Review – Episode 2 of Ken Burns Country Music, "Hard Times"



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The first episode of the documentary Ken Burns Country Music is given a mission to define what is country music by deepening its origins and its original suppliers. The second episode entitled "Hard Times" began by explaining why music was important to many people. As Marty Stuart eloquently said at the beginning of the episode, "I think that hard times and country music were born one for the other. There is a strange hope and faith in country music, even in songs that have nothing to do with faith and hope. "

Country music is the story of America. The pain and suffering of the 1930s marked country music's interest in telling the story of America's poor and displaced people, as well as giving them respite and diversified entertainment. Where the first episode of the documentary was more biographical and informative, the second was more touching and resonant. Some were wondering how to fill an entire episode, where the first one had stopped and still did not get to Hank Williams. But at the end of "Hard Times," you wished that it stays an hour.

The episode really started with the commentary of Don Maddox – the traditional violin player of the Maddox Brothers and Rose, and the oldest living link its historical past, which still resides in southern Oregon. The story tells how the Maddox family emigrated from Alabama, California to "Hillbilly's most colorful group in the world" and one of their most important and influential bands in the history of music country. Don Maddox has been featured many times in Saving Country Music, and the inclusion of Maddox Brothers and Rose in this documentary once again underscores how absent they are from the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Before Hank Williams can help open the Golden Era for country music, it's stars like Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, Roy Acuff from Grand Ole Opry and Gene Autry from the big screen who would help popularize country music like never before before. Western influences to her. The Pioneer Sons and Roy Rogers also come into play, as do Monroe Brothers and Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Boys.

Meanwhile, the Carter family would move to Del Rio, Texas, to take advantage of a renegade radio station across the Mexican border to circumvent US-imposed broadcasting restrictions. United. The dramas within the Carter family also played an important role in the episode, and it was shocking to hear that the original programming never had the opportunity to play the Grand Ole Opry. However, the influence of the family group spread widely on the wings of renegade radio, reaching the young Waylon Jennings, Chet Atkins and Johnny Cash and their respective homes across America, thus consolidating the country music that was for them and for all others.

The race has once again played an important role in the episode. As Ray Benson explained of Asleep at the Wheel, Bob Wills was influenced by black blues artists, as well as by Americans of Mexican descent. Bill Monroe also had black artists in his team of influencers. It was also illustrated how country music performers often worked to care for their African-American counterparts, especially the Delmore brothers, who sometimes traveled for dozens of miles to sit at the same table with their friend. DeFord Bailey tour. In the end, Opry's original interpreter was removed from the institution, perhaps as much because of problems with song publishing as racial issues, but was duly honored years later, at the same time. occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Opry, and was reinstated.

We also spent a lot of time on Minnie Pearl, which you can not help but love, thanks to her story as a sophisticated comedian turned actor who has made his career to become his own line of striking. The episode ends with the beginning of the Second World War and enlisting many legends of the country, including Bob Wills, his guitarist Tommy Duncan, Roy Acuff and 20 members of Chicago's Barn Dance program , which was at the time larger than the Grand Ole. Opry.

On the whole, the second episode could even get ahead of the impressive episode 1 because of the more emotional components of the material, components that also make country music so compelling. It was so good to see the comments of Jean Shepard and Mac Wiseman, who have just passed, as well as Vince Gill and Opry Announcer, Eddie Stubbs.

As Marty Stuart mentioned, country music gives us strength through our common misery. The second installment of the Ken Burns Country Music documentary summed up the situation.

Episode 2 can now be broadcast online. The next episode is entitled "The Hillbilly Shakespeare" and deals mainly with Hank Williams. It will be broadcast on his birthday.



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