Country/Western Music Lovers?

[Recipes Make Magic]

On my thread asking what your all-time favorite movie was, bbqcoder posted about liking concert films, which made me think of something that's really resonated with me over the years, that I often keep thinking about over & over.

And that's the many music concerts I've loved watching on public tv channels.

While I've never really been a country & western music fan, this concert I watched on PBS- Seattle lingers on with me, since I enjoyed it so very much:

It was a concert sometime in the late 90's I believe, with THE HIGHWAYMEN:

- Willie Nelson - Waylon Jennings - Johnny Cash - and Kris Kristofferson -

I found it to be an absolute smash - some of the best country -western music I'd ever heard ! I'll never forget it.
Did you see it - and what did you think ?

Although Waylon & Johnny are no longer with us, apparently Willie and Kris are still doing reasonably well, now into their mid-eighties !

Would love to hear any thoughts you might have about country-western music.

(A little aside from country music, but not televised concerts, that I find it very hard to forget about is the last concert (at least I think it was his last) performed by Frank Sinatra at Madison Square Gardens when he was into his 60's I believe - voice was as great as ever - the crowd went wild and I was mesmerized - 'course I've always loved his music ! )

 

[Just Cooking]

If you enjoy country music, I suggest you watch this, if you still have PBS..

Tune in or Stream Sunday, September 15 at 8/7c

Explore the history of a uniquely American art form: country music. From its deep and tangled roots in ballads, blues and hymns performed in small settings, to its worldwide popularity, learn how country music evolved over the course of the 20th century, as it eventually emerged to become America’s music. Country Music features never-before-seen footage and photographs, plus interviews with more than 80 country music artists. The eight-part 16-hour series is directed and produced by Ken Burns; written and produced by Dayton Duncan; and produced by Julie Dunfey.

https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/country-music/

Ross

 

[Recipes Make Magic]

Thanks. I'll be sure to catch that if it's televised here.

 

[kleenex]

If you enjoy country music, I suggest you watch this, if you still have PBS..

Tune in or Stream Sunday, September 15 at 8/7c

Explore the history of a uniquely American art form: country music. From its deep and tangled roots in ballads, blues and hymns performed in small settings, to its worldwide popularity, learn how country music evolved over the course of the 20th century, as it eventually emerged to become America’s music. Country Music features never-before-seen footage and photographs, plus interviews with more than 80 country music artists. The eight-part 16-hour series is directed and produced by Ken Burns; written and produced by Dayton Duncan; and produced by Julie Dunfey.

https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/country-music/

Ross

2 weeks, 8 shows, 16 hours.... Another Ken Burns Marathon Documentary...

PBS can air in Canada with the right cable TV provider.

 

[Recipes Make Magic]

2 weeks, 8 shows, 16 hours.... Another Ken Burns Marathon Documentary...

PBS can air in Canada with the right cable TV provider.

Here in Vancouver on Shaw Cable we get both Detroit public TV as well as Seattle public TV (KCTS). It should be on one or the other I would think.

 

[Just Cooking]

2 weeks, 8 shows, 16 hours.... Another Ken Burns Marathon Documentary...

PBS can air in Canada with the right cable TV provider.

Yes... I love his docs.. I believe I'd watch any project he took charge of..

Ross

 

[Cheryl J]

If you enjoy country music, I suggest you watch this, if you still have PBS..

Tune in or Stream Sunday, September 15 at 8/7c

Explore the history of a uniquely American art form: country music. From its deep and tangled roots in ballads, blues and hymns performed in small settings, to its worldwide popularity, learn how country music evolved over the course of the 20th century, as it eventually emerged to become America’s music. Country Music features never-before-seen footage and photographs, plus interviews with more than 80 country music artists. The eight-part 16-hour series is directed and produced by Ken Burns; written and produced by Dayton Duncan; and produced by Julie Dunfey.

https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/country-music/

Ross

Thanks for the heads up, Ross! I'll be DVRing this. I rarely miss a Ken Burns documentary series.

 

[pepperhead212]

I have that series programmed into my DVR, in case I forget, or I'm doing something!

I've been a CM fan since I was a child, even though it wasn't popular in NJ back then! Mom and I (the only ones that liked it) would watch Hee Haw whenever it was on. Went to countless concerts at Valley Forge Music Fair. I was really sad when they destroyed that place (probably for another shopping center).

My first concert was Charley Pride, in 1970 at the spectrum. He's another one that's still going on tour in his 80s! I heard a while back that he had a show in Lancaster, PA, but there was nobody around here to go with. I've seen him 4 times through the years, twice in VFMF.

Here are other artists I have seen in concerts...maybe some I forgot! Many, multiple times, as noted.

Tom T. Hall - 2 (did a short free concert, for the
bicentennial, in '76)
Buck Owens
Ronnie Milsap - 2
Don Williams - 2
Jimmy Buffet
Jimmy C Newman - 2
Ray Stevens
Roger Miller
Kathy Mattea - 2
Mary Chapin Carpenter
Dan Seals - 2
Statler Brothers - 2
Oak Ridge Boys - 2 (one of Mom's favorites)
Brooks and Dunn
John Anderson
George Strait
Clint Black
John Denver - 2 - The one in Madison Square
Garden was definitely one of my favorites.
Peter Noone - not CM, but great show! One of
the last shows in Garden State Race track.

There were also some lead acts I saw, that later became the main acts, though Mary Chapin Carpenter is the only one that I remember (lead for Dan Seals, the first time).

It's hard to believe that I could see all of these, living in S Jersey!

 

[Just Cooking]

Thanks for the heads up, Ross! I'll be DVRing this. I rarely miss a Ken Burns documentary series.

My pleasure...

I've enjoyed everything of his, that I've watched..

Ross

 

[skilletlicker]

I have that series programmed into my DVR, in case I forget, or I'm doing something!

I've been a CM fan since I was a child, even though it wasn't popular in NJ back then!
...

The '60s equivalent of iTunes was a transistor radio with an earphone. Remember riding a school bus in California secretly listening to country music.

The first episode airing tonight of the Ken Burns documentary is about the beginnings to 1933. I'm looking forward to it knowing I'll be disappointed about how much gets left out. I'm sure The Carter Family will be covered and Jimmie Rodgers less so but doubt you'll hear much about Leslie Riddle, The Memphis Jug Band, or Leadbelly. Expect those omissions have something to do with the early music industry need to separate Race records and hillbilly music. But Charlie Poole and The North Carolina Ramblers and Gid Tanner and The Skillet Lickers usually get left out too because they were both already established stars when RCA sent Ralph Peer down to Bristol Tennesse to recruit talent. The Bristol Sessions are such a convenient place to begin this narrative that everything prior to it often gets left out.

If anybody is interested in a little wider view of the era, the link below, when opened in YouTube itself, has 116 recordings in a "20s & 30s Country Music Hits Playlist". Not all of them strictly Country & Western, but then "strictly Country" is and always has been an oxymoron. Click the title bar below to reopen inside YouTube.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i551eU_fYkE&list=PLGBuKfnErZlBLQn_DxN12tccL1Q71QSYc&index=1

 

[pepperhead212]

The '60s equivalent of iTunes was a transistor radio with an earphone. Remember riding a school bus in California secretly listening to country music.

I remember those days! I even remember the station, the only country station in this area - 92.5 FM, WXTU. I guess I heard it so many times it's in my memory, permanently! Even though it's probably been since the early 80s since I had it on a radio.

 

[Whiskadoodle]

I don't have a great affinity towards, and certainly less knowledge, about Country Music. However, Ken Burns WILL cover this subject thoroughly. I'll be watching. I watched the 1 1/2-2 hour concert on the preview website the other night. That was quite entertaining and educational in itself. He didn't mention Woody Guthrie but did acknowledge Robert Johnson, who I don't think of as Country per se.

Skilletlicker-- as an aside, R Crumb, one great cartoonist, illustrator, humorist and lover of obscure and historic music, and musician along with the Cheap Suit Serenaders. There is a whole host of similar famous and local groups that carry on in this tradition, both in Country, old jazz, and traditional music.

 

[skilletlicker]

I don't have a great affinity towards, and certainly less knowledge, about Country Music. However, Ken Burns WILL cover this subject thoroughly. I'll be watching. I watched the 1 1/2-2 hour concert on the preview website the other night. That was quite entertaining and educational in itself. He didn't mention Woody Guthrie but did acknowledge Robert Johnson, who I don't think of as Country per se.

Skilletlicker-- as an aside, R Crumb, one great cartoonist, illustrator, humorist and lover of obscure and historic music, and musician along with the Cheap Suit Serenaders. There is a whole host of similar famous and local groups that carry on in this tradition, both in Country, old jazz, and traditional music.

Thanks Whiskadoodle. Looking at this it looks like I screwed up the links. It seems the first one takes you to a playlist that's all Robert Crumb. The one I intended is mostly the old-timers including Gene Autrey, Fiddlin' John Carson, Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers, Charlie Poole and The North Carolina Ramblers, Memphis Minnie, Uncle Dave Macon, Jimmie Rodgers, Jimmie Davis and a bunch of others who were actually active in the '20s & '30s. Talented though Mr. Crumb may be musically I don't think he really belongs with the folks mentioned above because he isn't actually of that era. Why he is the first link in the playlist seems odd. I can't find it now but I'm pretty sure I have or used to have a couple of CDs of collected recordings from the period that he curated.
Anyhow, this seems to be the link I intended above. It opens the playlist instead of the first video. Sorry for the confusion.
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGBuKfnErZlBLQn_DxN12tccL1Q71QSYc

 

[Whiskadoodle]

Well, I didn't know I wasn't confused, sort of like it anyway. See my avatar. He used to search out copyright expired records, Re-copyright with illustrated new Covers, often risque' and if the record had jokes or double entendres, all the better for him. Humor knows no bounds regardless of music genre.

I didn't know there is a band, the Skillet Lickers. Sweet. Have to check out the new playlist.

Oh, Ken Burns uses Peter Coyote as one of his main narrators. He has a great speaking voice.

 

[skilletlicker]

I can't find it now but I'm pretty sure I have or used to have a couple of CDs of collected recordings from the period that he curated.

Here's what I was thinking of.

I got this great little book and CD over twenty years ago at The Center for Southern Folklore in Memphis and had all but forgotten about it. There might have been posters or originals(?) of his artwork as well. Thanks for reminding me I have it.

I didn't mean you were confused Whiskey, but Confusion has become my State of Permanent Residence.

And as for Ken Burns covering the subject matter thoroughly; you're right of course. But there is no way I'll be satisfied. I've been looking, reading, and listening to this stuff since the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band released Will the Circle Be Unbroken nearly 50 years ago.

 

[Recipes Make Magic]

There's great knowledge of country music in these posts - it's impressive !

 

[skilletlicker]

Rereading the original posts in this thread there was some discussion about concerts, especially on PBS. There was a resurgence of interest in old-time country music after the movie, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" came out in 2000. A concert called "Down From the Mountain" based on the soundtrack toured the country. It was broadcast as a PBS special of the same name and they sold and gave away a bunch of the video cassettes as donation incentives.

Reelgood.com says it's not available to stream at the moment but it will come around again and is definitely worth watching if you're interested in this sorta stuff. John Hartford emceed and played his fiddle quite a bit in what turned out to be one of his last appearances. There are quite a few segments on YouTube. Sixteen of them are in this playlist.

 

[Recipes Make Magic]

Good to know.

 

[Cheryl J]

Loving this series! #3 of 'Country Music' starts in a minute or two. I've been DVRing the series, but just couldn't wait to watch them in real time. Ken Burns' documentaries are spectacular, and as someone else here mentioned....Peter Coyote as the narrator.

 

[Kayelle]

I've never really been a fan of most country music, but I never miss a documentary production from our national treasure Ken Burns. As far as I'm concerned his work is genius and the gold standard for really worthwhile documentaries.
Thanks for the heads up Ross.