Country music documentary on PBS America

stufisher

I subscribe to PBS America to ensure I get advance notice of what will be broadcast each week.

I am guessing that many on FB will watch all manner of music and/or history-related features so for those that are interested, here's a precis of one of this week's offerings:

Country Music From 1.30pm, Today & 1.45pm Bank Holiday Monday

Just what is country music and where did the music come from? Award-winning filmmaker Ken Burns and his eight-part series COUNTRY MUSIC attempts to answer these questions as he explores one of America's most beloved musical art forms. Chronicling country music's evolution, from the songs of struggle, hope, heartbreak and faith of southern Appalachia to Nashville's “Grand Ole Opry”, COUNTRY MUSIC explores the lives of the trailblazers who shaped it - legends such as the Carter Family, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton - and the times in which they lived. Featuring first hand testimony, and rare and never-before-seen photos and footage, this is the story of country music, told by those who lived it and love it.

DrCornelius

Great heads up , it’s a superb series and really well produced . I can’t remember who does the voice over but he really sells it - I was almost in tears watching the Hank Williams one.

If you don’t have PBS America it’s worth checking iPlayer as a few episodes sometimes pop up on there

Keefy

I’ve seen a few of these and they are definitely worth a watch.

Flip

Sorry to disagree about this series. I found it very selective. A casual listener with no knowledge would get the impression that Johnny Cash and the Carter family created country music with a bit of help from Hank Williams - perhaps the producers just had a lot of archive material.

In contrast, they were very snooty about their definition of country. When John Denver was voted CMA artist of the year (or some similar title) it was dismissed with 'and the winner wasn't even in the country!'

I realise that there are people who love to create divisions and genres, whereas many musicians and listeners are happy to accept that music and musical tastes change and tend to mess up their neat genre boxes.

Overall, enjoyable but not authoritative.