From the Carter Family to Bill Monroe, from Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, and Johnny Cash to Garth Brooks, a succession of 20th-century performers—stars and lesser knowns—have laid down the rich, uniquely American soundtrack known as country music.
It gets the inimitable Ken Burns treatment in the filmmaker’s new documentary series Country Music, which premieres September 15 on PBS outlets including Kansas City’s KCPT. The Library and KCPT screen a portion of the documentary, plus three short videos exploring Kansas City’s connections to the genre’s history and style. A subsequent discussion is led by local music connoisseur Chuck Haddix, director of the University of Missouri-Kansas City’s Marr Sound Archives and radio host of KCUR’s signature show The Fish Fry, and longtime radio host and contributor Joy Peterson.