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Post by delb0y on Nov 23, 2019 10:52:30 GMT
Only watched Episode 1 so far, but I thought it was very good - the photographs only are worth it. Can't believe how many Jimmie Rogers songs I've done over the years!
Bit annoying the Beeb have cut the series down - I have the BBC jazz box-set and they did this to that one, too (although it 's still great).
I think Ken Burns is wonderful- along with the jazz set I have his Civil War and, separately, The West sets. He's a master story-teller whatever the subject and is always worth watching just the way you'd watch any master documentary-maker or historian. I hope the Beeb continue with other sets (they've just finished the Vietnam one, which again was very good).
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minorkey
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Post by minorkey on Nov 23, 2019 12:10:46 GMT
So this is a series? We're gonna have this every friday?
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Post by bellyshere on Nov 23, 2019 12:24:10 GMT
Really enjoyed that. As Delboy said the photographs were fabulous. That Bob Wills guy was a bit off it. He looked high in most of the clips.
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walkingdecay
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Post by walkingdecay on Nov 23, 2019 14:19:32 GMT
Really enjoyed that. As Delboy said the photographs were fabulous. That Bob Wills guy was a bit off it. He looked high in most of the clips. I did a tour with Tex Ritter (whose son is the reason my Kevin Bacon number is only two!) and Tex liked to talk - let's not say "gossip." He told me some things about Bob Wills' dressing room habits that would have sent my eyebrows flying past the top of my head if they hadn't been so firmly attached.
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walkingdecay
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Post by walkingdecay on Nov 23, 2019 14:28:36 GMT
Only watched Episode 1 so far, but I thought it was very good - the photographs only are worth it. Can't believe how many Jimmie Rogers songs I've done over the years! Bit annoying the Beeb have cut the series down - I have the BBC jazz box-set and they did this to that one, too (although it 's still great). I have the jazz set too, Del, and am equally annoyed by its shortcomings, especially as I've since caught the series on PBS and realised just how much truly vital material they cut. It's worth watching there when it turns up again, as it seems to at least once a year. On country, it's such a broad and hugely influential church that many of those who say they despise it are influenced by it without ever acknowledging it. I love it myself, and Jimmie Rodgers is one of our household gods.
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Post by delb0y on Nov 23, 2019 17:36:12 GMT
Just watched Episode Two - brilliant. That opening sequence of Mavis Staples singing "Hard Times Come Again No More" over the photo montage from the depression was so moving. What a beautiful performance that was.
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colins
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Post by colins on Nov 23, 2019 22:27:51 GMT
Just watched episode two as well, the stand out name to me was Uncle Dave Macon, back in the sixties I collected a lot of his records as I tried to master the banjo. Together with Doc Watson I think his playing taught me to keep my mind open as to where I found my musical influences. Colin
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Post by curmudgeon on Nov 27, 2019 19:27:48 GMT
I didn't spot this - must get onto iPlayer. Was a good night on BBC4 on Friday then - I'm still working through their Blue Note documentary which is very good. Country music is a funny one. I'd describe myself as a country fan, but like any genre, that probably means I like a small % of it all - I'm really into the singer-songwriters who avoided the Nashville sound - Steve Earle and Townes van Zandt, Eric Taylor and Guy Clark, John Prine and Kris Kristofferson. I'm also quite fond of the hot pickers - Albert Lee, James Burton, and so on. Then there's the country rockers - Gram Parsons, the Eagles, Linda Ronstadt, Emmylou. And of course, I love bluegrass- not so much when they start singing, but the instrumentalists like Bryan Sutton and Tony Rice and especially David Grier. Hell, looks like I am a big country fan, after all! Hi, looks like we have similr tastes. Personally, I wouldn't call Steve Earle and Townes van Zandt, Eric Taylor and Guy Clark, or John Prine "country" I just call them singer songwriters , and I have a definite preference for the Texas guys...like Guy especially.
I also love bluegrass (been playing in B/G bands on and off since '75). There's also new kind of "new oldtime" - check out:
and
I love this stuff, and already playing much of it with my trio.
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Post by delb0y on Nov 27, 2019 21:43:29 GMT
Really like that Mandolin Orange track. Excellent stuff!
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Post by andyhowell on Nov 27, 2019 23:17:07 GMT
Really like that Mandolin Orange track. Excellent stuff! Mandolin Orange’s last couple of albums are sublime.
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007
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Post by 007 on Nov 28, 2019 21:43:27 GMT
Really enjoyed this but feel I should highlight the 1st paragraph of the guardians review This has been edited by 50% by the BBC as the review quote makes clear absolutely shameful
Eight years in the making, Ken Burns’s examination of nearly a century of country music – or “three chords and the truth”, as Harlan Howard famously put it – has finally arrived. In the US, PBS is showing this documentary miniseries in its entirety: eight instalments of at least two hours each. Here, where it is being shown on BBC4, each one has been cut by about half. I daresay there are technological workarounds to remedy this deficiency that one may be tempted to find if, say, one’s beloved Townes Van Zandt was known to have fallen victim to this major editing decision. But I don’t know.
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Post by delb0y on Nov 28, 2019 22:26:55 GMT
I did think that the bit on Bill Monroe was remarkably short when (a) compared to the focus on Bob Wills and (b) based on the fact that at the end of episode # 1 the commentator said words to the effect that "in the next episode we will focus on how a fiddle player from Texas and a Mandolin Player from Kentucky (*) changed the course of country music". I was waiting for a lot more bluegrass and it never came and I did think "Hmm, that's one of the cuts right there."
Let's hope they don't cut Townes Van Zandt and keep, say, Kenny Rogers...
(*) I've probably got the locations wrong
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colins
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Post by colins on Dec 10, 2019 21:10:10 GMT
Just watched the latest episode of this series. Really enjoyed the section about Kris Kristopherson, to my mind the greatest writer of song lyrics of all time, which seems to be a commonly held opinion. Kris is the reason that I never wrote songs only tunes. I tried but when I compared them to the intoxicating poetry of his lyrics, everything I tried to say just sounded crass.
'Loving her was easier than anything I'll ever do again', so simple so sublime.
Colin
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Post by delb0y on Dec 10, 2019 21:56:40 GMT
His first two or three albums were stunning. That's not to see later ones aren't good - but those first few...
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Post by fatfingerjohn on Dec 10, 2019 22:40:06 GMT
Just watched the latest episode of this series. Really enjoyed the section about Kris Kristopherson, to my mind the greatest writer of song lyrics of all time, which seems to be a commonly held opinion. Kris is the reason that I never wrote songs only tunes. I tried but when I compared them to the intoxicating poetry of his lyrics, everything I tried to say just sounded crass. 'Loving her was easier than anything I'll ever do again', so simple so sublime. Colin Opening of 'Sunday Morning Coming Down'; how well I remember this ..... Well I woke up Sunday morning With no way to hold my head That didn't hurt And the beer I had for breakfast wasn't Bad so I had one more for dessert Then I fumbled through my closet For my clothes And found my cleanest dirty shirt And I shaved my face And combed my hair And stumbled down the stairs To meet the day .........
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