| Author |
Topic: PBS/Ken Burns Country Music |
Tommy Mc
From:
Middlesex VT
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Posted 18 Sep 2019 6:28 am |
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Has anybody else been following the Ken Burns Country Music documentary on PBS? Interesting stuff. Last nights segment was "The Hillybilly Shakespeare (1945-1953). The main focus was on Hank, but also those years in general.
One thing I caught (and I know this is nit-picking) was some inaccuracies in setup shots. Occasionally there are background shots of the streets of Nashville with cars from the mid-50's when they're describing an earlier scene. But the one thing that stood out last night was during a segment (45:10) about Flat and Scruggs. There was a background shot of a stage with two pedal(!) steel guitars front and center. It's a distant shot, but you can make out at least 6 pedal rods....remember this segment is 1945-53. Anybody else notice that? |
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Stu Schulman
From:
Ulster Park New Yawk (deceased)
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Posted 18 Sep 2019 6:36 am
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I watched it last night for a while and didn't really pay attention to that stuff,It just looks like stock footage to me,plus I don't thick that Ken Burns was doing this stuff back then?
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Steeltronics Z-pickup,Desert Rose S-10 4+5,Desert Rose Keyless S-10 3+5... Mullen G2 S-10 3+5,Telonics 206 pickups,Telonics volume pedal.,Blanton SD -10,Emmons GS_10...Zirctone bar,Bill Groner Bar...any amp that isn't broken.Steel Seat.Com seats...Licking paint chips off of Chinese Toys since 1952. |
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Dennis Brion
From:
Atwater, Ohio USA
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Posted 18 Sep 2019 7:07 am
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So far so good. Could have more music to accentuate the differences in style. Last night's was the most interesting to me and fastest moving! First two were a little slow and pretty much all Carter Family which were important but not exclusive to the period. All in all been worth watching so far, especially like Marty Stewart's musical knowledge!
Dennis
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1969 Custom built d10, Fender 25R practice amp,Dunlop pedal, Peavy Special 130 w/15" Blackwidow, Gretsch resonator, 41 Gibson 7 string lap steel, Epiphone flat top, 67 Epiphone Olympic |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 18 Sep 2019 7:24 am
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I only saw the first episode (I watched the introductory concert at the Ryman on-line) on Sunday night.
What's the schedule? Are they showing it on consecutive nights? I'd assumed it would air weekly.
Could someone provide a link to the second show, please (and/or subsequent episodes)?
I thought it really well done. I hadn't realised how important Jimmie Rodgers was in the scheme of things.
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Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles and Martins - and, at last, a Gibson Super 400!
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Dennis Brion
From:
Atwater, Ohio USA
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Posted 18 Sep 2019 7:49 am
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It's every night till it's done!
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1969 Custom built d10, Fender 25R practice amp,Dunlop pedal, Peavy Special 130 w/15" Blackwidow, Gretsch resonator, 41 Gibson 7 string lap steel, Epiphone flat top, 67 Epiphone Olympic |
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Brian Hollands
From:
Geneva, FL USA
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Posted 18 Sep 2019 7:52 am
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| b0b wrote: |
The innovation of pedals on the steel guitar has yet to be mentioned. Maybe tonight, but I'm not holding my breath.  |
Tonight starts with 1954 so I'm thinking Bud Isaacs stepping on a pedal is where it'll start. We'll see.
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'81 Sho-bud LDG, 2 EMCI's |
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Blake Hawkins
From:
Florida
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Posted 18 Sep 2019 8:00 am
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In the Bob Wills segment, they talked about Leon McAuliff
and showed a still of him in the band with a lap steel.
They were playing one of his solos and they cut to
a tight shot of hands playing a steel. Only the hands they cut to were Bobby Koeffer's from a Bob Wills Movie.
Then they cut back to the Leon still. |
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 18 Sep 2019 8:03 am
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| b0b wrote: |
| Quote: |
| I hadn't realized how important Jimmie Rodgers was in the scheme of things. |
If he wasn't before, he is now.  |
True. He's already responsible for influinceing Charlie Parker. Or so I could infer. I'm just kidding, there's probably a lot of license used. All in all, I'm enjoying it.
| Quote: |
| The innovation of pedals on the steel guitar has yet to be mentioned. |
I don't look for that to happen. This is in large part American history, with music as its sidebar, and pedal steel is adjunct to that.
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Those that say don't know; those that know don't say.--Buddy Emmons |
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 18 Sep 2019 8:17 am
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| Blake Hawkins wrote: |
In the Bob Wills segment, they talked about Leon McAuliff
and showed a still of him in the band with a lap steel.
They were playing one of his solos and they cut to
a tight shot of hands playing a steel. Only the hands they cut to were Bobby Koeffer's from a Bob Wills Movie.
Then they cut back to the Leon still. |
Yeah, there were a lot of anomalies like that--like one showing Emmons in front of a bus with Tubb when discussing Tubb in the 40s.
Which led me to conclude that the availability and quality of the pix and performance video dictated that they had to be included and Burns just force-fit them into the episodes, realizing few would notice the time discrepancies.
The formula seemed to be consistent with Burns other productions:
75% still photos with narration from rehearsed script
20% talking head commentary
5% live performance footage
Burns really had a thankless task, so I just enjoyed it as entertainment, rather than something authoritative.
So far, it is very Nashville-centric, which I suppose is to be expected. Only a passing mention of Cincinnati and Los Angeles.
I'm sure Burns won't be able to resist the "Bakersfield sound" shtick in a predictable way in a day or two. Probably a 50-50 bet on whether the name "Wynn Stewart" will be spoken.
It seems to follow the "great man" theory, concentrating on a few specific artists to tell the broader story. Rodgers, Wills, Tubb, Atkins, Monroe, Carters, Flatt/Scruggs, Hank, Arnold, etc.
Tonight more of the same formula: Elvis, Sam Phillips, Patsy Cline, and Low-retta. I can already hear the bitching from the Nudie suit wearers on camera: "Elvis about put us out of business..........". Likely more bitching about "The Nashville Sound" watering down the hardcore stuff, and so on.
I can recall hearing the phrase "steel guitar" spoken twice.
I sorely missed the obligatory snake-handler footage. Thought it would appear in the first episode. Editing error, I assume. But I did see blacked-out teeth and hear somebody (Ralph Stanley?) say "banjer".
Little about sidemen, but I did hear Charlie McCoy say he tended to ask himself in a session "What would Grady do?".
Someone obviously put a bug in Burns' ear about the Maddox Brothers, who got 6 or 8 minutes. Selfishly, I was glad to see that, but I'd think they were way down on the totem pole when in comes to importance in 1940s/early 50s country music. Maybe the great photos of their outrageous stage act was the reason. |
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b0b
From:
Cloverdale, CA, USA
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Posted 18 Sep 2019 9:53 am
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Received via email:
| Lloyd Green wrote: |
Bob,
I donΓ’β¬β’t know about when pedals show up, but I received a long, very nice letter from Ken Burns thanking me for my contributions.
He said I first show up in episode 5, then episode 6. I have no idea what was used out of the more than 3 hours of filming with me at RCA studio A in Nashville about 5 years ago.
I did have my steel and I did play butΓ’β¬Β¦ he said they filmed 175 hours of interviews and were able to use 16 hours, consequently only bits and pieces of everyone of the 101 people interviewed could be in the final cut. |
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-πππ- (admin) - Robert P. Lee - Recordings - Breathe - D6th - Video |
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Bill Fisher
From:
Oklahoma, USA
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Posted 18 Sep 2019 10:08 am
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Bob, thanks for the Lloyd Green quote. Very nice. Very interesting. Very appreciated.
Bill |
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Stephen Pride
From:
Berkeley, CA
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Posted 18 Sep 2019 10:50 am
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| Dennis Brion wrote: |
| It's every night till it's done! |
Actually I think episode 4 is tonight, and then episodes 5-8 will air next week, Sunday through Wednesday. |
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 18 Sep 2019 11:33 am
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| Lloyd Green wrote: |
| He said I first show up in episode 5, then episode 6. |
I'm so happy to be wrong, because it would be a complete omission, and no better than Mr. Green to represent it.
I wish Burns had gotten him to demonstrate how to play it.
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Those that say don't know; those that know don't say.--Buddy Emmons |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 18 Sep 2019 11:37 am
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I've watched a lot of the first two episodes - awful lotta time on Hank Williams (seemed like a half hour or more). I get it that he's a seminal figure, but the time seemed inordinate considering the other major stars that came up in the '50s.
Did I miss a segment on Vernon Dalhart? Was he even mentioned in the first episode? |
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Mitch Drumm
From:
Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake
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Posted 18 Sep 2019 11:53 am
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| Donny Hinson wrote: |
I've watched a lot of the first two episodes - awful lotta time on Hank Williams (seemed like a half hour or more). I get it that he's a seminal figure, but the time seemed inordinate considering the other major stars that came up in the '50s.
Did I miss a segment on Vernon Dalhart? Was he even mentioned in the first episode? |
I don't think he was mentioned at all, Donny.
All but zero on Price, Foley, Hank Snow, Hank Thompson--so far.
I just looked at the Hall Of Fame membership.
Of those performers active primarily pre-1950, only these haven't been mentioned that I recall:
Ernest Stoneman
Cindy Walker
Floyd Tillman
Vernon Dalhart
About what you'd expect, I guess. I'd hate to think he felt that all of them must be mentioned--or that anyone not in the Hall Of Fame isn't worth a segment. |
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Bill Fisher
From:
Oklahoma, USA
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Posted 18 Sep 2019 6:23 pm
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Ernest Stoneman was mentioned somewhere in the mix. But, it went by so fast, it was hardly noticeable.
Bill |
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Dennis Brion
From:
Atwater, Ohio USA
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Posted 19 Sep 2019 2:17 am
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Yeppir starts back up again Sunday night. The show has been quite entertaining so far. They seem to spend a lot of time on certain areas designated by then as most influential but we all knew that was going to happen! I n total so far it has been time well spent for me!
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1969 Custom built d10, Fender 25R practice amp,Dunlop pedal, Peavy Special 130 w/15" Blackwidow, Gretsch resonator, 41 Gibson 7 string lap steel, Epiphone flat top, 67 Epiphone Olympic |
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Roger Rettig
From:
Naples, FL
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Posted 19 Sep 2019 5:07 am
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I thought last night's episode (episode 4?) was well done. Of course, it covered the era when I was just waking up to music of any kind ('53 onward) and the 'smoothing out' of the Nashville product was well related.
I'd seen most of the Elvis archive footage but there was one short clip I hadn't ever viewed. The whole programme held my attention.
Oh - and I got very excited when I saw trolleybus wires in some early-'50s views of downtown Memphis!!!
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Roger Rettig: Emmons D10, B-bender Teles and Martins - and, at last, a Gibson Super 400!
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Dennis Brion
From:
Atwater, Ohio USA
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Posted 19 Sep 2019 6:36 am
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Roger, I think I enjoy the old pics and videos as much if not more sometimes than the spoken commentary!
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1969 Custom built d10, Fender 25R practice amp,Dunlop pedal, Peavy Special 130 w/15" Blackwidow, Gretsch resonator, 41 Gibson 7 string lap steel, Epiphone flat top, 67 Epiphone Olympic |
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 19 Sep 2019 7:40 am
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Roger that, Dennis. It's American history seldom seen. I've enjoyed every minute.
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Those that say don't know; those that know don't say.--Buddy Emmons |
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Barry Blackwood
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Posted 19 Sep 2019 7:52 am
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| Quote: |
The formula seemed to be consistent with Burns other productions:
75% still photos with narration from rehearsed script
20% talking head commentary
5% live performance footage
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Let's see, that's a combined 95% talk. More than a disproportionate amount of time devoted to the Carter Family and Hank, IMO..
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I'm so happy to be wrong, because it would be a complete omission, and no better than Mr. Green to represent it.
I wish Burns had gotten him to demonstrate how to play it. |
It's not a steel guitar tutorial, Charlie.. |
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Charlie McDonald
From:
out of the blue
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Posted 19 Sep 2019 7:54 am
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Dang.
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Those that say don't know; those that know don't say.--Buddy Emmons |
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Jim Cohen
From:
Philadelphia, PA
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