The other night I caught a preview of Ken Burns' newest documentary, this time covering country music. Apparently it's 16 hours long! Chronologically it starts in Appalachia in the 1800's and goes up through the 1990's.
I have a bit of a hot and cold relationship with country music. I have familial roots in the South, and have memories of hearing Hank Williams, Willie Nelson, and Johnny Cash as a kid. There was also a lot of southern gospel in the house growing up. But most contemporary country music doesn't appeal to me.
So I'm hopeful that most of the time it's spent in the early days. I'm curious how they're going to handle a few topics:
- The early Stamps Baxter shape note singing
- Gospel
- Bluegrass
- Elvis
None of these things are really country music, but I can't imagine you could really tell the story of country music without including them. From the preview I saw, it looks like they spend a fair bit of time on Hank, which is completely appropriate, IMO.
The documentary has already started airing on PBS, but I'm going to wait until I can binge it. Is anyone else interested in watching this?