COUNTRY MUSIC (2019) ¢ ¢ ¢ 1/2
D: Ken Burns
90 years of county music, from Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family to Hank Williams and Patsy Cline to Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash to Emmylou Harris and Garth Brooks. From the beginning, country music has straddled a line between art and commerce. As soon as broadcast and recording technology made it commercially viable, folks were using it to sell stuff. And despite Burns' efforts to showcase its diversity and its roots in gospel and blues, it's always been primarily a white man's game. And a conservative one. At its worst, country is just bad pop music. At its best, it touches the heart. All the key figures turn up in this, and the witness list includes everybody in the business who was still breathing when the movie was shot. Mandolin virtuoso Marty Stuart is the most articulate, and, appropriately, gets the last word.
