Country: Portraits of an American Sound (2015)

Country: Portraits of an American Sound: Directed by Steven Kochones. With Bill Anderson, Garth Brooks, Rosanne Cash, Roy Clark. A visual odyssey through the history of country music as told by legendary artists and the elite photographers who captured the evolving image of the country singer, from rhinestone cowboy to pot-smoking outlaw to stadium-filling megastar.

“This well-made documentary on country music is not so much about the history of the music but rather how the genre was publicized and perceived, particularly in still photography with comments from several of the photographers themselves on their work and careers in the industry as well as comments from a couple dozen country singers commenting on their own careers, their images, and country music including Merle Haggard, Kenny Rogers, Charley Pride, Connie Smith, Garth Brooks, and Tanya Tucker. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe editing of this film is excellent, flowing well from photo to photo and cutting back and forth from the interviews. There is some commentary though from some of the u0026quot;expertsu0026quot; and u0026quot;historiansu0026quot; that is inaccurate. One person describes Dolly Parton in her early career as u0026quot;in Porter Wagoneru0026#39;s band and (who) occasionally made recordsu0026quot; – she was his u0026quot;girl singeru0026quot; but she was a full-fledged country star herself from the beginning and regularly recorded popular solo records from day one. Another completely misunderstands Ray Charlesu0026#39; early work recording u0026quot;country and westernu0026quot;, these albums were not aimed or sold to the country audience but to the traditional pop market just like dozens of other such albums of country covers from pop stars ranging from Bing Crosby to Connie Francis to The Supremes albeit Charlesu0026#39; were overwhelmingly the most successful of these albums. Perhaps worse of all because she should know better is Rosanne Cash (infamous among many in the industry for being a bit of a snob against mainstream country music) who insists her father Johnny Cash was more into blues than country in his formative years, complete BS proved false by her own motheru0026#39;s memoir which quotes Cashu0026#39;s letters to her from his Army stint in which he frequently comments on liking and buying current country records and usually hard country acts like Hank Snow.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film doesnu0026#39;t work so well when it tries at the end to tie modern-day u0026quot;countryu0026quot; acts like Keith Urban and The Band Perry into the storyline. Current country music is country in name only and most people who like the old stuff canu0026#39;t stand the new stuff and vice versa. Fortunately this segment is fairly brief. This film is very made and should be of interest both fans of the genre and students of popular culture.”