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Country Music Episode 8 - Final Episode and Review
In the era of information overload, where there are millions of reviewers, blogs, vlogs, and onzines...I often wonder what is the point in writing or keeping an online journal. Yet I do. Mainly for myself, and I'm very happy to exist far beneath the wire.
Just finished the final episode, "Don't Get Above Your Raisin" Episode 8 of Ken Burns Documentary on the history of Country Music. Which answers in a nutshell why he did it -- because Country music unlike various other forms is essentially an American creation, and speaks to the heart of Americana.
If I had a critique -- it would be that not enough time was spent on non-white male musicians - who do exist. Women were shown, but not enough and often in the male shadows. I would have liked a bit more on June Carter Cash, Emmylou Harris, Barbara Mandrell, Minnie Pearl, Dolly Parton, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Rhiannon Siddions, Darius Strikes, Charley Pryde, and countless others. Also the Canadians, KD Lange and Shania Twain.
Too much time was spent on Hank Williams and Johnny Cash -- which I didn't mind too much because I adore Johnny Cash and Cash sort of made country what it was, also he's a nice bookend to Williams, they both started out similar, but Cash cleaned up his act and performed pretty much up to his death at 71, while Williams crash and burned (literally) at 22. (I think it was 22).
Just as Maybelle Carter and Emmylou Harris are good bookends. With all the others strung between Garth Brooks the equivalent to Dolly Parton, except she went further than he did as did Reba McIntire.
IF you want to see it -- it's available for streaming on PBS site, and on Amazon Prime Video apparently.
Tonight's episode made me cry -- mainly because it featured the origins of three incredibly moving songs... Kathy Mattea singing her husband's song " Where have you been?", Vince Gill singing and writing the song Go Rest High on that Mountain which he sings with Patty Loveless at George Jones memorial and can't make it through, and two of Johnny Cash's songs Hurt and Roseanne Cash singing I Still Miss Someone at her father's memorial concert.
The history behind each?
1. Where Have You Been is about Kathy Mattea's husbands grandparents, whose grandmother's dementia was so bad she couldn't talk. He rolled his grandfather into her room, and for the first time in days she said "Where Have You Been? I've been looking for you.." and she said this two days before she died. He wrote the song, no one would record or play it. He sung it at the Bluebird Cafe Writers Session in Nashville and the audience was riveted and moved beyond belief. His wife, Kathy, became obsessed with recording it. Finally did, and it won every award in the book and shot up to the top of the charts.
2. Go Rest High on That Mountain. Gill tried writing it the first time when a friend of his died of an alcohol overdose. But couldn't get through it. Did it a second time, when his brother died the same way. And this time did it -- and was backed up on the album by Patty Loveless.
3. Hurt - written for CASH at the end of his career. No one would record him, but a hip hop and blues record producer wanted to, and they found a bunch of songs that fit him. This song was on the last record he did before he died. And it was the most fitting. And won awards.
4. I'll Still Miss Someone -- Cash visited Roseanne in NY and attended her concert. She remembers being upset with him at the time. He asked if he could sing the song "I'll Still Miss Someone" on stage with her that night. She refuses at first, then seeing his back...she relents and says she will. And they worked out their issues on stage -- her father worked all his issues out on stage, she said. And at his memorial she sings it.
Just finished the final episode, "Don't Get Above Your Raisin" Episode 8 of Ken Burns Documentary on the history of Country Music. Which answers in a nutshell why he did it -- because Country music unlike various other forms is essentially an American creation, and speaks to the heart of Americana.
If I had a critique -- it would be that not enough time was spent on non-white male musicians - who do exist. Women were shown, but not enough and often in the male shadows. I would have liked a bit more on June Carter Cash, Emmylou Harris, Barbara Mandrell, Minnie Pearl, Dolly Parton, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Rhiannon Siddions, Darius Strikes, Charley Pryde, and countless others. Also the Canadians, KD Lange and Shania Twain.
Too much time was spent on Hank Williams and Johnny Cash -- which I didn't mind too much because I adore Johnny Cash and Cash sort of made country what it was, also he's a nice bookend to Williams, they both started out similar, but Cash cleaned up his act and performed pretty much up to his death at 71, while Williams crash and burned (literally) at 22. (I think it was 22).
Just as Maybelle Carter and Emmylou Harris are good bookends. With all the others strung between Garth Brooks the equivalent to Dolly Parton, except she went further than he did as did Reba McIntire.
IF you want to see it -- it's available for streaming on PBS site, and on Amazon Prime Video apparently.
Tonight's episode made me cry -- mainly because it featured the origins of three incredibly moving songs... Kathy Mattea singing her husband's song " Where have you been?", Vince Gill singing and writing the song Go Rest High on that Mountain which he sings with Patty Loveless at George Jones memorial and can't make it through, and two of Johnny Cash's songs Hurt and Roseanne Cash singing I Still Miss Someone at her father's memorial concert.
The history behind each?
1. Where Have You Been is about Kathy Mattea's husbands grandparents, whose grandmother's dementia was so bad she couldn't talk. He rolled his grandfather into her room, and for the first time in days she said "Where Have You Been? I've been looking for you.." and she said this two days before she died. He wrote the song, no one would record or play it. He sung it at the Bluebird Cafe Writers Session in Nashville and the audience was riveted and moved beyond belief. His wife, Kathy, became obsessed with recording it. Finally did, and it won every award in the book and shot up to the top of the charts.
2. Go Rest High on That Mountain. Gill tried writing it the first time when a friend of his died of an alcohol overdose. But couldn't get through it. Did it a second time, when his brother died the same way. And this time did it -- and was backed up on the album by Patty Loveless.
3. Hurt - written for CASH at the end of his career. No one would record him, but a hip hop and blues record producer wanted to, and they found a bunch of songs that fit him. This song was on the last record he did before he died. And it was the most fitting. And won awards.
4. I'll Still Miss Someone -- Cash visited Roseanne in NY and attended her concert. She remembers being upset with him at the time. He asked if he could sing the song "I'll Still Miss Someone" on stage with her that night. She refuses at first, then seeing his back...she relents and says she will. And they worked out their issues on stage -- her father worked all his issues out on stage, she said. And at his memorial she sings it.
no subject
I suspect that they spent virtually all their time on the music and musicians in the series which is an understandable choice. But it should be understood that, coming originally from the poorest mountainous areas of the Appalachians, that country music was the background music for the racist South. Rock-and-Roll was never so lily-white and the other truly American music development, Jazz, owed more to blacks than whites. Even "western music," which is mostly forgotten now, was less segregated than "country" for a long time. Back before World War II, racist lyrics were acceptable for broadcast on the radio in the South. I imagine that Charlie Pride had to be very careful about where he performed for many years. Certainly not everyone who listened to country back in my early youth was a rabid racist, but the association with that music and racism is hard to break.
I can't say why they didn't spend enough time on the women you mention, perhaps because their musical tastes with a few exceptions have been broader than just country. I personally can't stand the original Carter Family music, but I know Maybelle Carter was probably as influential in country music as anyone. I don't even think of Emmylou Harris as a country singer, though lately I've often heard her referred to as such. I suppose I'd put her in the same group with Johnny Cash and kind of a mix of country and folk that a lot of people who look down their noses at country still like.
no subject
The documentary to be fair did go into a lot of what you said above about the racism in the early episodes of the series, where it was more prevalent. And stated that various people stole from songs from the black sharecroppers in the 1930s and 40s, and even in the eras before that. Also Rhythm & Blues was originally called "race" music and Country originally "hillbilly" because people associated it with well, the hill billys.
Hank Williams changed some of that, as did the Carter Family. For a while it was called "Folk Music" then became Country. Johnny Cash lived on the fringes of it, and a lot of the "Country" establishment didn't accept him, the Carter family (who he started touring with) pulled him in a bit. He was thrown out of the Grand Old Opry twice (once because he smashed all the lights), but then ironically invited back and aired his television series from its stage. Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, Van Townsend, Marty Stuart, and Waylon Jennings -- were also on the fringes for the most part. Emmy Lou Harris started out as Folk, and anti-country, but Gram Parsons (formerly of the Birds and various other folk rock bands, who became a convert to country) convinced her to go there. And upon his death -- she embraced it whole-heartedly and never looked back. She brought it back to its roots in a live concert filmed at the old - Grand Old Opry in the 1990s.
Jazz unlike Country -- really isn't purely American, it jumped over to France, and got a lot of European influences. A lot of Jazz singers had to go to France to do well. Similar with Rhythm and Blues - prior to the 1970s. Nina Simone did, as did Diana Ross, and various others. So racism affected those music forms as well.
Ray Charles was a country music singer, song-writer, and producer. They touch on him and discuss how he changed things. They don't however focus on him excessively. It is true that a major problem is the racist connotations that many people associate with it. But as one of my African-American co-workers stated -- she grew up with it, and a lot of it influenced the Blues. Her family loved it. And the documentary gets across that it did cross racial boundaries.