The Watering Hole

I saw the concert at the Rhyman on PBS last evening. 2 solid hours of musical mastery. Of course the common theme among non fans is 3 chords and crying and weeping. That is true, but if you look deeper, the side men are astounding. I saw a lot of new frontmen/women faces performing the classic hits, But as usual the thing that strikes me the most about country is the articulation of all the sidemen. However the whole show also explained the history in small bytes as well most of which I already knew. I used to watch the Opry every Saturday night back in the day and The Porter Wagoner Show as well as Hee Haw. All my hip hippy musician buddies used to laugh at me for watching that stuff, but I invited them over and pointed out the absolute mastery those sidemen exhibited. Of course the lyrics and progressions were simple, but the side musicians were terrific.

I will watch the series on PBS when it premieres shortly.

I have been watching the Ken Burns Country Music series on PBS every night so far. Some of it is a bit boring and repetitive. Most of it is already known to me, but there are some moments that surprised me a big bunch. Like how Chet Atkins got started in country music. It was actually the Carters that hired him before he was well known, and he played in their band for a while. The Grand Old Opry did not want the Carters to bring him to the Ryhman, and they upped the offer three times, yet the Carters refused to play unless they could include him, which the Opry folks finally did.