the show goes on, the names are becoming really familiar to anyone who grew up on Rock Music and heard older rock stars name-dropping their heroes, so it's cool to finally learn who Chet Atkins was.
posted by Harvey Kilobit at 10:26 AM on September 18, 2019