Ken Burns is the leading documentarian of American history and culture. The film catalog he and his team have produced in partnership with PBS is America’s cultural repository.

Ken Burns and company are working on Country Music, a series scheduled for PBS viewing in  2019.

Country Music will chronicle the history of a uniquely American art form, rising from the experiences of remarkable people in distinctive regions of our nation.  From southern Appalachia’s songs of struggle, heartbreak and faith to the rollicking western swing of Texas, from California honky tonks to Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry, we will follow the evolution of country music over the course of the twentieth century, as it eventually emerged to become America’s music.

It will be directed and produced by Ken Burns; written and produced by Dayton Duncan; and produced by Julie Dunfey—Emmy-award winning creators of PBS’s most-acclaimed and most-watched documentaries for more than a quarter century, including The Civil War, Lewis & Clark: The Journey of the Corps of Discovery, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, The Dust Bowl, and many more.

Country Music will be a sweeping, multi-episode series, exploring the questions, “What is country music?” “Where did it come from?” while focusing on the biographies of the fascinating characters who created it—from the Carter family, Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Wills, to Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Loretta Lynn, Charley Pride, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Garth Brooks and many more—as well as the times in which they lived.  And like the music itself, Country Musicwill tell unforgettable stories—stories of the hardships and joys shared by everyday people.

We will trace its origins in minstrel music, ballads, hymns, and the blues, and its early years when it was called hillbilly music played across the airwaves on radio station barn dances. We will see how Hollywood B movies instituted the fad of singing cowboys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers, and watch how the rise of juke joints after World War II changed the musical style by bringing electric guitars and pedal steel guitars to the forefront.  We will follow the rise of bluegrass music with Bill Monroe and we will note how one of country music’s offspring—rockabilly—mutated into rock and roll in Memphis.  And we’ll see how Nashville slowly became not just the mecca of country music, but “Music City USA.” All the while, we will note the constant tug of war between the desire to make country music as mainstream as possible and the periodic reflexes to bring it back to its roots.

A tie-in collaboration event designed to celebrate the PBS première of Ken Burn’s Country Music is scheduled for the Jazz at Lincoln Center 2018-2019 Concert Series.

APR 25–27, 8PM • ROSE THEATER

WYNTON MARSALIS AND KEN BURNS: COUNTRY MUSIC

Iconic documentarian Ken Burns and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis explore the shared roots found throughout American music. With never-before-seen clips from Burns’ upcoming Country Music series, audiences will learn the fascinating and often intertwined histories of songs made famous by artists such as Ray Charles, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Dolly Parton, and others. Then hear brand new arrangements of those songs written and performed by the JLCO.