Where’s Glen?
Where’s Glen?
It would be more fitting if it ended in 1999 with Larry Cordle’s Murder on Music Row.
Bob
Series actually wraps-up tonight, though I expect a lot of replays.
Eastman 605, Strad-o-lin, and Kentucky 300e mandolins.
Mandolinist, Stringtopia, the Long Island Mandolin and Guitar Orchestra
Visit my YouTube page
Bernie
____
Due to current budgetary restrictions the light at the end of the tunnel has been turned off -- sorry about the inconvenience.
Not sure who said it , but it was around the Towns Van Zant section - or who it was said to - but someone told a struggling young county musician - "in this business you can be two things, you can be an Artist or you can be a Star and both are worth while pursuits
I think that about sums up professional musicianship in general (although I do not claim to be one), and applies to a Hellenistic era Greek citizen picking on a lyre to a kid from Chicago in 2019 developing free style rap.
Stormy Morning Orchestra
My YouTube Channel
"Mean Old Timer, He's got grey hair, Mean Old Timer he just don't care
Got no compassion, thinks its a sin
All he does is sit around an play the Mandolin"
I watched most of it and thoroughly enjoyed it. However I would think not many non- country fans would sit through 16 hours. That’s a big commitment of time. That being said, do you think the show could have any impact on interest in country and bluegrass like Bonnie and Clyde, Deliverance, Oh Brother.... will there be another resurgence?
"I play BG so that's what I can talk intelligently about." A line I loved and pirated from Mandoplumb
I thought one of the themes throughout the series was the cyclical nature of country evolving/morphing/blending with other genres, then eventually getting back to it's roots. If the series has any impact, I don't think it will increase country's audience as much as it might jump start another movement to return to Old Timey/Americana style.
And I'll be memorizing the lyrics to Will the Circle...
Being right is overrated. Doing right is what matters.
Northfield F5S Blacktop
Pono MND-20H
I agree seems to be a lot of drum kits and electric instruments in a lot of the BG I experienced this year, I understand the need to keep young people interested and to expand the boundaries of the genre, but I fully expect a "return to BG roots" movement to begin expanding for a few years .... until its time to allow for expanding boundaries and getting the attention of younger generations by integrating with more "popular" and modern styles, defiantly a sine wave type of movement.
Stormy Morning Orchestra
My YouTube Channel
"Mean Old Timer, He's got grey hair, Mean Old Timer he just don't care
Got no compassion, thinks its a sin
All he does is sit around an play the Mandolin"
... and at the very end, they show Taylor Swift????
Funny how all those Taylor guitars started showing up in that last episode. The only other musicians I can think of that lucked out like Taylor Swift did were Freddie Fender and Bob and Don Gibson.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
and Jimmy Martin.
https://umgf.com/where-s-jimmy-marti...tin-t7051.html
I thought it was interesting how they included some of the outliers. They gave a lot of time to the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's Circle album, even though it never was embraced by country radio, even to this day. Same with Gram Parsons, the Byrds & DeFord Bailey.
The last hour of the final episode lost my interest. I guess time will tell if country music is still cyclical. It looks like there are very few people deciding what music is on the airwaves. With that it mind, and knowing that today’s country music all has bands from the same tin can.....is it still possible for a Reba McIntyre to be signed after singing the National Anthem at a ballgame....and then dictate what she wants her band to sound like???
Or is the system fixed so that can’t happen?
Bob
You've kind of just described what the entire series was about. A music that consistently corrects itself when people ask that question. The system can't be fixed so things don't happen because it consistently has changed from the beginning. Country music isn't just country radio, it's also a bunch of young kids learning Wabash Cannonball from an old recording and presenting it as something new. It doesn't die when the stars die. It doesn't become what some guy sitting in an office in Nashville wants it to be. I haven't been able to stand country radio since the late 90's but I have no problem finding new country artists and buying their CD's. I'm as old and crusty as they come but I see no problems with the genre. There have always been artists and songs I didn't care for and there always will be. There will always be local music in this genre because that's how it works.
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
Overall, a fabulous series! Brilliantly done. I loved every minute of it.
I suppose we all have our regrets, though, about our favorite sub-genres and performers that were not mentioned in the series. As for me, I regret that when Ken Burns covered many of the new directions in country that emerged in the '70s and '80s, he failed touch upon new dimensions in the bluegrass genre, moving beyond Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley, and most especially the sounds that emerged like Newgrass and Dawg music. He covered Emmylou Harris, but where were groups like the Seldom Scene? Newgrass Revival? Muleskinner? Old and In the Way? The David Grisman Quintet? And so on. Also left out were an entire generation of instrumental innovators/virtuosos like Tony Rice, Bela Fleck, Sam Bush, Bill Keith, Jerry Douglas, and many more. Without these talented folks, where would acoustic instrumental music be today, with the new generation of players like Chris Thile, Brian Sutton, Alison Krauss, Sierra Hull, Sarah Jarosz, etc?
Mind you, it was great to hear from traditionally-oriented folks like Ricky Scaggs and Marty Stuart, but I had also hoped to hear more about Monroe's musical legacy than simply modern covers of his original tunes (e.g, Scaggs doing "Uncle Pen"). Monroe has inspired at least another two generation's worth of players, and they have taken his music to another level.
For a more detailed bluegrass history check this one out...
https://www.pbs.org/show/big-family-...uegrass-music/
Not sure if you can stream it yet - looks like you’ve got to join some type of support org for pbs...
Burns picked a perfect place to stop, though I was itching for him to take on Newgrass. He could have at least given us a taste! But most all of that newer stuff is available on youtube and elsewhere,
The whole series has motivated me to check out my own listening history of about 65 years, from “Little Orley and the Barn Dance” onward.
There’s a discussion of that show here somewhere. Mike is better at linking that than anyone.
Also, I agree with the premise that music is in a constant state of flux, and I stand by my stand by old standby phrase “ You have to know where you came from to know where you are going!”
Timothy F. Lewis
"If brains was lard, that boy couldn't grease a very big skillet" J.D. Clampett
No pressure.
It's here:
https://www.mandolincafe.com/forum/t...luegrass-Music
"It's comparable to playing a cheese slicer."
--M. Stillion
"Bargain instruments are no bargains if you can't play them"
--J. Garber
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