CLEVELAND, Ohio — Early in Ken Burns’ latest deep-dive documentary series for PBS, singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson tries to summarize the enduring appeal of country music. “Well, to me, it’s soul music,” he says. “It comes from the heart.”
The same might be said of Burns’ 16-hour “Country Music,” a soulful and sentimental journey through about 100 years of history. This is definitely one from the heart.
The filmmaker’s unapologetic affection for the music is glowingly apparent in each of the warmly crafted eight episodes. Burns, writer Dayton Duncan and co-producer Julie Dunfey put the emphasis on the individuals who brought the music from the mountains of Appalachia and the plains of the West to the masses, from the Jazz Age 1920s through decades of profound change to the American scene.
The gripping individual stories meld into a love letter — or, perhaps more appropriately, a love song — to a musical form with incredibly deep and diverse roots. That’s one reason the history buff in Burns undoubtedly was attracted to this subject. It’s a story that touches all regions of the country on all levels, with its origins in everything from English, Irish, Welsh and Scottish ballads to spirituals and traditional hymns to Tin Pin Alley tunes and African-American blues.
All of that and so much more went into the mix that became country-western music. And this is the type of societal exploration that is a Burns specialty. Still, another probable reason he felt compelled to make “Country Music” was the realization that the source of the song also was the powerful need for people to tell their stories.
What people? The opening two-hour installment of “Country Music,” which airs at 8 tonight, Sunday, Sept. 15, on WVIZ Channel 25 and WEAO Channel 49, provides the answer: working Americans who felt left out and looked down upon and dismissed. It was the music of the people without a lot of money or power, and the music said, “We’re here and we matter.”
So, you can say that country music came from all those musical ancestors, and it did. But you might as well say it came from the porches and parlors of farmers and coal miners, from Saturday night barn dances and Sunday morning church services, from grimy saloons to wide-open ranges, from lonely hollows in the South to crowded barrios in the West.
The stories were given powerful voice by generation after generation of singers capable of infusing each line with stirring emotions that went, yes, right to the heart. This, as “Country Music” explores in riveting fashion, is what accounted for the growing appeal of the singers and their songs, even in urban areas. There was something here that touched a common chord.
“I believe that you can go look and find a country song to fit any mood you’re in — any song that will help you feel better,” Charley Pride says in the first chapter of “Country Music.” “Sometimes it might make you cry, but you’ll feel better. You can find that song. That’s what I believe.”
Dolly Parton, signing a guitar, is interviewed in “Country Music,” the PBS documentary series written by Dayton Duncan, center, and directed by Ken Burns. Katy Haas/PBS
It soon become clear that Burns feels that way, too. Or as Dolly Parton puts it: “You can dance to it. You can cry to it. You can make love to it. You can play it at a funeral. It just really has something in it for everybody, and people relate to it.”
And with his engaging approach to storytelling, Burns makes the individual stories wonderfully relatable and fascinating. The documentary mostly moves in chronological order, so the first two-hour segment covers the development of the form and the country music industry. Here we are introduced to the earliest star, Fiddlin’ John Carson, and the record industry pioneer, Ralph Peer, who saw the potential in what he first called “hillbilly music.”
This chapter builds to the 1927 sessions that saw Peer recording the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers in Bristol, Tennessee. This is generally regarded as the start of country music as an industry. “The bedrock was formed,” Roseanne Cash says.
Each night spotlights the stars of the era. Among those given the Burns profile treatment are: Gene Autry, Bill Monroe, Bob Wills and Roy Acuff in Part 2, airing at 8 p.m. Monday, Sept. 16; Ernest Tubb and Hank Williams in Part 3, airing Tuesday; and Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, Marty Robbins and Willie Nelson in Part 4, airing Wednesday.
The remaining four installments air at 8 p.m. Sunday-Wednesday, Sept. 22-25, telling the stories of such singing stars as Merle Haggard, Pride, Parton, Loretta Lynn, Roger Miller, Buck Owens, George Jones and Tammy Wynette.
If there is a sour note to these proceedings, it’s that the era-by-era approach can lead to a bit of a by-the-numbers feel, as Burns and Duncan make a mighty effort to touch every base in every decade. This also robs the film of the grand overall cohesion that holds together such epic efforts as “The Civil War” and “The Roosevelts.”
Because of this, “Country Music” often feels like eight two-hour films rather than one intricately interwoven effort. But each of the segments is intriguing in its own way.
The great music never stops, of course, and you’re always in terrific company, with charming and insightful observations from the likes of Marty Stuart, Charlie Daniels, Pride, Parton, Haggard, Lynn, Ricky Skaggs, Kristofferson, Nelson, Garth Brooks, Ralph Stanley, Don Reid of the Statler Brothers, Vince Gill, Reba McEntire, Dwight Yoakam and Emmylou Harris.
Another quote that gets trotted out early in the documentary is from songwriter Harlan Howard, who penned such Nashville standards as “I Fall to Pieces” and “Heartaches by the Number.” He famously defined country music as “three chords and the truth.” Ol’ Harlan had a way with a phrase.
And the truth is that Burns and his team are in superb voice as they sing the praises of country music and those legendary talents who popularized it. As with any successful song, they really put their hearts into it.
REVIEW
Country Music
What: An eight-part, 16-hour documentary film from Ken Burns, exploring the development and enduring appeal of country music.
When: 8 p.m. Sunday-Wednesday, Sept. 15-18 and Sept. 22-25
Where: PBS (WVIZ Channel 25 and WEAO Channel 49).