re: Ken Burns series Country Music is fantastic.

The Opry is def a must do. We went as a family in May 2007.....just happened to be Porter Wagoner's 80th birthday and they had a special honoring his 50 years with the Opry that night. Dolly was there and sang I Will Always Love You to him on stage. It was incredible and he died just a few months later in October. At the time you are just kinda in the moment and it wasnt until afterwards and really not until word came out that he had died just how special it was. Country royalty.

one thing I really thought interesting in the documentary is how young a lot of the writers when they wrote some of their best stuff. Some late teens and lots of early 20s. Of course there were those that died young as well and still had so many great songs in such short lives. But even those still here not most of their best stuff was from when they were really young.

Speaking of Speck Rhoades, I was a little bummed that Burns didn't spend any time talking about the comedian band member that was a staple of big country bands back in the day. We saw all of those group photos with one fiddler or banjo player with his teeth blacked out and some ridiculous Hillbilly garb, but other than Grandpa Jones, the only one I heard mentioned was Stringbean Akeman, and that was just because he was famously replaced by Earl Scruggs in Bill Monroe's band.

Why is Minnie Pearl famous? How did she get a spot on Hee Haw?

I just finished the best episode in the series, "Are you sure Hank done it this way". It's been fantastic so far, but this episode is right in my sweet spot of recognizing everybody in it.

My only complaint so far is how they skimmed over Glen Campbell. His impact is HUGE. Even Waylon said that Glen gave a lot of unknown country stars visibility on his network TV show in the early/mid 70s. And we all know he's one of the most talented musicians in any genre. They also glossed over Barbara Mandrell (not as important as Glen but still..) who also brought country to a national network audience.

Again, it's been incredible, but needed more GC.

Ken Burns does a great job, but he has a very noticeable slant to his projects. The series was just shy of a hagiography of Johnny Cash. And there's a reason for that.