I briefly got to speak with Burns. I also got my picture taken with the Grand Ole Opry's photographer Les Leverett, who for over 30 years photographed most of the stars in the documentary. Here are some samples. Several of these were used in the documentary.
Burns introduced a 45-minute preview of coming attractions. The screening was held at Belmont University, which specializes in musical training. At the beginning of each of the eight episodes of the documentary, the screen thanks Belmont as a major contributor.
Burns made a prophetic statement. He said that people will be upset about what he left out. He was surely correct in my case, as I shall explain.
This is not to say that the series is not first-rate. It is by far the best thing he has produced since The Civil War in 1990. The music is representative. There are dozens of biographies. There are dozens of interviews. Some of the performers interviewed by his team are now dead, most notably Merle Haggard. The narrative is tightly scripted. Peter Coyote's narration is excellent, as always. Burns hit the jackpot by inviting the great bluegrass mandolin player Marty Stuart to add his comments in every episode. Stuart later crossed over into electrified country music. He is remarkably articulate. Not many people can speak this well in what appear to be unrehearsed comments. He offers cogent insights. He knows the history of country music on an intimate level. He also has been a gifted photographer of Nashville's country music performers. I saw his touring display of photos at a nearby museum last summer. He has an enormous collection of country music memorabilia. But Vince Gill gave him a run for his money as a commentator.
Here is what was missing.
ELVIS PRESLEY'S FOURTH PHASE
Burns devotes considerable time to Elvis Presley's early years with Sun records (1954-55). Presley invented what became known as rockabilly. But there is no mention of Presley after his departure from Sun records in 1955. There was no mention of the fact that Heartbreak Hotel (1956), released by RCA, was the product of the legendary Nashville arranger, Chet Atkins, who also played guitar on the record. Burns devotes a lot of time to Atkins, but not this crucial decision. That record launched Presley's career as a rock 'n roll performer. But it was a country music record. This was phase two of his career.
Phase three, after the army, was the movie phase (1960-68). The songs were usually foregetable, but "Col." Tom Parker (Andreas Cornelis van Kuij) made sure that Elvis owned 50% of them, and he owned 50% of Elvis. (The documentary does not discuss the entrepreneur who invented Elvis.)
The viewers get no sense of what took place from July 1969 until December 1976. Unsure of himself, he came back onto the stage in Las Vegas in July. The fans loved him. The shows sold out. This launched the fourth phase of his musical career. He played the Las Vegas Hilton regularly: 636 sold-out shows. He did it as a country music performer. He hired the great studio guitarist James Burton to assemble a band. It was one of the greatest country music bands of all time. I have written about Burton here. This was a major factor in the spread of country music into the mainstream pop music world. Over two million people saw those shows.
LINDA RONSTADT
Also missing in action is Linda Ronstadt. There is no photo of her. Yet she was one of the first female rock singers -- I would say the first -- to help develop what became known as country rock. She had become famous as part of the Stone Poneys: "Different Drum." This was her first solo album: Hand Sown, Home Grown (1969). It was country. She followed with Silk Purse (1970), recorded in Nashville. On it was "Long, Long Time," her first hit as a solo performer. She then assembled a band. It became the Eagles. She became a phenomenon in the 1970's. She recorded "When Will I Be Loved?" the Everly Brothers hit. A decade later, in 1987, came Trio. It was the product of the three greatest female country singers of the era: Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, and Linda. It sold over 4 million copies. Here's why.
ALISON KRAUSS
The third omission is simply mind-boggling. Except for a two-second still photograph at the end of the eighth episode, there is no mention of Alison Krauss. Here is a documentary that focuses on bluegrass. Yet it never mentions Alison Krauss and the Union Station. Toward the end of the final episode, Ricky Skaggs speaks of his talk with Bill Monroe at the end of Monroe's life. Monroe was afraid that bluegrass would fade away. Skaggs assured him that this would not happen. You can bet it will not happen. Alison Krauss has sold more bluegrass records than anybody in history.
Krauss has received 27 Grammys. That is more Grammys than any other performer except George Solti, a symphony conductor. She has also won these awards.
I can almost hear the discussion in New Hampshire. "Alison Krauss? The name sounds familiar. Didn't she do some voice-over work in that movie . . . what's its name? Brother something."
O, BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU?
The integrating theme of the entire documentary is this: country music is identifiable, yet no one knows how to define its boundaries. It is artistically different from other forms of American music, yet within this range of music, there are many forms. If there is a single piece of artistic evidence that supports the theme of the documentary, it is O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). But there is no mention of either the movie or its sensationally popular soundtrack.
The Coen brothers' movie was built around the music. It brought the broad spectrum of country music to the attention of the urban American public. It's targeted audience was not the typical country music audience. The movie's theme was an adaptation of Homer's Odyssey. Its setting was the rural American South in the 1930's: basically, Episode 2 of the documentary.
It was not just the movie that Burns overlooked. It was also the soundtrack. Wikipedia reports:
The soundtrack CD became a best seller, certified 8 times Platinum as of October 2007 with sales of 7.9 million copies in the United States as of January 2015. It won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2002, the Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals (for singer Dan Tyminski, whose voice overdubbed George Clooney's in the film on "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow", Nashville songwriter Harley Allen, and the Nashville Bluegrass Band's Pat Enright), and the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for "O, Death" by Ralph Stanley.In 2001, the album spent over 20 weeks on the Billboard Top Country Chart. It won the Album of the Year Award and Single of the Year Award for "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" at the Country Music Association Awards. It also won the Album of the Year Award at the Academy of Country Music Awards and took home 2 International Bluegrass Music Awards: Album of the Year and Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year (for Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch on "I'll Fly Away")
It was as if this had never appeared on-screen.
Dan Tyminsky is a member of Krauss's Union Station.
The man who put that soundtrack together was T Bone Burnett. A continuing theme of the documentary is the Chet Atkins polished country music to create the Nashville sound. T Bone Burnett stripped off the polish to get back to the roots. He is not mentioned.
Episode 8 officially ends in 1996, but it really doesn't. It ends with the death of Johnny Cash in 2003. So, there was room for O Brother. Burns should have stretched out the chronology to include it. This was the capstone piece of artistic evidence supporting the central theme of his documentary. He passed over it.
O, brother, where were you?
CONCLUSION
A 16 1/2 hour documentary on country music that skips over these turning points is historically incomplete. Artistically, it is powerful. But this makes no sense: spending seemingly endless time on the marital troubles of George Jones and Tammy Wynette, while ignoring Elvis's return to public performances as a country singer, Linda Ronstadt's contribution to country rock, Alison Krauss's development of a mass audience for bluegrass, and the largest big-screen helping of country music ever gulped down by city slickers who paid good money to see a Coen brothers movie, and then went out and bought the soundtrack. It indicates that Burns was sporadically burdened with the affliction that provided the name for a group mentioned in the documentary: asleep at the wheel. He suffered from historical narcolepsy.
__________________________
P.S. I am impressed that Burns selected Merrick Adams to be part of the introduction to all eight episodes. He is the unidentified boy with the banjo.
© 2022 GaryNorth.com, Inc., 2005-2021 All Rights Reserved. Reproduction without permission prohibited.