All language subtitles for Country.Portraits.Of.An.American.Sound.2015.1080p.WEBRip.x264.AAC5.1-[YTS.MX].eng

[country music plays]

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[country music plays]

Country music
is all about real life.

They're songs that tell a story.
It's a story about people.

Mamas, trains, and going away. That's all
you gotta know to write a country song.

[Kenny Rogers]
Country is where the heart is.

But country is more than music,
and photography has captured it.

[David McClister] As the music
evolved and the image evolved,

photographers captured the
entire story of country music.

[Larry Gatlin] For a long
time it was boots, hat,

fancy shirts,
big belt buckles.

You had the rhinestone cowboy look.
They were outlandish.

[Les Leverett]
They audience would go crazy

about every one of them,
and I was there with a camera.

We wore long gowns, and this big
'do, up here like this.

[Roy Clark] A lot of people have
said we are setting the image

of country music
back 20 years.

[Tanya Tucker] I didn't see
what the big deal was.

I say get the camera and let's
go, 'cause I know a good picture.

[country music plays]

Country is about being connected
to something genuine,

so I want to make pictures
that tell you the truth.

My interest was making them
reveal themselves to me.

[Henry Diltz] Are these real people?
What is their life really like?

- I want to grab that moment.
- Country music has represented

the heart of America
for a really long time.

[Keith Urban] There's so many
images that have captured

where those artists are at
and where country's at.

When you look at that picture
and feel that same feeling,

that's the shot.

[country music playing]

[Loretta Lynn] ♪ Well,
I like my lovin' done country style ♪

♪ And this little girl
would walk a country mile ♪

♪ To find her a good ole
slow-talkin' country boy ♪

♪ I said a country boy ♪

♪ I'm about as old-fashioned
as I can be ♪

♪ So I hope you're
likin' what you see ♪

♪ If you're lookin' at me ♪

♪ You're lookin' at country ♪

♪ You don't see no city
when you look at me ♪

♪ 'Cause country's all I am ♪

♪ I love runnin' barefooted
through the old cornfields ♪

♪ And I love that country ham ♪

♪ Well, you say I'm made
just to fit your plans ♪

♪ But does a barnyard shovel
fit your hands? ♪

♪ If your eyes are on me ♪

♪ You're lookin' at country ♪

♪ If your eyes are on me ♪

♪ You're lookin' at country ♪

[song ends]

[cheers and applause]

[country music playing]

[Lovett]
Country music in its origin

came from a place that's pure

and uncorrupted
by the rest of the world.

[Peter Cooper] Early country
music was a confluence

of European fiddling and the
banjo that came from Africa.

When these sounds converged
in the American South,

you get the building blocks
of country music.

It was what you would hear just
driving by a house out in the country.

Somebody sitting on their
front porch making music

to satisfy
and entertain themselves.

In the '20s, they were
hardcore country people.

I mean, they were country people
singing about country things.

[Michael McCall] It wasn't called
country music for a long time.

It was just folk music,

'cause they called it
Southern folk music.

And folk music wasn't
considered commercial.

But record labels found that
once they started recording

folk songs with fiddle players
and country vocalists,

that stuff sold really well.

Some of the first recorded
country music

came out of Atlanta,

with a guy named
Fiddlin' John Carson,

who sells 100,000 copies
of that first record.

And then in 1924, Vernon Dalhart
sells a million copies

of "The Prisoner's Song."

Then the Carter Family and
Jimmy Rodgers record in 1927.

And that's really the beginning,

that's the big bang
of country music.

That's when it really
becomes commercial.

[Cooper] Jimmy Rodgers and the
Carter Family were discovered

at the Bristol Sessions.

It was an all-call,
a discovery process,

where lots of musicians
came in,

kind of like an early "American
Idol," only a lot better.

[Marty Stuart] Ralph Peer
discovered the Carter Family

and Jimmy Rodgers in one week
in 1927.

And all of a sudden,
we have country music.

[Cusic] The Carter Family
gave us a body of work

that's still with us today.

And Jimmy Rodgers becomes
a superstar.

He was a dandy and set the
standard for the country star

and influenced so many of those
early country performers.

[Stuart] Pop Stoneman,
the Gully Jumpers,

Dr. Humphrey Bate, those characters
lit the fire on country music.

Especially the Carter Family.

When you look
at those photographs,

it looked as if the
Old Testament had come to life.

[country music plays]

[Cusic] Radio comes
into American life in the 1930s

during the Great Depression,

and that's when country music
comes of age.

[McCall] A lot of it was built
around barn dances.

Musicians would come from
all over the region to play,

and radio stations like WLS
in Chicago

and WSM in Nashville
would broadcast it out

all across the country.

Radio was huge
for country music.

[Shannon Thomas Perich] Country music
was an amalgamation of regional sounds.

So until there was some sort
of mechanism for them

to all be delivered nationally,
they remained regional.

But once country music
becomes more widespread,

and you're hearing it
on the radio,

it's becoming more professional.

And performers would go to studios
and have their pictures made.

They would be distributed
to the radio stations.

Those photographs would appear
in newspapers.

[McCall] They purposely would
look as country as they could,

but they were selling what they
thought of as rural music.

In the early days,
guys would come in wearing

a suit and a hat and change
into overalls and plaid shirts

in order to perform
'cause it was part of the image.

[Diane Pecknold] Women were
consigned to family stereotypes,

so the sentimental mother and
the pure mountain girl sweetheart

were very prominent characters and
had prominent roles in country music.

It was family entertainment,
and there were cultural expectations

about who they were
supposed to be.

You're selling music
to a certain kind of people,

a certain kind of American,
and the image plays into that.

Jimmy Rodgers is gonna
wear a brakeman hat.

Kitty Wells reflects that
sweet country girl image.

You're gonna have
the hillbilly look.

The image is completely
tied to the music.

[Stuart] I've always thought of
hillbilly as an endearing term.

But Ernest Tubb used to say,
"If you're gonna call me hillbilly,

you damn well better smile
when you do it."

[Cusic] In the late 1930s
and early '40s,

you get the singing cowboys
out in Hollywood,

with Gene Autry, Roy Rogers,
Tex Ritter.

And that changes the image
of country music

because no kid wants to grow up
being a hillbilly,

and everybody wants to grow up
being a cowboy.

[McCall] The cowboy hat became this
iconic image that spoke of romance,

it spoke of truth, honesty,
and the good, old American way.

[Cusic] Gene Autry was a huge star and
a great influence on country music.

Not for what he sounded like,
but for what he looked like,

because he really popularized
that Western look,

and others followed
Autry's path.

[Bill Anderson] The cowboy
look came into country music

influenced by Western culture,

with the boots, and some
of the acts wore hats.

That was around
for a long period of time,

and then it began to phase out
and people came in to other styles

and other ways of trying
to present themselves.

[Leverett] Lester Flatt
and Earl Scruggs, Bill Monroe,

never went onstage
without a coat and a tie.

They looked like gentlemen,
and they acted like gentlemen.

[Holly Williams] In the '50s,
the women wore dresses

with the belt that came in
at the waist,

and the hair that was flipping
up all over the place.

You know, that really classic
kind of country feel.

[Connie Smith] June Carter
looked so much like a lady

with the chiffon dress on,
and she'd do that bit

where she crossed her legs
and showed her pantaloons

for her comedy act.

[Davis] If you were a new artist,
the studio was gonna send you

to get your photo taken
by Walden Fabry.

It was a rite of passage.

Walden Fabry was
a Chicago photographer.

Minnie Pearl met him in Chicago and
talked him into coming to Nashville,

'cause country artists didn't
have anyone like that

making these
amazing glamor shots,

and that's what got sent out
to radio, fan magazines,

and those photos were what
you needed to sell the music.

If you're an artist, you might go to a
different photographer for different things.

Elmer Williams was a
photographer just having fun.

He started out as an amateur.

In the '50s, he started hanging
out backstage in Nashville

and made friends with all these
country music artists.

And then he started
getting some work in town.

He took photos
for tobacco companies

who were big sponsors
for country artists.

The Philip Morris sponsored this
tour with Carl Smith and Ronnie Self.

And that's what they toured on,
it wasn't fancy at all.

Elmer Williams shot
for about ten years,

and then he applied
to be a policeman.

And apparently, it was
his biggest dream

because he stopped photography
and never picked it back up again.

He was completely out
of the country music world.

[Henry Horenstein] Country music in the
'40s and the '50s was fighting music,

dance music, drinking music,
good time music.

They sang soulful songs about
life, life and love really.

It was Ernest Tubb,
and it was Hank Williams.

♪ Hey, hey, good looking ♪

♪ What you got cooking? ♪

[Cooper] Hank Williams was an exciting,
energetic performer, a superstar.

He was only in the spotlight
for very few years.

He died at 29, yet was among
the most prolific writers.

He just wrote, song after song,
and they're classics.

[Anderson] I would buy his records,
and I thought this guy must be so real

because he's singing what he's
writing, so he must feel it,

this must be who he is.

[Holly Williams]
My grandfather would say,

"I don't know what you mean
by country.

I just write songs the way I
know how." He was a country boy.

He was from Alabama,
and these simple, basic lyrics

were resonating with millions
of people.

This is where the roots
of country was from.

Simple and absolutely timeless,
even down to the perfect curve of the hat.

[Cooper] Country music had
become the American sound,

and it could be heard
all across the country.

But by the late '50s,
things were changing.

[Anderson] Country music
was in the doldrums.

The big artists like Hank Snow
and Ernest Tubb,

their careers were
on the downhill slide

because there was this thing called
rock and roll and rockabilly.

[Brenda Lee]
♪ My baby whispers in my ear ♪

In my day in rock and roll,
we were all in the music together,

inventing it as we went along.

They nicknamed me
Little Miss Dynamite.

And the music was very rhythmic,
a little bit of gospel,

a little bit of blues,
a little bit of country.

Country music was such a big influence
of what became rock and roll.

But, in a way, rock and roll
left country behind

through its energy and through
its youth and through its images.

[country music plays]

Elvis Presley thought of himself
as a country singer.

He just happened to be
a really fast, energetic one.

[Lee] I appeared with Elvis
December the 13th, 1957.

He was just getting started.

The great success
was yet to come,

even though he was
really, really popular.

[Cooper] Elvis and Buddy Holly
took all these kids away

who'd been loving Webb Pierce
and Ray Price

and all this shuffling
honky-tonk music,

and the fate of country music
was in question.

[Anderson] There were a lot of country
fans that embraced rock and roll,

but there were still the people that
liked the traditional sounds of country.

They began to come back.

And the Grand Ole Opry
was very important.

It laid the foundation
for what we call Music City.

I'm not sure that Nashville
would be Nashville

had it not been
for the Grand Ole Opry.

[country music plays]

[Stuart] There was a Grand
Ole Opry history picture book

that would come around every
now and then when I was a kid.

And the photography made me want
to be a part of country music

as much as the music did.

And the photographer,
I kept noticing,

shot after shot,
was Les Leverett.

He shot from the heart
in a different way.

[Leverett] I went to work at the
Grand Ole Opry as a photographer,

April 1st of 1960.

And gosh, I loved it.

When I started,
it was really a big, big thing.

You could hardly buy a ticket.

The crowds would line up outside
and go around the block.

It was the biggest country music
show in the world.

And that's the big dream
in those days...

if you were a country music star,
to be a member of the Grand Ole Opry.

And if not, at least to sing on
the stage of the Grand Ole Opry.

[Anderson] My song "City Lights"
was a big hit

and opened all the doors
for me in Nashville.

But when I got the phone call
asking me if I wanted

to be a part of the
Grand Ole Opry, it was like

asking me if I wanted
to go to heaven when I die.

[Leverett] Everybody had suits
in those days

with sequins shining
in the spotlights.

And to see those fancy boots,
it was glamorous.

They would have
a 30-minute show

and a star would
come out and sing.

Seldom did they do
more than one song.

Or as one guy said one night,

"One song per hillbilly, buddy."

I shot so many acts:
Grandpa Jones,

Minnie Pearl, the Jordanaires,
Jim Reeves.

But I'm so busy making pictures,
trying to get a good shot,

I don't know what they sang.

[Stuart] Les Leverett gave
country music so much

of its importance
and its image

because he was there
to document it

when nobody else
was paying attention.

- Here's one made in the Opry.
- Oh, look at that.

- I'd sneak in that one.
- That's a nice photo.

You never knew who was
gonna show up at the Opry.

[Libby] I love to just look
through my dad's photographs.

It always amazes me how much he's
contributed to country music history.

I remember when I was small and I
would go backstage at the Opry with you

at the Ryman Auditorium,
we'd go in the big back door,

and it was like
going into a fair.

It was so cool.

[country music plays]

The atmosphere backstage
was like a family.

I watched my dad work, and he knew
the artists that he was photographing,

so when Dad took those
photographs, there was emotion.

He waited until just the right time
to capture the moment with the camera.

[Leverett] There was always
something exciting going on.

And I'd go anywhere,
knock on a dressing room door.

You couldn't tell if they said come
in or not, so I would just go in.

I was shameless.

[Anderson] When I first came
here, the Grand Ole Opry

was basically a radio show,
and it had been since 1925.

[Leverett] In 1925, the National
Life Insurance Company in Nashville

decided to open a radio station,
WSM radio.

[Cooper] WSM was carrying opera
from New York.

One day, the announcer said
to the radio listeners,

"For the past hour you've been
listening to grand opera.

Now we're gonna bring you
the grand ole opry."

He just said it off the cuff.

So WSM developed their program
into the Grand Ole Opry.

WSM stands for
"We Shield Millions"

which was the insurance
company's motto.

And they used the radio show
to sell insurance.

Their agents would go to homes
and knock on the door

and say, "I'm from
the Grand Ole Opry."

And give 'em a little brochure
with opera stars' pictures.

"Well, come in." So they got in,
and next thing you know,

they sold a burial policy
or something.

But the Opry came on really
strong and just kept growing.

So many people wanted to be on
that radio once it got started.

[Cusic] Uncle Dave Macon,
at 50 years old,

was the first star
of the Grand Ole Opry.

Plays that banjo
and rolls it around.

It was just entertainment then,
and that's what Uncle Dave Macon was.

He was an entertainer.

But the story of country music
is a fight for respect.

They want to be respected
as musicians.

And so what we see is that move
to the rhinestones,

and basically that was poor
folks saying, "I'm somebody."

That was hillbilly bling.

A lot of country artists
wore custom clothes

and custom boots
and flashy things.

And a guy by the name of Nudie
made their clothing.

[Leverett] When Nudie came
along, they started putting on

those heavy suits
with all those sequins.

When those spotlights hit those
things, they started twinkling.

[McClister] The Nudie suit
was such a unique style.

It set Nashville and country
music apart from the other genres.

When you look
at classic country photography,

the Webb Pierces of the world,
Lefty Frizzells of the world,

always more a Nudie suit.

It made country music distinct.
It was so cool.

[Anderson] I was very
comfortable wearing rhinestones.

But these were suits
that people used to tease me

and ask me if you plug them in,
will they light up?

The clothes you wore,
that was part of your story.

Porter Wagoner,
the thin man from West Plains,

up there on the Opry stage
wore these remarkable suits

with wagon wheels, 'cause it was
Porter Wagoner and the Wagonmasters.

[Leverett] The fans in those
days really loved those sparkles.

And I was there
with a camera.

But in addition to my job,
I started doing LP covers.

I've done 197 covers
that I know about.

And I would always try to make the
picture look like the title of the album.

[Porter Wagoner] ♪ I'm
just asking you to listen ♪

[Leverett] In 1967, I did a picture
of Porter Wagoner dressed up as a bum

for Confessions of a Broken Man,

and we did it on the back steps
of the Ryman Auditorium.

They say Porter went down to some
of the offices on Music Row later

and asked for a handout, and nobody knew
who he was and they asked him to leave.

I always felt I was just trying to get
a good shot of whoever I was working on.

Like when Loretta Lynn found out she was
the latest member of the Grand Ole Opry,

and she's just excited
beyond belief.

But I just went wherever people
wanted me to go.

There was a recording session
at Columbia Studios.

June Carter was sitting there
and Johnny is whispering to her

because at the first session
Johnny never showed up.

But he's trying to soothe her
so she wouldn't feel bad at him.

With Johnny Cash, you knew you
were gonna get good expressions.

You couldn't get a bad picture
of him, I didn't think.

A photograph freezes the moment, and you've
got it as long as you want to have it.

[Johnny Cash] ♪ Well,
you wonder why I always dress in black ♪

[Devik Wiener] I feel like
I'm preserving history.

There was a photographer based in Southern
California by the name of Leigh Wiener.

And I'm his son.
I'm doing the best I can

to administrate the archive
he left behind

of almost half a million
black and white images,

30,000 enlargements,
and 40,000 color transparencies.

[Johnny Cash]
♪ I'm the man in black ♪

It wasn't until after
my father's passing

in 1993 that I discovered
most of the Johnny Cash work.

Just under 500 photographs,
most of them black and white, some color.

Leigh Wiener photographed Johnny
Cash between 1960 and '63.

He was hired by Columbia Records and he shot
candids in the Columbia recording studio,

posed portraits
in his own studio in Hollywood.

He considered himself
a photographer of people.

And he loved the psychology
of photographing people.

Presidents,
captains of industry,

Hollywood celebrities,
an incredible array of very famous people.

[Leigh] Any guy with a camera
can take a picture.

Photographing people is
unquestionably the most

difficult form of still
photography there is.

Your portrait is not
a duplication of a face.

A portrait is the revelation
of a person.

You wanna tell something
about the person.

[Devik] He didn't like filters in
his camera. He preferred no makeup.

And he made every frame count.

He developed a rapport
with most of his subjects,

and you can see by the imagery they developed
a rapport during the course of their shoots.

The images tell that
quite loudly.

[Perich] Leigh Wiener develops
this relationship with Johnny Cash,

and they go out
to Gene Autry's ranch.

Those photographs point
to the singing cowboy,

a particular code of ethics.

Then you have Johnny Cash standing
in some ways against that.

He becomes that very American
idea of tradition,

but rebelliousness as well.

[Rosanne Cash] I recognize the
qualities that make my dad iconic.

And there's a lot of projections
that go on to him,

a lot of which are not true.

When my dad started out, he was not
totally a real country music artist.

He was from Memphis,
he wasn't from Nashville.

And he did not think
specifically about country.

He just didn't. He listened
to what they called race music,

and that was hugely influential.

Johnny Cash broke in as a rockabilly guy
in the 1950s on Sun Records in Memphis,

along with this incredible
stable of artists,

like Elvis Presley and
Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison.

But in the 1960s, he moved
over to Columbia Records,

Nashville-based,
and did really well.

[Gatlin] Johnny Cash wrote some
incredible songs.

He became a tremendous influence
on country music.

But it's more than that.
He could walk in a room,

behind you,
and you felt his presence there.

[Cusic] He had a charisma that
very, very few people have.

Cash was larger than life.
He wasn't just an entertainer.

I got a call from his
guitar player, Bob Wootton.

He says, "John wants to know
if you'd be interested

in playing in the band."
And so when we were introduced,

he just kept looking at me
and kept shaking my hand.

Well, I prepared since I was a little
boy to shake hands with Johnny Cash.

He said, "You know my songs?"
I said, "Probably all of them."

And he said, "You got anything
black to wear?"

[Cooper] You see these classic
Cash images and the pictures tended

towards gravity
and depth and weight.

And Manuel would make these
remarkable suits for him.

[Manuel] One time Johnny Cash
says, "I wanna talk to you."

He says, "I'm on the road.
I'm gonna go on the road,

and I need nine suits, like...
right away, man."

So I started sewing,
and later he was on the road

and he says, "I got these suits.
How come they are all black?"

One time he says, "Well,
I wore black before,

but Manuel put me
in a better black."

There was something about him.

He had that aura,

'cause he created his own image.

[Rosanne] My father cast
a very large shadow.

And image is crucial
to the artist,

but the image has
to be authentic.

[Cooper] The late '50s and
into the '60s is what we call

the Nashville sound era
of country music.

When the sound went uptown, and there
was a lot of piano, as opposed to fiddle.

It was an updating.

Chet Atkins and Owen Bradley,
these two genius producers

were the architects
of that sound,

shifting the sound
more towards pop.

[Urban] Nashville was
this magic land.

It was on the back
of every record.

You flip it over
and it would say,

"Recorded in
Nashville, Tennessee."

So that's where you'd go
to make records.

There was Music Row,
16th and 17th Ave,

and building after building
after building

was either a studio
or a record company.

But Nashville is a very
traditional town.

So when Chet Atkins put an
orchestra and a string section

on a country record,
it's pretty blasphemous.

It's got nothing to do
with Ernest Tubb.

It's got nothing to do
with Hank Sr.

And they make no bones about
the fact that they were

trying to reach
a bigger audience.

[Smith] Chet Atkins,
he signed me in June '64.

I wasn't really career-minded.
I just wanted to sing.

But the controls
were tighter back then,

and they wanted me to go
middle of the road.

They said you can sing
more than country.

[Urban] They were trying to give
it a more contemporary sound.

Some people said,
"It's destroying our genre."

But country's
constantly changing,

and what's deemed traditional
keeps moving.

[country music plays]

Country music has a definite
tradition of rebellion,

and that was very much the case in Bakersfield,
California, in the '50s and '60s.

People had come to Bakersfield
from Oklahoma and Texas

during the Dust Bowl migration,
way back in the '30s,

and they brought their
music West as well.

And then when World War II broke
out, even more people came West

to work in the shipyards
and the aircraft factories.

And after the war, a lot of them
stayed in Bakersfield

because there was work
in the oil fields.

So the Bakersfield sound is
really the music of Oklahoma,

Texas, Louisiana, and these guys
didn't care what Nashville was doing.

The explosion of Bakersfield was an
answer to the pop-ish type of sound

that was coming
out of Nashville.

One of the key events
was Buck Owens

strapping on
a Telecaster guitar.

That was a very different sound
for country music.

It was rough and edgy
and kind of a honky-tonk thing.

[Price] Buck Owens got his first
job at a honky-tonk in Bakersfield,

and then got his first big break
when Capitol Records signed him.

And then by about 1961, all of a sudden,
America couldn't get enough of Buck Owens,

and that roll just kept going.

You look at photos
from Bakersfield,

it was just jeans and button-down
shirts, nothing fancy.

But once Buck Owens hit it big and
started playing gigs like Carnegie Hall,

Nudie was making suits
for The Buckaroos too.

Country music does have
a definite sensibility to it,

but the people of Bakersfield
were really in their own world,

and they were dealing with
so many different influences,

and that's reflected
in the Bakersfield sound.

[Merle Haggard] A lot of country
music came out of churches,

but the Bakersfield sound
didn't come out of a church.

It came out of a barroom.

I grew up in Bakersfield.

A country singer couldn't
have had a better life

and a past to draw from.

My father had worked
for Santa Fe Railroads.

And he bought a city lot that
had an old Santa Fe reefer on it,

and he said, "I'll just leave it there.
I'll make a house out of it."

My father passed away
when I was nine.

And pretty soon, I wouldn't mind my
mother and I wouldn't go to school.

So they put me in reform school,
and I ran away and stole a car,

so I was guilty of a felony.

I was 19 years old
and I was in prison.

[Haggard] ♪ I turned 21 in prison
doing life without parole ♪

[Haggard] New Year's Day
in San Quentin, 1958,

Johnny Cash played what was
called the Warden's Show.

He played prisons all over
America, and I saw how he was able

to capture the audience.

And for the first time
in my life,

I had a hint on what I might be
doing the rest of my life.

I spent two years, nine months
in San Quentin.

When I got out,
I wound up with my own band.

And we played a type of country music
that was identified with a steel guitar,

or better known
as a pedal guitar.

And when we came onboard with that
sound, it was different.

Nashville was happening, and somebody
started to make a little noise somewhere,

they get you on the phone, say,
"Come join the Grand Ole Opry."

So we didn't go down there.

I always wanted to be
different from Nashville.

I wore a different
kind of boot

just to let people know
that I wasn't a hillbilly.

I was a flatlander.

So very early in my career,
I was typecast as a rebel.

Johnny Cash had been
to jail one time for four hours.

But everybody thought he was an ex-con.
He looked the part.

And he said to me one time,
"Haggard," he said,

"you're everything
people think I am."

I was doing a Johnny Cash
Network show,

and he talked me into letting it go
public that I had been in prison.

- So he told the audience...
- He sings those prison songs

like, well, you'd think
he's been there.

Merle Haggard!

[Haggard] And I'm glad
that I did it.

'Cause I don't like
to be lied to.

If you lie to people,
they'll reject you.

You've gotta be
an honest person.

Your music's gotta be honest
or else your tour will be over

and you'll be back
in the oil fields.

So I kept on making music
the way I heard it.

And right or wrong,
it'll be honest.

[Cusic] The essence of country
is that it's the music

of the white working class or
the white Southern working class,

and it articulates their
thoughts, feelings, issues.

It was imagined as the music
of pure mountain culture,

which was understood as white,

and that was part
of its marketing appeal.

But that was really a fiction.

[Cooper] There are people
who say country is white music,

or they'll refer
to blue-eyed soul,

but there was a tremendous
African-American influence

in early country music.

And a major star
of the Grand Ole Opry

was a black harmonica player
named DeFord Bailey.

In fact, in the first music that anyone
heard on the Grand Ole Opry radio show

was DeFord Bailey's harmonica.

- [harmonica playing]
- But Nashville emerged at a time

when the South was
deeply segregated.

And he was fired in 1941

in a racially-informed dispute.

[Pecknold] The general consensus is
that he was expected to follow orders

in a way that white artists
were not,

which he chafed against
and they fired him.

It was reflecting
the culture of segregation

and people who wanted a return
to a pure white culture.

And in the early 1960s,
country music became associated with racism

when George Wallace started to use
country music in his campaigns.

[announcer] Governor George Wallace made a
campaign promise to prevent the integration

of the last all-white
state university.

[Pecknold] And there were
country music artists

who did go and support
George Wallace.

At the same time,
the country music industry was consciously

seeking a way to change
its image.

So when Ray Charles recorded Modern
Sounds in Country and Western Music,

you used to see all of these picture of
Ray Charles in country music magazines.

It was not a country record, but they were
trying to use the success of his album,

and especially his image, to reimagine
what the country audience looked like.

[Cooper] Ray Charles was
doing country songs,

but he wasn't a country singer.

And no significant African-American
star emerged in this music

until renegade producer
Cowboy Jack Clement

took Charley Pride
into the recording studio.

♪ So I feel so blue ♪

♪ Sometimes I wanna die ♪

[Pride] My career was smack-dab
in the middle of civil rights,

and a lot of people thought
I was a little bit off.

Meaning, how do you think you gonna
make it in a... white man's music?

Like I wasn't thinking straight
or something.

But I wasn't discouraged

because it's my music too
if I like it.

I grew up in Sledge,
Mississippi,

55 miles below Memphis,
Tennessee.

My dad's favorite artist was Bill
Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys,

and I just got hooked on it.

I bought me a Sears Roebuck guitar
when I was about 14 years old,

and if I heard a song I liked,
I would sing it.

I was picking cotton alongside
my dad and I said,

I ain't gonna be
no cotton picker.

My dream was to go
to the Major Leagues,

and when I saw
Jackie Robinson do it,

I said here's my chance, I'll go and
break all the records in baseball,

then I can sing.

I played in the
old Negro League

right behind Ernie Banks,

Hank Aaron, and Willie Mays,
and I was really good.

But I cracked my elbow
in 1956.

And I still thought
I could make it.

I went up to Montana
to play in the Pioneer League.

Then I went to spring training with
Gene Autry's team, the Angels in '61.

And the next year,
spring training with the Mets,

but they wouldn't look at me.

So I got there,
I just didn't stay.

People always encouraged me
to go to Nashville,

and that's what I did.

I met Jack Johnson, who ended up
being my manager.

Jack had always told people, if you find
me a colored guy that sing country music,

you send him to me. Took his
glasses and he looked and he says,

"All right, sing something."

So he heard me and he said,
"Where you from?"

I said I was born and raised
in Sledge, Mississippi.

I said I live in Montana now.
"How do they take you up there?"

I said, well, about the way you're
doing right now when they first see me.

And he give me seven songs
to work up.

We do the demo, and Chet Atkins
took the dub and played it for RCA.

And they said, "We like it,
good voice, good voice."

Then they passed
my picture around.

And everybody kind of looked
at one another

and they all said,
"We still gonna sign him.

We just not gonna say anything about the
uniqueness of his pigmentation, you know?"

They signed me September of '65.

They never said anything
about color.

They just released the record
out there to all the DJs

and they let the rumors start.

"What color you think he is?"
"What do you mean what color is he?

He's white."
"No, no."

"What?"
"How much you wanna bet?"

[country music plays]

[Cooper] At a time when there
was fighting on the streets

about segregation,
people learned to love the music

before they figured out
what the guy looked like.

And once you love something,
it's hard to take that back.

[Pride] I always thought
that I was just as good

as anybody else
and wasn't no worse.

I had more obstacles to walk
around than the average fight.

But people liked my voice.
There's something about it.

And I'm just glad that I was
given a chance to sing.

And everything
turned out beautiful.

[Cooper] You can't
segregate the airwaves.

Country demanded a stylistic
and cultural cross-pollination.

By the 1960s,
Nashville was a top-down town

with producers really
running the show.

[McCall] The producers chose
the musicians,

they worked in
the same studios all the time,

they often helped choose
the songs.

[Cooper] And some
people demanded to be in control

of their music in a way
they had not been before.

- They were the outlaws.
- [Willie Nelson] ♪ Yesterday wine ♪

[Cooper] You have Willie Nelson who
had a very atypical way of singing.

And he was made to fit in, being
instructed how to sound, what to wear.

He looked like he could be
an insurance salesman.

He went back down to Texas
and said,

"The heck with all this,
I'm gonna do something else."

And by 1973,
he looked like Willie Nelson.

[McCall] Willie Nelson
identified with hippies

and hippie culture was such
a powerful aspect of America.

A lot of musicians
were smoking pot

and experimenting with drugs
and growing their hair,

and it certainly influenced
country music.

[Cooper] You had people like
Kris Kristofferson come along,

changing the language
of this music.

Kristofferson was as influenced by
Bob Dylan as he was by Hank Williams.

[Lovett] Great singer-songwriters
showed me what songs could be.

Songs didn't necessarily have to have a
catchy line that repeated over and over.

A song could be about something,
a song could tell a story

and be way more than a song.

[McCall] The outlaws wanted
to use their own bands,

they wanted to decide how they
sounded and how they looked.

[Cooper] Waylon Jennings
was about leather

and looking like he just
jumped off his motorcycle.

But that was what the outlaw movement
was about. It was about distinction.

[Raeanne Rubenstein] Waylon Jennings
was the first country artist

to appear at Max's Kansas City
in New York.

And believe me,
in the early '70s,

no one was interested
in country music

on the Lower East Side
of Manhattan.

But everyone wanted
to see Waylon

because he was a renegade,

an independent, wild cowboy.

I photographed him.
He was posing, flirting,

and New York just went crazy
for Waylon.

I've been photographing country
music my whole career.

Practically shortly
after rock and roll.

The fourth roll of film
that I ever took

was a concert with Janis Joplin
and I thought those pictures

were beautiful
and she looked amazing.

And my interest was piqued.

I wanted to go to more shows
and shoot more performances.

I photographed artists
like The Who, BB King,

I shot John Lennon's birthday.

I photographed so many legends,
it was just amazing.

But my first assignment
in Nashville was Johnny Cash.

[Cash] Hello, I'm Johnny Cash.

[Rubenstein] They were taping
The Johnny Cash Show

at the Ryman
at the Grand Ole Opry.

[Cash]
♪ I hear the train a-coming ♪

But I didn't know anybody there.

So I was sitting there
waiting,

and all of a sudden there was
this tap on my shoulder.

And I looked up and, oh,
my gosh, it was Johnny Cash.

And he said, "Hello, little lady.
Can I help you?"

It was awesome!

My fate was sealed.
I started coming to Nashville

and I would photograph country
artists for magazines in New York.

It wasn't necessarily the kind of
place that I was accustomed to,

but I liked the people
and I liked the artists.

[Stuart] Raeanne coming
in the early '70s

when country music was struggling
to find its way into the mainstream

and then taking it back to her world
was almost like having a correspondent.

It gave country music a voice.

[Perich] When you start seeing
country music performers

in Time magazine
and in Rolling Stone,

it becomes a stamp of approval.

a sign that there's
a wider audience.

And photographers are recording not
just the performer, but the culture.

[Rubenstein] When I got
affiliated with Nashville,

there was a specific look
for country artist photos.

Photographers were not hired
by the labels to tell the truth

about the personalities
of their stars.

And that is my exact interest.

I like making them
reveal themselves to me.

And I felt that if you
put that into a photo,

it would make your artist
even more successful.

[Smith] I like a song
that clicks with me,

and it's the same thing
with a picture.

You go through a whole
contact sheet of pictures,

and then there's just this one
that just has something.

You can read somebody's soul
in a picture sometimes.

[Rubenstein] With Tammy Wynette,
the shoes, the glasses,

the wig reflected her taste
and her lifestyle.

Whether the person
is playing an instrument

or standing on their porch
with his wife,

my job is to put together
a little story

that's revealing about them,

so people see them
the way I do.

I had an assignment
from Life magazine

to shoot country artists
on their tour buses

because that was very unusual
at the time.

Most rock and roll artists flew,
and almost no one had buses.

Only country artists.
Dolly Parton was on the cover,

and I shot her in her bus.

She was already
a queen of country music.

[Parton] ♪ The man I loved
had a selling route ♪

♪ Selling goods
from house to house ♪

[Leverett] Dolly knew where she was
going when she came to Nashville.

Right after high school, I think she came
over here the day after she graduated.

She knew what she wanted to do.
And the girl had the talent to do it.

[Horenstein] She was a member
of the Porter Wagoner band,

but every once in a while
she'd put out a record

and they were starting
to do better than his records.

I photographed Dolly Parton
in 1972

backstage at Symphony Hall
in Boston.

She definitely stood out
in a crowd.

Dolly is the ultimate
entertainer,

and the way she presents herself
is part of that.

[Leverett] Dolly asked me to do the
cover on the album, Bubbling Over.

So we went out to the fountain
over there at the Hall of Fame.

And sure enough, we drew a crowd.
You can't help it with Dolly Parton.

And then I thought, why don't we
get a close-up or two of Dolly here?

Then I put the transparencies
together and that became the cover.

[Rubenstein] What's unique about
photography is that you have

to tell the story
without any words

and capture the essence of the
moment in a 250th of a second.

Photography put us out there
in front of people,

and portrayed us
as we truly are.

I signed my recording contract
when I was 12.

And my image from the start
was the girl next door.

You couldn't dress it up
or dress it down.

I had to be who I was.

Back then, the record buying
public were girls.

So my image was cemented
by what they thought of me.

I was a little girl
with a big voice.

But you could see the growth
every time an album came out.

You would see a little
different Brenda.

Then later on, photographers took
what I was and expanded on it.

It was a little slice of life and letting
people into your home a little bit,

to see your family,

but I wasn't afraid
to show that.

Country artists are accessible
to their fans,

and that is really special.

But, my goodness, I hope Ronnie
got rid of those pants.

When you grow up with
the country way of life,

it teaches you so much,

and your beliefs
are solidified

by the people around you.

[Gatlin] A lot of us learned
to sing in church.

We were raised by God-fearing, good,
honest, decent, hardworking people.

So the gospel influence
was very big.

[Smith] When you hear gospel
music and when it lifts you,

it's the spirit behind it, I
think, that makes the difference,

and country music is that way.

[Gatlin] But it's not a bright,
well-defined line.

If you're in despair,
if you're in trouble,

if your heart is broken,
you turn to Jesus.

In country music, if you're in
despair and your heart is broken,

you go have a beer.

[Smith] People,
when they're having a hard time,

they need someone
to identify with.

When I sing,
I'm telling a story.

And when I get hold of a song,
I'm gonna get it across

and make sure they can
hear what I'm saying

because the most important thing is
that you do connect with the audience.

[Horenstein] People feel very
connected to country music,

and in some ways, feel that those singers
aren't that separate from who they are.

[country music plays]

When I was starting
my photography career,

I had friends who had
a record company,

and they needed pictures
of their musicians.

So they would get me a pass
to the Grand Ole Opry.

The old style singers
that I was photographing

weren't people with a lot
of pretense.

Like Roy Acuff,
king of country music,

who kind of ruled
the Grand Ole Opry for decades.

As a photographer,
I'm interested in country music

and the people
who make the music.

But I'm mostly interested
in the place

and the people
who make up the place.

In the '70s, there were seven
honky-tonks in Boston.

These are places I used to go
quite a lot to photograph.

Nashville North,
then the Blue Star Lounge,

and the Hillbilly Ranch,
the most famous of all.

And this honky-tonk is...
I've not seen anything.

And people like Grandpa Jones
who started in Boston

would come by all the time
to perform.

The old style honky-tonk
was a place outside of town

near no schools or churches
with live music.

A place where working people
went out and had themselves

a beer on Friday,
Saturday night.

Maybe got to meet somebody,
maybe got to dance,

maybe got into a fight.

And it was glamorous
on some level.

I saw this honky-tonk culture
starting to disappear,

and I wanted to document
these people,

record their lives
and make them part of history.

Tootsie was a legendary
character in Nashville.

She ran this successful
honky-tonk on lower Broadway,

Tootsie's Orchid Lounge.

It was a different kind
of person that went in there

that would go into a country
music show today.

And you could go in
and write your name,

and the stars would go in
and write their names too.

Supposedly, Willie Nelson wrote
"Crazy" there for Patsy Cline.

And performers would come
from all over to Tootsie's

in hopes that they can somehow
make a connection.

Tootsie's was famous to me because I'd
read all about it in all the history books.

So when I came to Nashville,
I went into Tootsie's

and got up to sing,
kind of impromptu.

And by the end of my little mini
set, they'd offered me a job.

I played at Tootsie's on and off for
tips for two and a half, three years,

doing covers and a lot
of traditional country,

singing the people's music,
singing about what people

were living and breathing
every day of their lives.

But it was a different time
and a different culture.

[Horenstein] It was a drinking
culture, it was a blue collar culture.

It was a different world,
but this is where the music's from.

[Rubenstein] People had beliefs and
customs that we didn't have in New York,

and there were prejudices.

[Pecknold] They were called
rubes and were perceived

as promiscuous,
poverty stricken, stupid.

And people made fun
of country music.

They associated it with a
hayseed, hillbilly audience.

[McCall] There's always been stereotypes
in country music and the media

and television played off this
idea of what Southerners were like.

[braying]

♪ Hee haw ♪

[Clark] Two Canadian producers
came to me and said,

"We're getting ready to do a musical
variety show, not unlike Laugh-In.

Would you be interested?"

Well, I found out early in life

that you say yes to everything.

[Halsey] When "Hee Haw"
came out,

country music had been trying to
get away from the bales of hay

and the cornbread image.

And everybody said this
will just be a disaster.

[Clark] The critics screamed.
They thought it was

the worst piece of trash
they'd ever seen.

But country music fans said,
"At last here's something

that I can identify with."

[Halsey] It was visual,

and you didn't have to be an
intellectual to understand it.

It was just one thing, right after
another, one cut right after another.

Bam, bam, bam.
Ha, ha. Music.

A funny look. Then we'd pop
out of the cornfield.

Hee-haw!

[Clark] I was hosting with
Buck Owens and I don't think

any other combination
would have been the same.

Looky here, Roy, we got
something that says "Hee Haw."

[Clark] Because Buck had the radio
play, and sold records.

And I was known on television.

So the two of us brought in
two different audiences.

[Halsey] "Hee Haw" was the
hottest show in the country.

And that brought a lot of people
to like country music

that never before even thought
about country music.

[Clark] We were on CBS
for two and a half seasons.

And "Hee Haw" was still
high in the ratings.

But CBS started complaining
about its hillbilly image.

They said it's not the audience
that our sponsors want to see.

We have to get rid of it.
So they took "Green Acres,"

"Beverly Hillbillies,"
and "Hee Haw" and let us all go.

Hee-haw!

[Halsey] But that wasn't
the end of "Hee Haw."

They syndicated the show and it actually had a
bigger audience than when it was on the network,

because they were on
more stations.

And all of a sudden,
country music was everywhere.

It was really exceptional. They always
had three or four guests every week.

And they got all the top people,
Loretta Lynn, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash.

[Clark] Willie did it.
Merle Haggard.

In fact, a lot of the big stars
today got their break

and their first national
exposure on "Hee Haw."

And we just grew. We were in
production for 28 years.

- [caws]
- Some people felt it was insulting

and set country music back, but
there was a part of "Hee Haw"

that was really great for country
because it was in every home,

because it exposed so many artists,
and because it was so popular.

[Halsey] "Hee Haw" made people laugh.
It made people feel better.

That was the power
of that show.

[Clark] We never hurt anyone.

We had nothing to gain
except saying

we'll put on the corny stuff,
let's you and I have some fun.

And everywhere you went,
people would say, "I'm a pickin',"

and I would say,
"Well, I'm a grinnin'."

In the 1970s, the look and sound
of country music started changing.

And when I was a kid,
Ernest Tubb and the Texas Troubadours

came to my hometown county fair
wearing matching pink cowboy suits.

It was hillbilly Hollywood,
and it was beautiful.

But Nudie suits were out of style
and kind of an embarrassment

to the new image
of modern country music.

I'm thinking,
"This is not right.

Somebody needs to
be taking pictures."

Photography was almost
parallel to music to me.

As a kid, I started
when I was 12 years old

playing bluegrass festivals,
and then I played in Lester Flatt's band.

His peers were Roy Acuff,
Bill Monroe, String Bean.

And when we would
go on the road,

these characters
would all be together.

It looked like history
in motion.

And nobody seemed to ever
have a camera.

So I just simply started
to photograph the proceedings,

because I was there.

And I fell
in love with photography.

The images from that time
are very precious,

because in the late '70s
and early '80s,

the old sound, the old look
of country music

was kind of having
to fight for its life.

Because the Urban Cowboy thing
had come in so strong.

[Pecknold] Urban Cowboy represented
a new version of country

that was younger,
that was club-based and dance-based.

It set off the line dance craze

and showed that that Southern
image, that identity,

could be exported anywhere.

[McCall] And all of a sudden,
guys in New York

were buying cowboy boots and
wanted to learn how to two-step.

Country music was appealing
to a lot of people

who hadn't thought of themselves
as country fans,

and records were selling
bigger than ever.

[Gatlin] You had
the term crossover.

When a record got so hot,
that not just country folks

wanted to hear it,
other people wanted to hear it.

And so country singers
crossed over

from the country charts and the
pop radio stations would play them.

There were people like Glenn
Campbell and Dottie West.

Later, Ronnie Milsap.
And it blossomed.

♪ Smoky Mountain rain
keeps on falling ♪

♪ I keep on calling ♪

♪ Her name ♪

[Milsap] Crossover was kind of
a nasty word back then.

I wasn't trying to make
crossover records.

But once I had my first
million-seller single,

I thought my music
is in a different place.

The country fans like it,

people who like all kinds
of music like it too.

And I always loved
playing all kinds of music.

It started just because I heard
records on the radio.

I grew up in the Smoky Mountains
of North Carolina.

My mother did not want
to raise a blind child.

It could be that she
didn't really know how.

So I was raised
by my grandparents.

I learned Braille
when I was six.

I learned violin
when I was seven,

piano at eight.

I had a musical aptitude.

And any song that I could hear,
I could play it.

So I came out of school
wanting to make these things

that I was hearing
on the radio called records.

I started out as a R&B singer
in Memphis,

and had a top five hit
on the first record we put out.

But Charley Pride heard me sing
and he said,

"I can tell from listening
to your voice,

"you are a country singer.

You need to move to Nashville."

So I signed a contract
with Charley Pride's manager,

and he went right to the president of
RCA, Jerry Bradley.

And Jerry said, "We know Ronnie Milsap.
He's not a country singer."

But he listened to my demos
and said, "You know what?

That SOB can sing country."

And all of a sudden,
I'm on RCA Records.

That's the record label
of Charley Pride,

of Elvis Presley.

I loved making records.

But there's something phenomenal
about doing a live show.

My style is always make sure
that when I go out onstage,

that I look presentable
with a lot of rhinestones

and all kinds of pretty designs.

It costs a lot of money to dress like
that, but that's part of my image.

The fans expect it
and they deserve it.

And the fans know exactly
what you're supposed to be.

I was worried about being
a crossover artist,

and I walked that line a lot,
every record I put out.

Country fans, they don't want
you to stray from country.

But you can't be afraid
to try something new

because your intuition
may be right.

♪ You got to know
when to hold 'em ♪

♪ Know when to fold 'em ♪

[Rogers] I took a lot of flak
for taking country music pop.

But I'm a country artist with a
lot of other musical influences.

And I've never worn
a cowboy hat in my life.

I was the first artist
to work large venues

with lots of production.

I was wearing three-piece suits,
white suits,

and it wasn't an attempt
to be bizarre.

It was just where I was
comfortable at the time.

And I think I was resented for taking
it away from that country base.

But country music is
what country people will buy.

And you can't do what
everybody else is doing.

♪ When the deal is done ♪

You develop styles
in this business

by listening to what people say.

It's like "Islands
in the Stream."

Barry Gibb from the Bee Gees
wrote that song.

Then I agreed to cut it.
But he said,

"You know what we need?
We need Dolly Parton."

♪ Islands in the stream ♪

♪ That is what we are ♪

♪ No one in between ♪

♪ How can we be wrong? ♪

I didn't really know her
at the time.

But once she walked in,
that song was never the same.

We both just kind of locked in
to each other.

Your image will
attract attention,

but then you have to sell it
with the music.

If you give me a song
that touches me,

I can make it touch
somebody else.

Country is where the heart is.

And in country music
if it hurts, you say it hurts,

and I saw the value to simple songs
with lyrics that had something to say.

I don't wanna just sing words.
Because it's not a song, it's a story.

When people hear "The Gambler," they realize
that's a great way to live your life.

Know when to walk away
and know when to run.

We're all three people.
I'm who I think I am,

I'm who you think I am,
and I'm who I really am.

And throughout my whole career,
I tried to stay true to who I was.

[Tanya Tucker] What makes us
beautiful is our differences.

♪ Delta Dawn, what's that
flower you have on? ♪

I got started early.

I was a 13-year-old kid
when I recorded "Delta Dawn."

And my producer said, "I don't want anybody
to know that this girl's 13 years old.

'Cause this is a great record.
We don't want a freak show."

But that song was meant to be.

Growing up, everybody called me
the female Elvis.

And I thought country music
should be bigger than it was.

I wanted to take it
to another place.

But I loved to have fun.

And when I moved to LA,
I started drinking.

The party didn't start
till I got there.

♪ When I die ♪

That's when I did the TNT album.

♪ I may not go to heaven ♪

It was a bad deal
all the way around.

I've got a bunch of 'em,
bad reviews.

They didn't like the music,

and especially didn't like
the pictures.

I didn't even notice the microphone
cord was between my legs.

My manager puts an ad
in Hustler magazine.

Said this album is so good,
it's gonna get your ears hard.

But if I had been involved,
I don't think I'd approve that.

I became known as the bad girl
of country music.

A lot of people said,
"She's outside the box."

And I said, "Shit, I've been
trying to get in the box

for I don't know how long.
Where is the box?"

But I am country.

And people have said,
"Your music helped me through

some of the worst times."
The voice is the gift.

And I'm just singing the songs
best I know how.

[Horenstein] People feel very
close to country music,

and they feel that they
could be that person onstage.

But you go to a rock and roll show,
there's no way you're gonna be that person.

[Diltz] I think a lot of rock
guys wanted to play the guitar

to meet girls
and go on the road.

But it seemed like country
musicians are a little more serious.

I'm comfortable shooting
musicians because I'm a musician

in my heart and a photographer
in my head.

I first picked up a camera in '66 on
the road with my folk singing group,

the Modern Folk Quartet.

We stopped at a little store
in East Lansing, Michigan,

and bought these
secondhand cameras

and started taking pictures of
each other and whatever we saw.

When I got back to LA,
I had a slideshow

and it was amazing to see
these images huge on the wall.

That got me hooked.

So I started photographing
my friends

who were virtually
all musicians.

Stephen Stills,
Neil Young,

Joni Mitchell playing
a mountain dulcimer.

[country music plays]

My favorite way of photographing
is the fly on the wall

to try to get candid shots and
see what was really happening.

JD Souther was
a terrific songwriter

and his girlfriend at the time
was Linda Ronstadt.

I photographed Linda
very early on.

She did a concert in LA singing
harmony with Emmylou Harris.

I photographed Emmylou
at the Troubadour

and hanging out in
the San Fernando Valley.

Glen Campbell had his own television
show, "The Glen Campbell Show."

And I was on the other side
of the dressing room

sneaking little candid shots.

I don't feel like
I make photographs.

I'm just lucky enough
to be the guy there

to push the button
to grab that moment.

Kris Kristofferson was
recording an album in Colorado,

and I'm looking for that moment
when they really shine,

and then catch it as it happens.

Even the stuff you do on stage,
that's all lit and very exciting.

But I'm looking for the person to look
the way I think they look the best.

And I get to pick the moment.

In the '80s, I ended up doing a
lot of work with Capitol Records.

And they had a new artist
named Garth Brooks.

[Brooks] I'm an average Joe
from Oklahoma.

And I just wanted to be George Strait.
That's all I wanted to do.

Pictures capture some of the
biggest highlights of my life.

[Diltz] When I work with Garth,
I can go anywhere.

And that's fantastic when you get
all these great vantage points.

Like standing out on the edge
of the stage from behind.

[Brooks] When a photographer
captures you,

and all you see are people
and the New York skyline,

that picture is the truth.

You can feel everything
that people were there felt.

[Diltz] A lot of country artists have
a microphone and they stand there,

they play the guitar, and they
don't move around a lot.

Garth Brooks never stands
in one place.

He'd be standing right here,
I put a wide angle and look up.

Oh, he's over there now!
Now I gotta switch to a telephoto.

By the time I get that out,
he's back on that side.

He did crazy things
like smash guitars,

get bottles of water
and shake 'em all over.

Then the good stuff happens. He'd
climb the rigging and swing on a rope.

- It was amazing.
- [Brooks] The arms were out, legs were moving.

If there was a cowboy hat in the
shot, even if it was blurred,

that meant movement.

That action symbolized
what we stood for.

[McCall] A decade before,
cowboy hats had been out of fashion.

The only guys in cowboy hats were
Hank Williams Jr., Charlie Daniels.

Guys who weren't really
mainstream country.

When George Strait came along
in the early '80s,

he was wearing a cowboy hat and by
the late '80s, it became iconic again.

It became the hat era.
And all the guys were wearing hats.

Dwight Yoakam, Clint Black,
Alan Jackson.

Somebody in the music business
said, "When you get a record deal,

you need to wear that hat. There is
no girl doing that Be the first one."

And when I first got signed,
I wore the hat in,

and my manger, he said,
"They're not really sure."

Well, I think I should wear it. I think they're
crazy if they make me wear spike heels.

I would've looked like I
was in drag walking in that.

It would have been ridiculous.
And it's become a big part of my image.

If there was anybody
that didn't know my name,

and somebody said, "The girl in
the hat," "Oh, I know who that is."

[LeAnn Rimes] I don't think the image
of me could have ever matched my voice.

I've been in this business for 20
years, and when you start as a child,

your image evolves so much.

In the '90s, I dressed
like a teenager.

I had really big hair
and big bangs.

By the time I was 18,
I started to be a little more fashionable

because country music
was going a little more pop,

and the image changed with that.

People like Reba took country music
to a different kind of sophistication.

First nominee is Reba McEntire.

[Rimes] I think
of the red dress.

[Sandi Spika Borchetta]
I designed that dress.

And the lighting
enhanced the cleavage.

People gasped and I didn't know if
I was gonna have a job the next day.

Reba received more press
from the red dress

than if she would
have won an award.

[Pecknold] Reba McEntire
is famous for having

15 costume changes
in a single show

with some of
the changes happening onstage

while she's surrounded
by dancers.

And as it becomes apparent,
by the early '90s,

what a big business
country music is,

women are becoming
more visible

and Reba began
the transformation

that you see later
with Shania Twain or Faith Hill,

where they are taking on
the style of rock and pop stars.

[Borchetta] Country singers were
now wearing higher fashion.

They were more trendy and started
gaining attention from designers

who would then
loan them clothes.

And the image of the artist
became more important

than it had been.

[Lorrie Morgan] If I feel like
wearing something, I wear it.

If I feel like looking
a certain way, I just do it.

And I don't follow rules
very well at all.

And that's got me in trouble
many times in my life.

Because I have always been the
one who wore the too-short dress

or showed too much cleavage,
so the record labels

gave me the real short haircut
to try and make me sultry.

And then I would get too sultry and
they'd have to pull the reigns back.

[Stuart] Everybody has
their own image.

And that's the beauty of coming from
a rural area like so many of us did.

Country boys and girls can kind of make it
up as you go. We're self-made characters.

[Smith] Grandpa Jones wouldn't have
been Grandpa Jones without his hat.

Or String Bean without the pants
down to here, without his long shirt.

That was part of their image.

[Cooper] These artists
were very aware

that the way they looked
was part of the show.

And that was included
in the price of the ticket.

And they worked hand in hand
with people like Nudie

and later on Manuel
to craft their image.

[Manuel] People wanted to see a
show, but if you don't see something

that you have not seen before,
why spend the 20 dollars

or the thousand dollars
for the front seat?

I worked for Nudie for 14 years
before I went on my own.

I grew up with ranchera music
in Mexico.

So I was very familiar with the
meaning of country music.

And it was through country music
I knew Nashville.

I came here because Nashville
was Music City, USA.

I was trying to make
one-of-a-kind clothes.

That's my mission
from day one.

They are all originals.

And nobody has escaped the
rhinestones by Manuel, I don't think.

To be a star is difficult.

So I say, let me make you
a suit that you love.

That's made for you.
So when they go onstage,

they feel confident to be the
stars that they really are.

[Morgan] It just
makes you better,

because you feel better
about how you look.

You know, I've got
a Manuel jacket on tonight

and I'm gonna sing my ass off.

- Oh, my baby.
- Manuel. Mm.

[Morgan] When you come in
to get a fitting with Manuel,

you can't be modest

because he has to measure
every part of you.

- 36 and a half.
- He's the one that measures you.

And he's the one
that makes your image.

- Look what I got for you.
- Oh, my God!

Manuel!

Pink is my favorite color.

I love everything
about these boots.

I can wear them with everything.
Yeah!

Or nothing at all.

[Terri Clark] Growing up, I always
saw the women with the great big hair

and the sparkly earrings
and jewelry, evening gowns.

And it definitely evolved
over the years.

But there was still
that classic look.

The greatest women, their images
convey who they are truly.

And it's authentic.

When I started out, people tried
to look through me to see my dad.

So it was important for me
to craft my own self.

But in the beginning,
when I was first signed to a record label,

there was this meeting
about my image.

And the head of marketing said,
"We just have to make her look fuckable."

I was shocked. I mean, I shouldn't
have been shocked, but I really was.

You know, I was really confident
about the music I wanted to make.

And this is what
it boiled down to?

And I didn't play along.

We're judged very
quickly on image.

But I want the image on an album cover
to say something about what's inside.

That's always the goal. And it's a
collaboration with the photographer.

[Rogers] Music is very subliminal.
And photography is obviously visual.

It's a way of exposing yourself.

I've never done drugs,
I don't drink, I don't smoke.

I take pictures.

When I was at the peak
of my career, I took a picture

and someone said,
"Wow, that's a great picture."

I thought, really? I don't
even know what I'm doing.

So I hired a professional
photographer to teach me the tricks.

And it was just fascinating.

I love to shoot people,
and obviously I love country artists.

And photography gave me
a chance to get to know

some of these people
that I'd never met before.

I shot people like Faith Hill,
Brad Paisley, Martina McBride.

And as a photographer, you really
do get a chance to feel their soul,

feel what they're all about.

And it's magical.

[Urban] Photography
can say an enormous amount.

But one of the least enjoyable
things to me is doing a photo shoot.

When I came to Nashville, I was already
an established artist in Australia.

I had my look and my sound.
But I was completely out of sync

with everything that was
happening in Nashville.

As an artist, you should
never compromise.

But I think you
do have to adapt.

And so I had to start again.

And in the midst
of trying to fit in,

I sort of lost myself.

My first solo record, I remember
the label president saying,

"It looks like the picture
that comes with the frame."

He was dead on, seriously.
But I had to keep believing.

And all the covers I've been
able to do have really captured,

for better or worse,
where I was at at the time.

And it was a slow process
to get to where I am now.

[Lee Ann Womack] Sometimes
image can get in the way.

Sometimes it's what made an artist
work, what made 'em famous.

I was hardcore
traditional country.

And nobody really said,
"You need to have this image."

But my label just thought, "We just
gotta get this girl some clothes."

So they took me shopping,
and it does give a girl from East Texas

a little bit more confidence.
And the camera really reads that.

♪ Don't listen to the wind ♪

A great photographer can
position you a certain way

or put you in a certain setting
that works.

♪ Can't you hear it
call his name ♪

Country music can be wrapped
in all kinds of packages.

But it's gotta have
that heart and soul.

And when the music and the image
complement one another,

that's when you have
something really special.

[Michael Wilson] When you're photographing
a musician, there's expectations

that are not just the photographer's,
not just the subject's.

There are expectations by the
record company, or the management.

In the '90s, when I first started
trying to get work in country music,

there were art directors whose point of
reference was not just celebrity portraits.

They were interested
in beautiful pictures

that would be an appropriate
parallel for the music.

And that's what country is about,
being connected to something genuine.

So I steered in the direction of
making portraits of musicians.

People like John Hiatt and
the Carolina Chocolate Drops,

taking that traditional music
and making it their own.

I know when I see
beautiful lighting.

And you can sit somebody down in that
beautiful light and know that this is a gift.

But the portrait is more than just
the fall of light on a subject.

A portrait is also
a conversation.

And the real making of that
picture has to do

with the interaction I have
with the person.

I first shot Lyle Lovett in '92
for the record Joshua Judges Ruth.

[Lovett] ♪ It was a
private conversation ♪

♪ No one heard her say ♪

I'd done a few projects
for Warner Bros.

and they thought he would
be a good fit.

♪ 2,000 miles away ♪

The role a photographer plays
in establishing an image

depends on the relationship.

And what's key for me is the
trust that we've developed

over the last 22 years.

[Wilson] Lyle has strong ideas
about his image.

'Cause he has a strong idea
of who he is as a person.

[Lovett] I went to Nashville because
Nashville was the city of songs

and a place where
I could play my own songs.

And when it came time for me
to start making records,

I thought back
to the classic photos.

And there was a real dignity
in the way people dressed.

And that image of the country
performer stays with you.

So I decided to wear a suit.

I didn't expect my hair
to be anything of note,

but it turned into something
people remembered.

Once something like that
happens, you have to go with it

and hope that it helps cement your
identity in the mind of the public.

What I'm imagining is just
the venue in the background.

It's a big deal to me that I've gotten to
play here so many times over the years.

To be able to make pictures here at
Wolf Trap in Vienna, Virginia is fun.

It's kind of great, actually, with the snow
falling. I'm thinking something dead center.

Lyle and I, when we work,
it's kind of an improvisation.

It's lovely.

[Lovett] It's a tremendously
creative environment.

I feel completely comfortable working with
Michael, and I can be completely myself.

There's something about that
tree that's bugging me.

- But if we got between these two trees, I think I'd be happier.
- Okay.

[Wilson] I arrive at a place and am
just at the mercy of the environment.

That's good, Lyle.

I'm looking for those surprises.

[Lovett] And when he sends
the contact sheets,

they're always images that I
didn't realize he had taken

and that I didn't expect.

[Wilson] A still photograph allows you into
this space that doesn't really exist in time.

And it becomes a trigger
for the music.

♪ As I lay sick and broken ♪

♪ Viva Mexico ♪

[Lovett] When you
hear country music,

you imagine the singer to be
a character in those songs.

And to see pictures just serves
to reinforce that identity.

But a successful picture of me is a picture
that makes me look better than I look.

That's what I'm looking for.

[Rimes] ♪ Got a date
a week from Friday ♪

[Rimes] These days you're supposed
to be an actress and a model.

You're supposed to know how to express all
of these feelings that are inside of you,

in so many different mediums,
and feel free enough to expose yourself

- and be that vulnerable.
- ♪ Probably wouldn't be this way ♪

[McClister] LeAnn and I, we stepped out
of the box on the very first video we did.

She came up with the premise
and trusted me as a director

to let her go to that place
and be real, to keep it real.

I love being able to go back and forth
between music videos and photography.

But they're very
different approaches.

Music videos are very
structured, whereas photo shoots

are very spontaneous.
You can go wherever you want to go,

where the light is taking you,
where the artist is taking you.

My first professional photo session
was Ryan Adams Heartbreaker.

It was an intense,
amazing two hours.

And it was a pretty great
way to start.

I photographed Jamey Johnson
for Rolling Stone.

He was a huge
Waylon Jennings fan.

And he had just purchased
Waylon's Cadillac.

Even with stills, I like
to keep the artist moving

because that's when you get
that spontaneity.

I was backstage
with Eric Church.

There was a bit of time
before the show.

And there was a bar
across the street.

And the lighting was amazing.

You only have a very limited
time with the artist.

You'll walk in, totally cold,
under the gun to get a great shot

and try and establish
that rapport right away

to get that natural feeling
moment in ten minutes.

But when you actually
can go out with the artist

and hang out with them, that's when you
get the most natural, real photographs.

Like Emmylou Harris at
Lawrence Records in Nashville.

She got a big thrill out of going
in and checking out all the vinyl.

I'm trying to help create the
vision they have for themselves.

And that comes from listening
to the music,

and then capturing the essence
of the moment of the artist.

Even an icon like Dolly,
she's already Dolly when she walks in.

But she puts her trust in you to create
a great portrait, capture a moment.

I think a lot of music photographers
secretly wanted to be artists.

And is there anything cooler than being
in the studio with one of your heroes?

Getting to actually take
a photograph of Willie.

He's got such an amazing face. It's not
hard to take some really great shots.

They're legends, they're icons.

But I do get to work
with new artists

who have their own voice,
who have their own style.

Like Kacey Musgraves backstage
at Bonnaroo

having fun with the image.

I want a great shot.
I'm not afraid to try anything.

Especially with an artist who
have a uniqueness in their sound

and in their visuals
and get it and stand up for it.

[Kimberly Perry] The spirit
of the song guides our style.

♪ Chainsaw ♪

It's the visual extension
of our music.

We grew up on rock and roll
and country.

And our songs really are
a blend of both of those genres.

[Neil] Our musical style
is very traditional.

The three of us grew up loving Loretta
Lynn, Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline.

And we maintained a lot of the
traditional country songwriting.

But when we record our songs,
we take a lot of cues from modern music.

And we like to make our songs as
big as they possibly can sound.

[Kimberly] Whatever we're portraying,
whatever story we're telling,

we just hope that folks get the
spirit behind it and see authenticity.

[country music plays]

[Holly Williams] As a musician,
you hope to create moments.

And people can relate to your music better
if they can relate to your whole image.

I love to get decked out and wear fun heels
and dresses, but it doesn't really fit

with the type of music
that I'm doing.

So onstage I wear these jeans,
these boots,

and a black t-shirt.
Simple Americana branding.

But everyone has
their own thing.

You've got people doing
very edgy fashion.

You got the more
bedazzled guys.

Then you got the simple guys
with cowboy boots and jeans.

[Gatlin] Today I've seen people
walk out on the stage

of the Grand Ole Opry in a pair
of jeans and a baseball cap.

I didn't come to the Opry
to get an oil change.

[Horenstein] Although country
music is very popular now,

the music is not the same,
the culture is not the same.

The bands today
have marketing teams.

They have investors.
It's a whole business.

They call some places honky-tonks
now and they are physically.

But it's a different audience.

Trout's in Bakersfield is one of
the classic places of country music.

It's a remnant
of what used to be.

One of the last honky-tonks.

It's an older crowd.

They're people who are going
out for a night on the town.

It's people who come out
to see Red Simpson.

He's one of the originals,
and they remember him.

♪ Driving away and ignoring ♪

These places are
gonna disappear.

But this is where
the music's from.

And it's part of the story.

[McClister] Going back, I think there
was something that was different

that people gravitated to.

When you look back at some
of the '60s, '70s records,

there was some great
concept photography.

They went out on locations,
they thought about wardrobe.

And photo shoots were addressing
the themes of that record,

whether it was songs of the
railroad or gunfighter ballads.

Those artists didn't have the bleached
teeth and the faux five o'clock shadow

and the, you know,
buff bodies.

They had talent
like you can't believe

and when you saw their pictures,
it was beautiful.

[Lovett] I just remember
listening to an entire album

and never putting down
the album jacket.

Looking at that cover
and looking at the pictures

on the back the entire time.

When you look at photos like the famous
Johnny Cash one with the middle finger,

the look on his face,
that said it all.

[McClister] That's the one image
from the great Jim Marshall

that summed up Johnny Cash
defying the establishment.

And it's a reminder about how
powerful an image can be.

I actually met Johnny Cash.
It was the week after June had passed.

And I took some portraits of Johnny.
He was in a wheelchair.

But he was recording with
Randy Scruggs and Marty Stuart.

Toward the end of his life,
the work order became keep JR entertained.

And so in the bedroom
of the Cash home,

we set up microphones
and had recording sessions.

Because music was what
he was holding on to.

At one of those sessions, the afternoon
light started coming in on his back.

And he looked like
an old president.

I said, "JR."
And he sat up straight.

And he gave me that look.

And I took the photograph.

It was the last portrait.

He was John R. Cash, JR,

Ray and Carrie's boy
from Arkansas.

[Cooper] This music, at its best,
is taking what seems personal

and presenting it in a way
that becomes universal.

That's why country music happens
all over the world.

And to a lot of people, it often
embodies the best parts of America.

I played from Denmark to Amsterdam
to Italy to Spain, all these places.

And the people in Europe are so into
the stories and the songs of country.

[Rogers] I had people from Korea
and Poland say we learned

to speak English
listening to your music.

I sang in Morocco, 130,000 people
were singing along with all the songs.

I did a thing called
Glastonbury.

180,000 young people
knew all the music.

We go to many countries and sell
out performances all over the world.

And there are artists today
that have taken country music

to where we took it
and beyond.

[Stuart] People have always said,
"What's happening to country music?"

But country music can do
anything it wants to do.

As long as the roots
of country music are felt.

Success means you hang onto your roots
and grow from there and branch out.

[Urban] Everybody's voice
is so important.

We have to have the people
who are pushing the boundaries.

And we have to have the people who
are pulling it back to the center.

- Everybody's needed.
- ♪ I can feel it flying ♪

♪ Like a hand out the window ♪

[Gatlin] People tell me the music that's
going on today is not country music.

And I beg to differ. These kids
are living their dreams,

they're singing it the way
they feel it.

[Kimberly] We love the stories of country
and embrace a lot of the tradition

and try to bring it back around.

[Rogers] Somebody's got
to do something different.

And it takes someone
who's strong enough

or unique enough to do something
that people will go, "Wow."

♪ Our song is
a slamming screen door ♪

♪ Sneaking out late
Tapping on your window ♪

Taylor Swift has helped propel
country music into the forefront.

Taylor Swift represents
a new kind of authenticity

that hasn't been
in country music before.

She is a deft blend
of traditional country

with the mainstream appeal
of pop music.

And for her to keep challenging herself
musically, it had to go somewhere.

♪ Losing him was blue
like I'd never known ♪

♪ Missing him was dark grey
all alone ♪

[Gatlin] Taylor Swift,
she had a great band.

She sang great songs. She changed
wardrobe, she flew across the stage,

and she communicated
with that audience.

That's not exactly
how Patsy Cline did it.

That's okay 'cause Patsy Cline
didn't do it

exactly like Mother Maybelle.

♪ Loving him is red ♪

Taylor has a lot of ideas.
And so we were backstage,

bouncing ideas off each other.
She was totally game to try anything.

But there's something about that
gaze, that simple honest look.

- And that's your goal.
- ♪ Loving him is like driving ♪

- ♪ A new Maserati ♪
- To capture the essence of that personality.

[Diltz] Photographs
grab moments.

And the photograph is one way to
look at the lifespan of country music

from its early roots
to what it is today.

[Anderson] When you start thinking
maybe things weren't a certain way,

you look at those pictures and, "Hell,
they were that way, weren't they?"

[Rimes] Cowboy boots and
rhinestones and big hair.

All of those pictures explain what
people thought about country music

and where it came from.

[Lee] We need to know
who brought us to the dance.

And to learn the great history
of our musical family.

[Rubenstein] Each artist has to
stand out to make the image revealing

so that it never fades away.

The camera gives the photographer
a chance to represent them.

So that the public can see
who they really are.

[Rogers] The people who last the
longest are what they present.

And they don't vary
from who they are.

[Wilson] These are the alchemists,
these are the magicians.

And nothing has ever moved me
the way music does.

It's songs that get me.

[Brooks] Country music is what
moves you and if something moves you

in the rap world, the rock
world, they stole it from us.

[McClister] Country photography
has such an interesting arc.

And being let behind the curtain over the
decades is very powerful and exciting.

[Urban] Country has always been
like a church.

It's gotta figure out constantly
how to honor its values

and stay true to itself,
but grow and evolve.

[Horenstein] Country music was stories
about working people and what they did.

It was music to drink to, cry over,
fight over, and be nostalgic about.

[Terri Clark] All these artists
and all these images shape

people's perception of country
music and country lifestyle.

But it's really about what it does to
your heart when you look at something.

Music is a conversation, and it's the
greatest healing force in the universe.

[Smith] Everybody gets their heart broke,
everybody wants something that they can't have.

And these are the things
that we sing about.

Country music is the cry
of the heart.

[Stuart] It will touch you and
absolutely meet you with the truth.

That's what Harlan Howard called country
music: three chords and the truth.

[Lovett] It's that desire
to believe something's genuine,

sincere, and absolutely honest.

That's what drives
country music.

And that's what people
look for in a country song.

[country music plays]

♪ Country is ♪

♪ Sitting on the back porch ♪

♪ Listen to the whippoorwills ♪

♪ Late in the day ♪

♪ Country is ♪

♪ Mindin' your business ♪

♪ Helpin' a stranger ♪

♪ If he comes your way ♪

♪ Country is ♪

♪ Livin' in the city ♪

♪ Knowin' your people ♪

♪ Knowin' your kind ♪

♪ Country is ♪

♪ What you make it ♪

♪ Country is ♪

♪ All in your mind ♪

♪ He was driving home
one evening ♪

♪ In his beat-up Pontiac ♪

♪ When an old lady
flagged him down ♪

♪ Her Mercedes had a flat ♪

♪ He could see that
she was frightened ♪

♪ Standing out there
in the snow ♪

♪ Till he said I'm here
to help you, ma'am ♪

♪ By the way
my name is Joe ♪

♪ She said I'm from St. Louis ♪

♪ And I'm only passing
through ♪

♪ I must have seen
a hundred cars go by ♪

♪ This is awful nice of you ♪

♪ And when he changed the tire
and closed her trunk ♪

♪ And was about to drive away ♪

♪ She said how much
do I owe you? ♪

♪ Here's what he had to say ♪

♪ If you really want
to pay me back ♪

♪ Here's what you do ♪

♪ Don't let the chain of love ♪

♪ End with you ♪

[applause]

[instrumental
country music plays]

Provided by explosiveskull
https://twitter.com/kaboomskull