I guess they’re not going to cover the novelty site of the genre. Bob Skyles, for example.
I’ve really enjoyed the first four episodes. I’ve only become a Country fan in the last decade or so, so this is filling in a lot of the gaps in my knowledge about the music’s history. I knew about the Carters and the 1927 Bristol sessions, for example, but really nothing about Jimmy Rodgers, Dave Macon or Bob Wills for example. And I knew who Bill Munroe was but I didn’t know about his feuds with his brother or with Flatt & Scruggs.
I enjoyed the Willie Nelson stories last night and how great is it to hear directly from Willie, Jean Shepard, Merle Haggard (RIP) and other witnesses/participants.
Speaking of Merle, how long has Burns been working on this? It’s kind of eerie to see him and Jimmy Dickens speaking from beyond the grave. Dickens died almost 5 years ago!
Really looking forward to Charley Pride tonight, and the inevitable segment on Dolly Parton.
Heard about this over the summer and ordered the CD collections, just received them today.
At the time, I did not realized that it would be shown on PBS.
I currently have the first four episodes on the PVR, haven’t watched any of them yet.
Burns spent 8 years working on this. Haggard died in 2016. I think the series starts up again Sunday night. I got a little bored with all the Johnny Cash coverage Wednesday. Tuesday night was excellent with its focus on Hank Williams. And I am enthralled by Marty Stuart’s hair.
I saw Marty at the Opry last year and he is very charismatic. The hair and the scarf! But his fingers sure fly on that mandolin.
Loving it and I’m not really a “country” fan. I recall a lot of the most recent music they’ve covered from hearing it played by family and just being alive and listening in the early 60s.
Upthread I posted a link to a critical review that noted they thought Minnie Pearl got shortchanged coverage-wise. Having now seen the episode I have to disagree with the reviewer. I thought MP got a pretty good overview.
I too was surprised (and got a little choked up) to learn that Roger Miller went out in the woods and searched for Cline’s downed plane. Apparently helped carry the bodies out if I’m interpreting what I saw correctly.
One group I’d never heard of and then was really impressed by was The Maddox Brothers And Rose. Clearly doing rock-a-billy before anyone was calling it that.
I miss Word Man in these threads, I hope he comes back someday.
Oh yes, I miss him too.
Anyway, I’d love to see the documentaries right now, everything sounds very thrilling, but I’ll have to wait till it comes to Germany. I hope Arte TV will license it, seems like the right kind of stuff for them.
It’s kind of cool how close Elvis and Johnny Cash were. And the impersonations were quite amusing, as was the moniker “The Shaky Kid”.
Brenda Lee may have been a child prodigy but her early filmed performances were creepy at heck.
Didn’t help that she’s tiny and looked young for her age. I mean she was almost old enough to marry Jerry Lee Lewis.
I purchased the two disc musical soundtrack to the show. They also have a five disc version.
The first CD contains music from the first four episodes, basically one popular song from every artist they highlight. Some of the songs would be on any country compilation (Kitty Wells, Loretta Lynn) but others would require some effort to find (Deford Bailey, Bob Wills, Foggy Mountain Boys). It’s pretty good.
The second CD goes from Merle Haggard to Roseanne Cash. It is okay, maybe a little heavy on son-daughter tributes. (Are You Sure Hank Would Have Done It This Way, I Still Miss Someone). A decent disc, maybe would have been better if it included more modern songs too. I’ve seen the same criticism for the series which I think goes into the 1980s or so.
There are better country compilations out there, in the sense that they contain old songs I like more. But they are probably less historically important. It got me wondering what a music compilation of historically important songs would look like in other genres. I would like to see one for Quebecois music, for example.
I noticed banners for flour companies, and thought, "ohh yeah, that’s the source of Prairie Home’s “Powdermilk Biscuits” ads, and for O Brother’s radio sponsor, Pappy O’Daniel.
And if anyone else is unacquainted with the real Pappy O’Daniel, this summary is worth your time. It spells out the path from Pappy to Reagan to Donnie T.
How broad is the scope of the documentaries? Does is touch country rock (Gram Parsons et al.) and later americana/alt-country? Are outsiders like Townes Van Zandt, Guy Clark or Steve Earle mentioned?
Chronological.
The Episode Guide
Beginnings - 1933
1933-1945
1945-1953
1953-1963
1964-1968
1968-1972
1973-1983
1985-1996
Thanks. Seems like the rather alternative branches of country don’t play a big role. That’s a pity, I’m sure many folks got to country via the rock->country rock->alt-country route and worked their way back to country’s roots from there, at least that was my way of exploring it.
you can watch it on passport if you have a PBS membership. I’m going to. 
I know Townes Van Zandt is mentioned since one of his songs is on the CD. Although I have only seen the first half of the series, my impression is (like the jazz series) that they concentrate on the first forty years in some detail, then cover the last forty years in one episode, going to around 1990. I will let you know if they mention Steve Earle, but probably not. I’ve heard they miss a lot of mainstream modern stars and more modern variations.
I don’t think they get too much into Americana as a genre. That’s a whole other documentary. Starting with Guthrie, going thru folk in the 60s and 70s all the way to present. I’d like to see that doc.
(I haven’t seen the final episode yet)