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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.