![]() This first episode may work as a coming out party for Ketch as one of country music’s premier contemporary intellectuals, with plenty of experience as a musician to back it up. Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show might have been the most impressive personality to appear in the episode, offering a lot of great commentary and insight into the primitive origins of country music. Rhiannon Giddens also gives an actual illustration of the early banjo style that was cool to watch. Rhiannon Giddens is one of the tour guides through this period, coining the concoction of black and white influences in country music as “The Rub.” Just how important the African American influence on country music is gets underscored not just in the stories and pictures of early African American performers, but of many important Caucasian performers such as Jimmie Rodgers appeared in blackface to impersonate the black performers they were influenced by. With great depth, the dual origins of country music are laid out, how white Europeans and African slave ancestors gave rise to the music in the American South. Though some of the criticism preceding the film from those who’ve viewed it in its entirety is that it’s too light on detail and doesn’t pay enough attention to the African American contributions to country music, that didn’t pertain to this chapter. But the topic of discussion for the first episode was the very kernel origins of country music. The recently-passed Mel Tillis also made an appearance, as did Holly Williams, Kathy Mattea, Rosanne Cash, and other important country music personalities that don’t regularly receive screen time in this era of popular culture. They’re hanging around here, and songwriters reach out and get them.” Merle expertly said, “ is about these things that we believe in, but we can’t see, like dreams, and songs, and souls. You couldn’t help but get choked up a little bit when Merle Haggard came on the screen-one of the many country legends Ken Burns interviewed before their passing. ![]() Dolly Parton offered her always-valued insight. The first episode began with possibly the most important moment of the entire film, which consisted of country legends and personalities laboring to define what country music is. Whatever the material being covered, it’s always a warm feeling to settle into Ken’s latest dalliance into American history, to hear the narration of Peter Coyote, and behold the care and love given to the subject matter. The quality of a Ken Burns film is always appreciated and immediately recognizable. He was a great and inspiring man.Over seven years of full-time labor on the part of numerous people, over 101 interviews conducted, countless hours of archival work digging up old photographs, audio, video, and other vintage material, and an elongated year-long promotional effort finally culminated in the broadcast of the debut episode for the Ken Burns Country Music epic Sunday evening (9-15). The story is amazing! Samuel Clemens was the epitome of "The American Dream": rising from poverty and a wild lifestyle to great wealth and respect forging a marriage, based on strong and abiding love loving his family above all else gambling on investments and the subsequent financial ruin recovering by hard work (although legally bankrupt, he still paid off all of his debts) bouncing back after each one of more tragedies than any man could expect and, most of all, honesty, integrity, charity and the deepest understanding of what is means to be human. After two viewings, it is still on my list of films to see. The pace is moderate, the narration is excellent and often very moving, the talking heads are brief and concise and the mood is sincere. As usual, Ken Burns has made another great documentary. Since he included himself in that group of wrongdoers, he was accepted by them as a sort of group conscience. He moved in the circle of the elite but was a powerful and outspoken opponent of all that was wrong with society. ![]() His dabbling in investments was a complete disaster it ruined him financially. He was born into modest circumstances, became wealthy and even became obsessive about it, to the point that it interfered with his writing. Clemens struggled with depression he was a man of constant sorrow humour was what kept him from killing himself. He sponsored a struggling black man through law school, who later became the mentor of Thurgood Marshall, who was the first black American Supreme Court justice. He was the first American to write in the vernacular and to write a sympathetic and well-developed portrait of a black person: Jim in Huckleberry Finn. ![]() He hated and spoke out against slavery and was a supporter of full adult suffrage. The life of Mark Twain, whose real name was Samuel Clemens, is a totally fascinating and moving story.
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