PBS American Epic Series

[paul secor]

PBS is showing as part of their American Epic series, a documentary of present day musicians - some contemporary hipster types I'm not familiar with, plus people like Taj Mahal, Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, Bettye Lavette, Beck, and Elton John recording mostly old blues and country tunes live in the studio with antique recording equipment.

I don't know what the purpose of this is. The people who originally recorded back when were singing and playing their lives. (I realize that they were trying to have musical careers but, for them, the music was a part of their lives, not a part of their record collections.)

The whole business just seemed stupid to me. Better to have a two hour YouTube type documentary - show the record labels and maybe some photographs and just play the original music.

I know - The answer is that PBS couldn't raise money by just playing great music. Which is sad.

[jazzbo]

I saw this and fast-forwarded through a lot of it. I think part of the aim of the show was to showcase the technology of the early recording years and show the quality that could be recorded with the earlier equipment.

I did watch one performance all the way through: Rhiannon Giddens doing a Victoria Spivey song. Ms Giddens is not a hipster type but an educated and skilled singer, multi-instrumentalist and performer, I just love her work. It was great to see her little three minute spot.

Some Giddens:

 

 

Edited June 11, 2017 by jazzbo

[JohnS]

Missed this one ( didn't particularly fancy it) but enjoyed the documentary series about early recordings,

[JSngry]

Yes, this performance video is meant to be the culmination of a documentary series about the earliest recordings of various American "roots" musics, how these recordings came to be made, who made them (on both sides of the mike), and the impact they had. It's 4 parts in all, three parts doc (kind of Ken Burns-ish in approach, with Robert Redford narrating, and some "usual suspect" type talking heads) and this fourth part, the concert. Like John S., I enjoyed the doc parts (although without any illusions that they tell "the whole story"). I also have no interest in the concert show.

[paul secor]

I saw one of the previous episodes and it was palatable (I'd give it 4 stars out of ten), but this episode was mostly garbage, as far as my tastes go.

If Rhiannon Giddens didn't look like she does, I doubt there's be all that much interest in her vocals.

[jazzbo]

Huh. I think she's a great vocalist. To each their own.

[AllenLowe]

I avoid these roots documentaries on PBS; I spend too much time yelling corrections at the screen.

[Neal Pomea]

Louis Michot of the Lost Bayou Ramblers made up some new lyrics for the second verse of Allons à Lafayette that refer to his wife being a French teacher. I enjoyed their segment.

[Ted O'Reilly]

5 hours ago, Captain Howdy said:

I almost skipped this fourth episode but I'm watching it now, and what I can't figure out is this: they say at the beginning that the soundtrack is taken from the shellac recordings, i.e. the sound you hear while you're watching the recording sessions is taken from the resulting shellac. But they sound like modern recordings. They don't sound like any of the transfers of music that was actually recorded in the 1920s or 1930s. So far no one has addressed this discrepancy.

...especially when there's a microphone malfunction, and the sound in the studio is unchanged.  And, there are two very distinctive microphones in use, but they sound exactly the same.

It seems the whole thing is a promo video to sell the Original Soundtrack Recordings.  I'd buy if they issued only 78s, just like the real thing.

[Ted O'Reilly]

10 hours ago, Captain Howdy said:

 Yeah, I'm sure there's a big market for that! Even Jack White isn't that crazy. Can you even play 78s on a modern turntable?

Sure, you just have to listen almost two-and-a-half times faster that the turntable's turning.  It's kinda like speed-reading, but with your ears.