The Heart of Country: How Nashville Became Music City USA

0:00:27 > 0:00:32I came to Nashville in 1967 from about 12 years on the road

0:00:32 > 0:00:34playing the beer joints.

0:00:34 > 0:00:36And I'd always wanted to live in Nashville.

0:00:36 > 0:00:40I came to town with a 20 dollar bill and the clutch out of my car

0:00:40 > 0:00:45and a wife and a baby and, er, it was, it IS a tough,

0:00:45 > 0:00:47competitive town to try to break into.

0:00:47 > 0:00:51# It's a crazy town full of neon dreams... #

0:00:51 > 0:00:55When I went to Nashville, country music was real music,

0:00:55 > 0:00:58like, I guess, white man's soul music.

0:00:58 > 0:01:04They were talking about real things, about real emotions

0:01:04 > 0:01:09and they talked about drinking and cheating and going to jail.

0:01:09 > 0:01:13And eventually I got involved in all of those activities myself!

0:01:13 > 0:01:16And wrote about them.

0:01:16 > 0:01:18# Cut your teeth in the smoky bars

0:01:18 > 0:01:21# And live off the tips from a pickle jar... #

0:01:21 > 0:01:24I moved to Nashville and I was very homesick because I'd never

0:01:24 > 0:01:28been away from home, and of course when you're on your own,

0:01:28 > 0:01:31it's a sickness that you can't hardly bear, that homesickness.

0:01:31 > 0:01:35There's nothing to take for it, you know, it's just a lonesome feeling.

0:01:35 > 0:01:37But I told my folks I wouldn't be home

0:01:37 > 0:01:39until I had something to show for it. And it was some hard times,

0:01:39 > 0:01:44but I've had a lot of help from a lot of good people.

0:01:44 > 0:01:46# Make all the drunk girls scream and shout... #

0:01:46 > 0:01:50I moved to Nashville and I think I just kind of thought

0:01:50 > 0:01:53they were going to roll out the red carpet for me once I got here.

0:01:53 > 0:01:57Then I got to town and I got knocked off my horse pretty quick.

0:01:57 > 0:02:00One year, I can't afford to pay for groceries

0:02:00 > 0:02:02and the next year I'm like...

0:02:02 > 0:02:05more money than I've ever seen in my life!

0:02:25 > 0:02:31# In this crazy town... #

0:02:33 > 0:02:36If you want to make it in country music,

0:02:36 > 0:02:39you've always had to make it in Nashville, Tennessee.

0:02:39 > 0:02:43But this city is more than a Hollywood-style dream factory

0:02:43 > 0:02:44with a Southern twang.

0:02:44 > 0:02:49Behind the rags-to-riches legends of its stars lies the shifting story

0:02:49 > 0:02:52of how Music City has prospered from the struggle

0:02:52 > 0:02:56between inspiration and manipulation, music and the market.

0:02:57 > 0:03:01The process by which they'd named Nashville "Music City USA"

0:03:01 > 0:03:04on the air is a pretty epic story with many characters,

0:03:04 > 0:03:08many forces, that have to do with partly the geography,

0:03:08 > 0:03:11centrally located in the South, lots of railroad crossings and

0:03:11 > 0:03:15so forth, and partly those accidents of history you could never predict.

0:03:19 > 0:03:23Many cities in the South used to hold a radio barn dance at weekends.

0:03:23 > 0:03:26Nashville's was the best of them.

0:03:28 > 0:03:31It started back in 1925, and later settled in the Ryman Auditorium,

0:03:31 > 0:03:33a former Methodist chapel.

0:03:37 > 0:03:39They called it the Grand Old Opry.

0:03:42 > 0:03:45It's been a magnet for performers ever since.

0:03:45 > 0:03:49The thing that was great about the Opry was it was just

0:03:49 > 0:03:51one act after another.

0:03:51 > 0:03:55It knocked your hat in the creek, you know.

0:03:55 > 0:03:56I loved it!

0:03:56 > 0:04:01# Our eastern states are dandy, so the people always say

0:04:01 > 0:04:05# From New York to St Louis and Chicago by the way

0:04:05 > 0:04:10# From the hills of Minnesota where the rippling waters fall

0:04:10 > 0:04:15# No changes can be taken on the Wabash Cannonball... #

0:04:15 > 0:04:19These were songs that mirrored the everyday lives of their audience,

0:04:19 > 0:04:21and they were broadcast across the States

0:04:21 > 0:04:23by one of the new radio stations.

0:04:23 > 0:04:27WSM, the National Life And Accident Insurance Company,

0:04:27 > 0:04:28Nashville, Tennessee!

0:04:28 > 0:04:31WSM was the broadcasting service

0:04:31 > 0:04:35of the Nashville Life and Accident Insurance Company.

0:04:35 > 0:04:37I used to say that all the time.

0:04:37 > 0:04:40"You are listening to WSM, the broadcasting service

0:04:40 > 0:04:45"of the National Life And Accident Insurance Company."

0:04:45 > 0:04:48And they created a radio station with 50,000 watts

0:04:48 > 0:04:52to broadcast across the land and sell life insurance.

0:04:52 > 0:04:56Men in the field wouldn't say, "I'm from Nashville Life",

0:04:56 > 0:05:00they would say, "Hello there, I'm from the Grand Ole Opry.

0:05:00 > 0:05:02"I'd like to sell you some life insurance."

0:05:02 > 0:05:04# When I was just a baby

0:05:04 > 0:05:06# My mama told me, "Son"... #

0:05:06 > 0:05:09It was so fascinating to discover what a perfect marriage

0:05:09 > 0:05:13of art and commerce the world around WSM

0:05:13 > 0:05:15and broadcasting at the time represented -

0:05:15 > 0:05:23the model of how money and sponsor dollars finance creativity.

0:05:23 > 0:05:26# And I let that lonesome whistle

0:05:26 > 0:05:29# Blow my blues away #

0:05:33 > 0:05:34CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

0:05:35 > 0:05:39And now this portion of the Grand Ole Opry is brought to you

0:05:39 > 0:05:41by Beechnut Chewing Tobacco -

0:05:41 > 0:05:45double picked and double dipped for a cleaner, sweeter-tasting chew.

0:05:45 > 0:05:49Beechnut, America's largest selling brand!

0:05:49 > 0:05:53It's been said WSM could cover two-thirds of America at night,

0:05:53 > 0:05:58and therefore, many, many people, especially before television,

0:05:58 > 0:06:01that was their Saturday night's entertainment.

0:06:01 > 0:06:05They would sit around the radio and listen to the Opry.

0:06:06 > 0:06:11I was listening from Florida because these clear channel radio stations

0:06:11 > 0:06:13could travel that far at night.

0:06:14 > 0:06:19# I'm hoping and I'm praying as my heart breaks right in two

0:06:19 > 0:06:21# Walking the floor over you... #

0:06:21 > 0:06:25When we were growing up, being able to get reception

0:06:25 > 0:06:29on our battery radio was special to start out with.

0:06:29 > 0:06:34But my daddy always tried to have it on on Saturday nights to listen

0:06:34 > 0:06:38to the Grand Ole Opry, especially, and it was a big treat.

0:06:39 > 0:06:43# There stands the glass

0:06:43 > 0:06:47# Set it up to the brim

0:06:47 > 0:06:51# Till my troubles grow dim

0:06:51 > 0:06:55# It's my first one today. #

0:06:59 > 0:07:02My dad and mom used to love the Grand Ole Opry.

0:07:02 > 0:07:06Even years before we had electricity, we had a battery radio,

0:07:06 > 0:07:09and I remember my dad running out and pouring water on the ground wire

0:07:09 > 0:07:12in order to tune in to the Grand Ole Opry!

0:07:12 > 0:07:17- # I've gained a reward - I've gained a reward

0:07:17 > 0:07:25# For the land where we never shall die #

0:07:30 > 0:07:34The radio was our connection to the rest of the world, really.

0:07:34 > 0:07:38It was where we heard whatever music we heard because this was...

0:07:38 > 0:07:42even the old phonograph records weren't that great.

0:07:42 > 0:07:45But if you had a radio, you could turn the dial

0:07:45 > 0:07:48and hear everything that was going on.

0:07:48 > 0:07:52It was on all the time, and up until the wee hours of the morning,

0:07:52 > 0:07:54and then we'd turn it on early in the morning

0:07:54 > 0:07:58and hear the farm reports and listen to it all day and hear the music.

0:07:58 > 0:08:05But it was just something we all gathered around - watched the radio!

0:08:05 > 0:08:07# Blue moon of Kentucky

0:08:07 > 0:08:10# Keep on shinin'

0:08:10 > 0:08:17# Shine on the one that's gone and said goodbye... #

0:08:17 > 0:08:22First time I came to Nashville, came here with my mom and dad, I think

0:08:22 > 0:08:23I was seven years old,

0:08:23 > 0:08:28I think actually we came here for my birthday.

0:08:28 > 0:08:32I remember the colours, the sounds

0:08:32 > 0:08:35that was hitting on the Ryman Auditorium with the steel guitars -

0:08:35 > 0:08:38how it would hit up on the ceiling and bounce back down.

0:08:38 > 0:08:43You know, it just sounded so great in there, you know.

0:08:43 > 0:08:45But I could also remember the smells.

0:08:45 > 0:08:48It smelled like an old church.

0:08:48 > 0:08:51I could smell the Juicy Fruit chewing gum underneath

0:08:51 > 0:08:54the seats, where people had chewed!

0:08:59 > 0:09:04But the Opry and its country music was viewed with some disdain

0:09:04 > 0:09:06by Nashville society.

0:09:06 > 0:09:09This was a city built on insurance, banking and Bible publishing.

0:09:09 > 0:09:11It was the buckle of the Bible Belt.

0:09:13 > 0:09:17Nashville, always, has been very territorial,

0:09:17 > 0:09:23and you don't enter the society here if you don't have

0:09:23 > 0:09:26the right silverware and the right chicken salad recipe.

0:09:26 > 0:09:30It's almost as if they set a table and they didn't make a place for you.

0:09:32 > 0:09:35Nashville's a very proper kind of Southern town

0:09:35 > 0:09:40and, certainly in the mid-20th century, a very religious place.

0:09:40 > 0:09:46A lot of propriety in Nashville in the local society there, so

0:09:46 > 0:09:52I think you could call it generally a conservative environment.

0:09:52 > 0:09:57# I wandered so aimless, life filled with sin

0:09:57 > 0:10:01# I wouldn't let my dear saviour in... #

0:10:01 > 0:10:05The Church and Christian music, Christian morals,

0:10:05 > 0:10:08ethics, is a big part of country music.

0:10:08 > 0:10:11It's the thread to me,

0:10:11 > 0:10:15the red thread, that runs through the fabric of country music.

0:10:15 > 0:10:17# I saw the light

0:10:17 > 0:10:22# No more darkness, no more night... #

0:10:22 > 0:10:25Inspired by the Southern Baptist Church, the tension

0:10:25 > 0:10:29between sacred and secular, God and the Devil, pervaded country music.

0:10:32 > 0:10:36The temptations of the downtown saloons became a theme of this music

0:10:36 > 0:10:39in the late 1940s, and they called it honky-tonk.

0:10:41 > 0:10:45# Well, I'm in love, I'm in love with a beautiful gal

0:10:45 > 0:10:48# That's what's the matter with me

0:10:48 > 0:10:52# Well I'm in love, I'm in love with a beautiful gal

0:10:52 > 0:10:55# But she don't care about me... #

0:10:55 > 0:10:59The tormented, whisky-fuelled songs of Hank Williams

0:10:59 > 0:11:03became the benchmark by which all others would be judged.

0:11:03 > 0:11:07# So now that she is leavin'

0:11:07 > 0:11:10# This is all I can say

0:11:10 > 0:11:14# I got a feeling called the blues, oh, Lord

0:11:14 > 0:11:15# Since my baby... #

0:11:15 > 0:11:18The heartbreak was right there in the words,

0:11:18 > 0:11:21and in the way he delivered them.

0:11:21 > 0:11:24He had the truth and the heart right in his...

0:11:24 > 0:11:27in his voice. He sang... he was a soul singer.

0:11:29 > 0:11:35# That means he's lost the will to live

0:11:35 > 0:11:41# I'm so lonesome I could cry... #

0:11:41 > 0:11:45I think I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry, to me,

0:11:45 > 0:11:49was one of the best-written country songs that there ever was.

0:11:49 > 0:11:51One of the lines was,

0:11:51 > 0:11:54"The silence of a falling star lights up a purple sky,

0:11:54 > 0:11:56"and as I wonder where you are

0:11:56 > 0:11:59"I'm so lonesome I could cry."

0:11:59 > 0:12:01And that's as good as it gets.

0:12:01 > 0:12:08# The silence of a falling star

0:12:08 > 0:12:13# Lights up a purple sky... #

0:12:13 > 0:12:19Hank Williams is the best writer we've ever had in country music

0:12:19 > 0:12:25and he wrote more, in a short period of time, and he died when he was 29.

0:12:25 > 0:12:26And he would do...

0:12:32 > 0:12:37# Today I passed you on the street

0:12:37 > 0:12:41# And my heart fell at your feet

0:12:41 > 0:12:48# I can't help it if I'm still in love with you. #

0:12:50 > 0:12:55So he wrote about it all, from the sad to the happy.

0:12:55 > 0:12:59# So I started out drinking for pastime

0:12:59 > 0:13:03# Drivin' nails in my coffin over you... #

0:13:03 > 0:13:06Honky-tonk was a lament for what was being left behind.

0:13:06 > 0:13:09It accompanied a mass exodus from the rural South

0:13:09 > 0:13:12in the decades after World War II.

0:13:12 > 0:13:16Those migrants' records were among their most treasured possessions.

0:13:16 > 0:13:19# I'll be drivin' those nails over you... #

0:13:19 > 0:13:22Country music was almost totally in the South

0:13:22 > 0:13:25and when the Southern boys took their records with 'em,

0:13:25 > 0:13:29and these guys from New York and Pennsylvania and Maryland and places

0:13:29 > 0:13:32started listening to it and started,

0:13:32 > 0:13:35"Hey, that's pretty good, man, you know."

0:13:35 > 0:13:37It kind of got a little bit of spread going there.

0:13:37 > 0:13:41It got a little bit more universal than what it...what it was.

0:13:41 > 0:13:44And it was like, these guys also found out at the same time,

0:13:44 > 0:13:48"These guys may talk slow, but they're just as hip as we are."

0:13:48 > 0:13:51- ANNOUNCER:- It's the Garden Spot Programme,

0:13:51 > 0:13:53presenting the songs of Hank Williams!

0:13:57 > 0:14:00# Hello, everybody, Garden Spot is on the air

0:14:00 > 0:14:03# So just relax and listen in your easy rockin' chair

0:14:03 > 0:14:04# Music for the family... #

0:14:04 > 0:14:08Country became the voice of the uprooted working class,

0:14:08 > 0:14:10and that included women.

0:14:10 > 0:14:15They became not just consumers, but creators of honky-tonk,

0:14:15 > 0:14:18and the pioneer was Kitty Wells.

0:14:18 > 0:14:21# It wasn't God

0:14:21 > 0:14:27# Who made honky-tonk angels

0:14:27 > 0:14:32# As you said in the words

0:14:32 > 0:14:35# Of your song

0:14:35 > 0:14:38# Too many time

0:14:38 > 0:14:44# Married men think they're still single

0:14:44 > 0:14:52# That has caused many a good girl to go wrong... #

0:14:54 > 0:14:58Kitty Wells was the answer to the male honky-tonk singers.

0:14:58 > 0:15:00She gave voice to the women

0:15:00 > 0:15:05who stayed home and raised their children.

0:15:05 > 0:15:07It was the first woman who stood up and said,

0:15:07 > 0:15:10"Um, you're a jerk and here's why!"

0:15:10 > 0:15:12You know? Basically!

0:15:12 > 0:15:21# From the start, most every heart that's ever broken

0:15:21 > 0:15:29# Was because there always was a man to blame... #

0:15:29 > 0:15:33Kitty Wells had some of her records banned, and she was the greatest

0:15:33 > 0:15:37lady I've ever known, and yet she had some of her records banned

0:15:37 > 0:15:40because of some of the, just realistic material

0:15:40 > 0:15:45that was in the songs. So, she fought the fight before any of us.

0:15:46 > 0:15:50Though respectable institutions like the Opry and WSM

0:15:50 > 0:15:53wouldn't allow that song to be performed,

0:15:53 > 0:15:55across town there was a radio station

0:15:55 > 0:15:58concerned about reaching a different audience.

0:15:58 > 0:16:03This is WLAC Radio, Nashville, 1510 on your dial.

0:16:03 > 0:16:05Right now, it's Colonial Bread time.

0:16:05 > 0:16:09# You can tell by the flavour it's Colonial Bread

0:16:09 > 0:16:11# Colonial is real bread! #

0:16:11 > 0:16:15The Nashville sound of rhythm and blues.

0:16:15 > 0:16:19WLAC beamed music all across the States.

0:16:19 > 0:16:23Though white-controlled, it aimed its programmes at Black America.

0:16:23 > 0:16:27# Early in the morning, babe

0:16:27 > 0:16:31# You're gonna have to let me be... #

0:16:31 > 0:16:33Those songs were heard by people

0:16:33 > 0:16:36like Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis.

0:16:36 > 0:16:41Those songs were critical to the musical education of a whole era

0:16:41 > 0:16:44of those who would make rock'n'roll in the 1960s.

0:16:45 > 0:16:48# Blue Moon, blue moon... #

0:16:48 > 0:16:53Elvis was inspired by the mix of WLAC's rhythm and blues

0:16:53 > 0:16:55and WSM's white country.

0:16:56 > 0:17:01In 1954, he went to Nashville to record his first album.

0:17:01 > 0:17:03On the turntable right now,

0:17:03 > 0:17:06everybody's favourite, Little Richard!

0:17:06 > 0:17:10You know something, Gene? I goes for the girls with the royal crown look

0:17:10 > 0:17:12cos, man, hmmm! She's got it!

0:17:12 > 0:17:16When Elvis first hit out of Memphis in '54, people didn't know

0:17:16 > 0:17:21what that was that he was doing because it hadn't really existed.

0:17:22 > 0:17:25Was it R&B? Was it hillbilly music?

0:17:25 > 0:17:28What was this thing that he was doing?

0:17:28 > 0:17:33He was singing a song, Blue Moon of Kentucky from Bill Munroe.

0:17:33 > 0:17:37# Blue moon of Kentucky, keep on shinin'

0:17:37 > 0:17:41# Shine on the one that's gone and made me blue... #

0:17:41 > 0:17:43And he came to the Grand Ole Opry

0:17:43 > 0:17:47and was told that he ought to go back to Memphis and drive a truck.

0:17:49 > 0:17:52But Elvis did choose to record in Nashville

0:17:52 > 0:17:56and gave the city a new visibility.

0:17:56 > 0:17:59There were people who thought he was too crazy, too wild, too weird,

0:17:59 > 0:18:04and then there were other people who accepted him as a country artist.

0:18:04 > 0:18:06# Well, since my baby left me

0:18:06 > 0:18:09# Well, I've found a new place to dwell

0:18:09 > 0:18:11# It's down at the end of the road... #

0:18:11 > 0:18:14Elvis recorded with local musicians

0:18:14 > 0:18:17and was offered a list of conventional pop songs.

0:18:17 > 0:18:21But he was headstrong enough to reinvent a country number

0:18:21 > 0:18:24that would rock Nashville to its foundations.

0:18:24 > 0:18:28# Although it's always crowded

0:18:28 > 0:18:30# You still can find some room

0:18:30 > 0:18:35# For broken-hearted lovers to cry there in the gloom

0:18:35 > 0:18:38# And be so, where they'll be so lonely, baby

0:18:38 > 0:18:40# Where they be so lonely... #

0:18:40 > 0:18:44Overseeing the session was Elvis' new manager, Colonel Parker.

0:18:44 > 0:18:49The colonel introduced a vision of mass-marketing for teenagers

0:18:49 > 0:18:51that astonished Nashville

0:18:51 > 0:18:54and would devastate the country music business.

0:18:54 > 0:18:58He had a tremendous impact on the music scene in Nashville.

0:18:58 > 0:19:02They quit using steel guitar players and fiddle players.

0:19:02 > 0:19:07Some of those guys left and never came back.

0:19:07 > 0:19:10Country was in disarray. Ernest Tubb thought about going

0:19:10 > 0:19:13back down to Texas to sell insurance, because the wheels were

0:19:13 > 0:19:19coming off, the proceeds were going down and people were frightened.

0:19:26 > 0:19:31To compete with rock'n'roll, which had stolen the teenage market,

0:19:31 > 0:19:34record companies set about refashioning the music for adults.

0:19:34 > 0:19:37They called it, "The Nashville sound".

0:19:37 > 0:19:41Studios began removing the country fiddle and steel guitar,

0:19:41 > 0:19:44replacing them with an angelic chorus

0:19:44 > 0:19:47or mellow strings from the local symphony orchestra.

0:19:50 > 0:19:53Corporate folks realised that they could sell records

0:19:53 > 0:19:57if they adjusted their template for what country music could

0:19:57 > 0:20:01sound like, just a little bit, then they could have access

0:20:01 > 0:20:03to a much wider market to sell records to.

0:20:05 > 0:20:08But Nashville's studios, in the early '60s,

0:20:08 > 0:20:10weren't their own masters.

0:20:10 > 0:20:14They were under the commercial thumb of the New York record executives,

0:20:14 > 0:20:16who were cashing in on the Nashville sound.

0:20:18 > 0:20:20Bless your heart, you're always nice!

0:20:20 > 0:20:22Hey, Will! Welcome back to Nashville.

0:20:22 > 0:20:25Come on and get in the car. Let's go up town.

0:20:25 > 0:20:27The companies really wanted more sales,

0:20:27 > 0:20:32and New York RCA put pressure on Nashville RCA,

0:20:32 > 0:20:36which made Nashville RCA put pressure on their artists.

0:20:36 > 0:20:40They selected local producers like Chet Atkins

0:20:40 > 0:20:43to supervise the Nashville sound.

0:20:43 > 0:20:48RCA put Chet in charge down here to make money.

0:20:48 > 0:20:52To hell with the ideology that "I love Country music",

0:20:52 > 0:20:54you got to make some records that sell.

0:20:54 > 0:20:58There's a legend about the Nashville sound. What is the Nashville sound?

0:20:58 > 0:21:02People ask me that every day, and, ah, I had a German in here

0:21:02 > 0:21:06the other day and he said, "Do you know what thee Nashville sound is?"

0:21:06 > 0:21:09- and I said, "No!" - COINS JINGLE

0:21:09 > 0:21:11"THAT is the Nashville sound!"

0:21:11 > 0:21:12- That sweet sound!- Money!

0:21:12 > 0:21:15MUSIC: Golden Memories And Silver Tears by Jim Reeves

0:21:19 > 0:21:22The studios were like a well-oiled machine,

0:21:22 > 0:21:25with a select group of musicians known as the A Team,

0:21:25 > 0:21:29turning out a dozen tunes a day for star crooners.

0:21:29 > 0:21:33# My dear, my golden moon

0:21:33 > 0:21:37# Has turned to blue

0:21:37 > 0:21:45# And all the silver stars are gone with you... #

0:21:46 > 0:21:50What developed was a smoother - some people thought way too smooth

0:21:50 > 0:21:52and syrupy - brand of music.

0:21:55 > 0:22:00But, it was something that saved the recording industry in Nashville.

0:22:00 > 0:22:02# Just like a wave... #

0:22:02 > 0:22:06The studios had found a winning formula that sold

0:22:06 > 0:22:09in millions as it crossed over into the pop market.

0:22:10 > 0:22:12# But it was a little too much

0:22:14 > 0:22:20# For my poor heart

0:22:20 > 0:22:30# Yesterday's memories tore me apart... #

0:22:30 > 0:22:33I didn't care whether it was real country music or not.

0:22:33 > 0:22:35I was trying to sell records!

0:22:35 > 0:22:38Today, I walked down to that little cafe

0:22:38 > 0:22:40where we used to go...

0:22:40 > 0:22:43It's like a baseball team.

0:22:43 > 0:22:46You're supposed to win!

0:22:46 > 0:22:50If you don't win, you're out of business.

0:22:50 > 0:22:54Well, the Nashville sound has kind of changed back and forth

0:22:54 > 0:22:59with commercialism, and what sold yesterday doesn't necessarily mean

0:22:59 > 0:23:03it's going to sell tomorrow, and in trying to keep up with what is

0:23:03 > 0:23:08and what isn't commercial, they make some horrible blunders up there!

0:23:10 > 0:23:12# I'm crazy

0:23:12 > 0:23:18# For thinkin' that my love could hold you... #

0:23:18 > 0:23:22They even tried turning Willie into a matinee idol.

0:23:22 > 0:23:25# I'm crazy for tryin'

0:23:25 > 0:23:29# And crazy for cryin'

0:23:29 > 0:23:35# And I'm crazy for lovin' you. #

0:23:35 > 0:23:38Well, you pretty much put your career in their hands

0:23:38 > 0:23:39and you did that voluntarily

0:23:39 > 0:23:42when you signed that little piece of paper for four years.

0:23:42 > 0:23:44So, you were pretty much locked in.

0:23:46 > 0:23:48# Crazy

0:23:48 > 0:23:50# I'm crazy... #

0:23:50 > 0:23:55But major artists like Patsy Cline did turn Willie's songs into hits.

0:23:55 > 0:23:58And she became queen of the Nashville sound.

0:23:58 > 0:24:01# I'm crazy

0:24:01 > 0:24:09# Crazy for feelin' so blue

0:24:11 > 0:24:13# I knew

0:24:13 > 0:24:21# You'd love me as long as you wanted

0:24:21 > 0:24:26# And then some day

0:24:26 > 0:24:32# You'd leave me for somebody new... #

0:24:32 > 0:24:35You get the sense from what we know about her

0:24:35 > 0:24:38that she couldn't have been stopped.

0:24:38 > 0:24:41You know, and I don't think anyone could have said,

0:24:41 > 0:24:45"Patsy, you need to sing about this, you don't need to sing that,

0:24:45 > 0:24:48"and you need to dress this way, and you need to kind of tone it down."

0:24:48 > 0:24:51She seemed like a fireball that was not going to be stopped.

0:24:51 > 0:25:00# What in the world did I do?

0:25:00 > 0:25:03# I'm crazy... #

0:25:03 > 0:25:06Patsy's sound suited the new sophistication

0:25:06 > 0:25:09of suburban housewives in the '60s.

0:25:09 > 0:25:13That's why they called this music Countrypolitan.

0:25:13 > 0:25:16# I'm crazy for trying

0:25:16 > 0:25:20# And crazy for crying... #

0:25:20 > 0:25:25Patsy Cline was very country and her audience was clearly

0:25:25 > 0:25:29rooted in country music, but she also had a broader appeal

0:25:29 > 0:25:32outside of it because she was one of those cross-over artists.

0:25:32 > 0:25:36She was an enormously sexual woman and there was no hiding it.

0:25:36 > 0:25:39It's in her voice and it was in her presentation,

0:25:39 > 0:25:41and she made no bones about it.

0:25:41 > 0:25:45And I think that also spoke to the time and place of American women

0:25:45 > 0:25:47in the late '50s and early '60s.

0:25:47 > 0:25:50They were finally emboldened and beginning to talk about

0:25:50 > 0:25:52their own sexuality.

0:25:52 > 0:25:55Fundamentally, she was just one of the great voices of all time

0:25:55 > 0:25:57and there's no getting past that.

0:25:57 > 0:25:59# I'm always walking

0:25:59 > 0:26:01# After midnight

0:26:01 > 0:26:04# Searching for you

0:26:07 > 0:26:10# I stopped to see a weeping willow

0:26:10 > 0:26:13# Crying on his pillow

0:26:13 > 0:26:17# Maybe he's crying for me

0:26:17 > 0:26:20# And as the sky turned gloomy

0:26:20 > 0:26:23# Night winds whisper to me

0:26:23 > 0:26:28# I'm lonesome as I can be... #

0:26:28 > 0:26:31Patsy Cline and Jim Reeves are great examples of artists where

0:26:31 > 0:26:35the Nashville sound really worked well for the kind of voices

0:26:35 > 0:26:38that they had and the kind of material that they had.

0:26:38 > 0:26:41And, ultimately, the companies in Nashville who were making those

0:26:41 > 0:26:44records realised they could sell them as pop music and make a lot

0:26:44 > 0:26:48more money than just selling them to a regional, Southern audience.

0:26:49 > 0:26:53They liked to keep the artists making sure they know that

0:26:53 > 0:26:56Nashville knows better for you. "We know what's good for you.

0:26:56 > 0:26:59"We're going to keep you. Don't worry. Stick with us.

0:26:59 > 0:27:02"Sing our songs and we'll keep you, you know, where you're at."

0:27:02 > 0:27:06But that's not very welcoming to someone who got into music

0:27:06 > 0:27:08because they fell in love with music

0:27:08 > 0:27:11and they wanted to put their own mark on it.

0:27:13 > 0:27:17One such rebel was Shooter's father, Waylon Jennings,

0:27:17 > 0:27:19who arrived from Arizona with a free spirit

0:27:19 > 0:27:22that didn't fit in Music City.

0:27:22 > 0:27:24MUSIC: Outlaw You by Shooter Jennings

0:27:47 > 0:27:51Freedom was hard to come by when I first came to this town.

0:27:51 > 0:27:53It was, "You do it our way or walk."

0:27:53 > 0:27:56And, erm... I wanted to walk,

0:27:56 > 0:27:59but they wouldn't let me do that either.

0:27:59 > 0:28:02They'd say, "You're going to stay here. We've got a contract.

0:28:02 > 0:28:05"But you're going to do it my way with the Nashville sound."

0:28:05 > 0:28:08# Stop the world and let me off... #

0:28:09 > 0:28:13Waylon was even forbidden to employ his own musicians.

0:28:13 > 0:28:17When they decided not to use us, actually, I was kind of glad

0:28:17 > 0:28:20at that point because you could feel it...

0:28:21 > 0:28:23You could feel it in the studio

0:28:23 > 0:28:26that they didn't really want you there.

0:28:26 > 0:28:28And it really got to me, you know?

0:28:28 > 0:28:31So I told them, "If they're not welcome, then I'm not welcome".

0:28:31 > 0:28:33That's the way it's always been.

0:28:35 > 0:28:39Nashville stalwarts like Chet Atkins may have sympathised,

0:28:39 > 0:28:43but they continued doing things the Nashville way.

0:28:43 > 0:28:46The turnover was like three songs in a session.

0:28:46 > 0:28:48There's a three-hour session.

0:28:48 > 0:28:51If you didn't get three, you wasn't doing nothing, you know?

0:28:51 > 0:28:54It was like a paper mill, man. They were just cranking them out.

0:28:54 > 0:28:58# My dreams are shattered, don't you see?

0:28:59 > 0:29:03# Now you no longer care for me... #

0:29:03 > 0:29:07And Waylon, he was pretty mad about it.

0:29:07 > 0:29:11I told him, I said, "Man, just go on and cut," you know?

0:29:11 > 0:29:13I said, "Your time's coming.

0:29:13 > 0:29:16"We'll get around this."

0:29:19 > 0:29:22For now, all Waylon could do was mock the system.

0:29:25 > 0:29:28# I've been chasing the big wheels

0:29:28 > 0:29:30# All over Nashville

0:29:30 > 0:29:34# Waiting for my big break to come

0:29:34 > 0:29:39# Living on ketchup soup, homemade crackers and Kool-Aid

0:29:39 > 0:29:41# I'll be a star tomorrow

0:29:41 > 0:29:43# But today

0:29:43 > 0:29:46# I'm a Nashville bum

0:29:46 > 0:29:48# I look good in cowboy clothes

0:29:48 > 0:29:51# And I sing through my nose

0:29:51 > 0:29:54# Webb said, "That's the way to get her done"

0:29:55 > 0:30:00# I smoke good old PA like the Opry stars, they say

0:30:00 > 0:30:02# I'll be a star tomorrow

0:30:02 > 0:30:04# But today

0:30:04 > 0:30:07# I'm a Nashville bum... #

0:30:07 > 0:30:10Me trying to get that freedom and everything

0:30:10 > 0:30:13made it rough on Chet and made it rough on everybody around

0:30:13 > 0:30:17because I think they thought I wanted something else, just power,

0:30:17 > 0:30:19or that I was out to destroy something,

0:30:19 > 0:30:21and actually I was out to survive.

0:30:21 > 0:30:26# Well, here's a song I wrote by myself, note for note

0:30:26 > 0:30:30# With a lot of help, it make number one

0:30:30 > 0:30:35# You can change a word or two and I'll give half of it to you

0:30:35 > 0:30:37# I'll be a star tomorrow

0:30:37 > 0:30:39# But today

0:30:39 > 0:30:42# I'm a Nashville bum. #

0:30:43 > 0:30:45Sounds pretty good to me.

0:30:45 > 0:30:48Just make sure he's got that Nashville sound.

0:30:48 > 0:30:51Oh, that's a built-in feature of our musicians and singers,

0:30:51 > 0:30:53there won't be any problem at all.

0:30:53 > 0:30:54Good. Good.

0:30:54 > 0:30:58The musicians that Waylon and others were forced to use

0:30:58 > 0:31:01came from a select team of Nashville insiders.

0:31:01 > 0:31:03They were revered for their musical skills

0:31:03 > 0:31:07but the demanding studio schedules wore them down.

0:31:07 > 0:31:09Actually, being a studio musician at that time

0:31:09 > 0:31:11was like being on a merry-go-round.

0:31:11 > 0:31:14So, we had no time off. It was idiotic.

0:31:14 > 0:31:18There were some times we did five sessions in a day

0:31:18 > 0:31:22and what happened was, we would end up at one o'clock in the morning,

0:31:22 > 0:31:24and then start another session

0:31:24 > 0:31:28and those were the days that I would sleep in the drum booth

0:31:28 > 0:31:32because it would take an hour to drive home and an hour to drive back

0:31:32 > 0:31:38so I just got more sleep and more rest sacking out in the drum booth.

0:31:38 > 0:31:40But, you know, we had a few of those.

0:31:40 > 0:31:43They had been beaten to death.

0:31:43 > 0:31:47They were doing four sessions a day, sometimes more...

0:31:47 > 0:31:49fast.

0:31:49 > 0:31:51An unbelievable amount of music.

0:31:51 > 0:31:54Five, six, sometimes seven days a week.

0:31:54 > 0:31:58This town, when we came here in the '60s, ran on amphetamines.

0:31:58 > 0:32:01Everybody sounded like a...

0:32:01 > 0:32:03drug store walking, you know?

0:32:03 > 0:32:08They had so many pills in their pocket, just trying to keep up.

0:32:08 > 0:32:11Then, after a while, you were dependent upon them.

0:32:13 > 0:32:16Many musicians acquired their amphetamines from the infamous

0:32:16 > 0:32:18Dr Snap.

0:32:18 > 0:32:22Dr Snap was a physician who would write...

0:32:22 > 0:32:28prescriptions for what we'd call Old Yellers - amphetamines.

0:32:28 > 0:32:30And they were...

0:32:30 > 0:32:32little yellow pills.

0:32:33 > 0:32:39And they became terribly popular among the music people.

0:32:39 > 0:32:43And, you know, guys would get pilled up and then write songs.

0:32:43 > 0:32:47And for some people, it really wired them

0:32:47 > 0:32:50into being creative.

0:32:50 > 0:32:54And I said one time, I think I was being facetious,

0:32:54 > 0:32:59I said, "You know, BMI should give Dr Snap some awards

0:32:59 > 0:33:02"for all the songs he's written!"

0:33:06 > 0:33:08But Nashville musicians were encouraged

0:33:08 > 0:33:12to escape from their studios on one particular day each year.

0:33:12 > 0:33:16At the DJ Convention, they got to meet the disc jockeys

0:33:16 > 0:33:20who spun their records on air, as well as the visiting fans.

0:33:21 > 0:33:23Hello, little lady.

0:33:25 > 0:33:28These conventions united all the vital components

0:33:28 > 0:33:30of the country music business.

0:33:30 > 0:33:34The PR people and the publishers, the regional bosses and fan clubs,

0:33:34 > 0:33:36the DJs and artists,

0:33:36 > 0:33:39keeping it all in the Nashville family.

0:33:41 > 0:33:44# When he comes home from a hard day's work

0:33:44 > 0:33:46# He's probably tired and dirty

0:33:46 > 0:33:49# Don't let him find this latchy queen

0:33:49 > 0:33:51# Have your castle looking pretty

0:33:51 > 0:33:54# There's a lot of things that you shouldn't do

0:33:54 > 0:33:57# But there's just as many that you should do too

0:33:57 > 0:34:01# To make a man feel like a man

0:34:01 > 0:34:04# You got to show him you're a woman... #

0:34:04 > 0:34:07Loretta was already a major name

0:34:07 > 0:34:11but her relationship with some disc jockeys remained tetchy.

0:34:12 > 0:34:16Though no-one spoke the word "payola", the truth was that

0:34:16 > 0:34:20country artists sometimes had to pay to get their records heard.

0:34:21 > 0:34:25About the time that the Disc Jockey Convention got really going

0:34:25 > 0:34:27and the payola scandals had broken,

0:34:27 > 0:34:32there was clearly a scenario going on in popular music in general

0:34:32 > 0:34:36where the labels would pay disc jockeys to play a record.

0:34:37 > 0:34:40# I sat down by the sea... #

0:34:40 > 0:34:43Loretta toured radio stations throughout the South

0:34:43 > 0:34:45to get her records played.

0:34:46 > 0:34:48Though freed from many of the prejudices

0:34:48 > 0:34:52that earlier singers confronted, she still faced obstacles.

0:34:53 > 0:34:58I took my record and this disc jockey said, I felt so bad,

0:34:58 > 0:35:00I said, "I've got a brand-new record.

0:35:00 > 0:35:05"It's called Honky Tonk Girl. And my name is Loretta Lynn.

0:35:05 > 0:35:09"I'm from Custer, Washington. Would you please play it for me?"

0:35:09 > 0:35:12And he said, "How much money do you have?"

0:35:12 > 0:35:14And I said, "Huh?"

0:35:14 > 0:35:17"How much money do you have?" I said, "I don't have none."

0:35:17 > 0:35:21He said, "Well, how do you expect to get your record played?"

0:35:21 > 0:35:23I said, "We just had enough money to get out here

0:35:23 > 0:35:25"to get this record to you."

0:35:25 > 0:35:27And I picked it up and left.

0:35:28 > 0:35:33Local radio mushroomed from 80 to 600 stations through the '60s,

0:35:33 > 0:35:37still targeting white listeners and dictating who got the hits.

0:35:38 > 0:35:41# Oh, the snakes crawl at night

0:35:41 > 0:35:45# That's what they say... #

0:35:45 > 0:35:48But now Southern cities like Nashville found the old order

0:35:48 > 0:35:51under threat.

0:35:52 > 0:35:55Country music came out of white America and the white South,

0:35:55 > 0:35:58so it didn't have a lot of opportunities for cross-pollination

0:35:58 > 0:36:02with black music, and nobody was looking for it in Nashville.

0:36:02 > 0:36:04And nobody was looking for it in country music.

0:36:06 > 0:36:10But issues of race played out in the city of Nashville,

0:36:10 > 0:36:13lunch-counter sit-ins and the newspapers and the radio

0:36:13 > 0:36:16either covering it or not covering it,

0:36:16 > 0:36:19and WSM leaned away from covering

0:36:19 > 0:36:22racial movement in the city.

0:36:24 > 0:36:27Whatever was happening in the world outside,

0:36:27 > 0:36:32WSM and the Opry stayed intent on keeping their sponsors happy.

0:36:32 > 0:36:36But the makers of Goo Goo never compromise on quality.

0:36:36 > 0:36:40- # Go get a Goo Goo, it's good. # - That's right.

0:36:41 > 0:36:45Their cautious response to the social unrest beyond their doors

0:36:45 > 0:36:48was to invite the first black cowboy to play the Opry.

0:36:48 > 0:36:52My career was right smack bang in the middle

0:36:52 > 0:36:54of the civil rights movement.

0:36:54 > 0:36:58There was a coloured side and a white side in every town,

0:36:58 > 0:37:00especially in the South.

0:37:00 > 0:37:03I just stayed within the bounds of, erm...

0:37:03 > 0:37:06what segregation meant at that time.

0:37:06 > 0:37:09Mr Charley Pride! Here he comes!

0:37:09 > 0:37:12The reaction that I got was that it shocked the people

0:37:12 > 0:37:15because if you put me behind the curtain when I was singing

0:37:15 > 0:37:19you'd think I was the same colour as the rest of the country singers,

0:37:19 > 0:37:20until I walk out.

0:37:20 > 0:37:23# Before you take another step... #

0:37:23 > 0:37:26But I didn't have any hoot calls from the audience.

0:37:26 > 0:37:29When I started going on stage,

0:37:29 > 0:37:31they didn't care whether I was green or pink.

0:37:31 > 0:37:35They wanted to hear me sing and that's the way it turned out,

0:37:35 > 0:37:39even though I was right in the middle of the civil rights.

0:37:39 > 0:37:42# And there'll be no mansion

0:37:42 > 0:37:44# Waiting on the hill

0:37:44 > 0:37:48# With crystal chandeliers

0:37:48 > 0:37:52# And there'll be no fancy clothes

0:37:52 > 0:37:55# For you to wear

0:37:56 > 0:37:59# Everything I have

0:37:59 > 0:38:02# Is standing here

0:38:02 > 0:38:05# In front of you to see

0:38:06 > 0:38:11# All I have to offer you is me... #

0:38:11 > 0:38:16The first time he went on in the Opry, you could hear a pin drop.

0:38:16 > 0:38:18Charley walked out and he said,

0:38:18 > 0:38:21"Well, folks, I'm originally from Mississippi".

0:38:21 > 0:38:24He said, "Since I was an itty-bitty tot,

0:38:24 > 0:38:26"I listened to the Grand Ole Opry.

0:38:26 > 0:38:30"It's my music and I love it better than anything in the world".

0:38:30 > 0:38:34# But make sure that's what you want

0:38:34 > 0:38:37# While you're still free... #

0:38:40 > 0:38:43Country artists and the studios on Music Row

0:38:43 > 0:38:47persevered with the Nashville sound all through the '60s.

0:38:47 > 0:38:49But they weren't their own masters.

0:38:49 > 0:38:53The New York suits remained the arbiters of country taste,

0:38:53 > 0:38:57often editing and remixing tapes from the Nashville sessions.

0:38:58 > 0:39:00New York didn't want its cutting-edge stars

0:39:00 > 0:39:02messing with hillbillies.

0:39:02 > 0:39:06Least of all their king of the counter-culture - Bob Dylan.

0:39:06 > 0:39:08# Keep a clean nose Watch the plain clothes

0:39:08 > 0:39:12# You don't need a weather man to know which way the wind blows... #

0:39:14 > 0:39:18Get it established, the fiddle is first.

0:39:18 > 0:39:21'I told Dylan one day, we were standing in the studio,

0:39:21 > 0:39:23'the Chairman and the President was there,'

0:39:23 > 0:39:26"Some day you've got to go to Nashville.

0:39:26 > 0:39:30"I fixed a studio down there. They got no phones, they got nothing.

0:39:30 > 0:39:34"They got a great engineer and this place is ready.

0:39:34 > 0:39:37"It's just ready any time." I was talking about that.

0:39:37 > 0:39:40And they came over to me and they said,

0:39:40 > 0:39:43"You ever mention Nashville again to Bob Dylan, you're fired."

0:39:43 > 0:39:47I said, "Why?" They said, "Because they don't know what they're doing.

0:39:47 > 0:39:52"You're going to have good luck here. Just stay here and do this."

0:39:52 > 0:39:54And I said, "Yes, sir, you're the boss."

0:39:54 > 0:39:57About, I don't know, two months, three months later,

0:39:57 > 0:40:01I took him to Nashville and I never said anything to anybody.

0:40:02 > 0:40:06Ironically, Dylan would transform Nashville

0:40:06 > 0:40:09in ways its own rebels had never managed.

0:40:09 > 0:40:13Bob Dylan has had one of the most singular impacts

0:40:13 > 0:40:17of anyone in musical history on Nashville and on country music.

0:40:17 > 0:40:19Dylan's appearance in Nashville

0:40:19 > 0:40:23and decision to record three albums here did that tenfold.

0:40:23 > 0:40:29It boosted Nashville's respect on a popular level across the world.

0:40:29 > 0:40:33And it let other performers outside of country know that this was

0:40:33 > 0:40:37a place you could come and not just make a country record.

0:40:37 > 0:40:40It was a place where things could happen.

0:40:41 > 0:40:44Here in Nashville you would always do three or four songs

0:40:44 > 0:40:47in a three hour session. I mean it was just the way it was.

0:40:47 > 0:40:52And, erm, Dylan showed up at six o'clock - 6pm,

0:40:52 > 0:40:55and said, "I haven't finished writing the first song",

0:40:55 > 0:40:58and we started recording at 4am the next morning.

0:40:58 > 0:41:01You know, everybody's on the clock.

0:41:01 > 0:41:04And after midnight they're being paid premium.

0:41:04 > 0:41:08So, it took a little while to get it together.

0:41:08 > 0:41:12Take One. Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan - Thousand Miles Behind. Take One.

0:41:13 > 0:41:16Dylan made three Nashville albums in a row.

0:41:16 > 0:41:19From Blonde-on-Blonde to Nashville Skyline,

0:41:19 > 0:41:22where he met up with Johnny Cash.

0:41:22 > 0:41:24# Down the street the dogs are barking

0:41:24 > 0:41:28# And the day is getting dark

0:41:28 > 0:41:31# When the night begins to fall

0:41:31 > 0:41:35# Then the dogs will lose their bark

0:41:35 > 0:41:38# And the silent night will shatter

0:41:38 > 0:41:41# From the sounds inside my mind

0:41:42 > 0:41:45# And I'm just one too many mornings

0:41:45 > 0:41:47# And a thousand

0:41:47 > 0:41:50# Miles behind

0:41:53 > 0:41:56# From the crossroads of my doorstep

0:41:56 > 0:41:59# My eyes, they begin to fade

0:42:00 > 0:42:03# And I turn my head back to the room

0:42:03 > 0:42:06# Where my love and I have laid

0:42:07 > 0:42:10# And I gaze back to the street

0:42:10 > 0:42:13# The sidewalk and the sign

0:42:14 > 0:42:17# And I'm one too many mornings

0:42:17 > 0:42:19# And a thousand

0:42:19 > 0:42:21# Miles behind... #

0:42:21 > 0:42:27It opened so many doors to artists who would never come here before.

0:42:27 > 0:42:31And when Dylan went here, it validated Nashville in their minds.

0:42:32 > 0:42:36Bob came to Nashville to make Nashville Skyline with Bob Johnston,

0:42:36 > 0:42:40the producer, and my Dad was, you know, a part of his life.

0:42:40 > 0:42:41They were friends.

0:42:41 > 0:42:45They did a lot of laughing together. They had light senses of humour.

0:42:45 > 0:42:48My dad loved Bob as a friend, like a brother.

0:42:48 > 0:42:52Back in the '60s, they creatively bounced off each other.

0:42:52 > 0:42:55- # And a thousand miles - And a thousand...- #

0:42:56 > 0:42:59Dad was...he was always breaking new ground.

0:43:00 > 0:43:01Hello. I'm Johnny Cash.

0:43:03 > 0:43:07Cash continued to break new ground with his network TV Show,

0:43:07 > 0:43:10inviting guests from all genres of music.

0:43:10 > 0:43:14Television was now taking country into people's homes.

0:43:15 > 0:43:18When he had that vision come into place,

0:43:18 > 0:43:22the one spot that made sense to him was the Ryman Auditorium.

0:43:23 > 0:43:26Here was the birthplace of country music in many different ways.

0:43:26 > 0:43:29The mother church of country music.

0:43:29 > 0:43:33And so he went to the Ryman for this television show - for live TV.

0:43:33 > 0:43:37# No, the circle won't be broke

0:43:37 > 0:43:40# By and by, Lord

0:43:40 > 0:43:42# By and by... #

0:43:42 > 0:43:46Cash performed secular and sacred songs side-by-side

0:43:46 > 0:43:48in Nashville's mother church.

0:43:48 > 0:43:52# In the sky, Lord, in the sky... #

0:43:52 > 0:43:56My father, first and foremost, was a man of God.

0:43:56 > 0:43:58He had his addictions, he had his trials.

0:43:58 > 0:44:02He had his pains that he carried around with him.

0:44:02 > 0:44:06He struggled through his life, of course. you know, with...

0:44:06 > 0:44:10with this darkness that, erm...

0:44:10 > 0:44:13that would...would try to envelope him.

0:44:14 > 0:44:17But my father, first and foremost, was a man of God.

0:44:17 > 0:44:20Even in the darker times.

0:44:21 > 0:44:24# In the sky, Lord

0:44:24 > 0:44:29# In the sky. #

0:44:33 > 0:44:38Cash, in a lot of ways he does embody what Nashville was,

0:44:38 > 0:44:41and in some ways what Nashville is now.

0:44:41 > 0:44:45He could be kind and soulful.

0:44:46 > 0:44:50And he could be lost, and he could be dark,

0:44:50 > 0:44:54and he could be all these things at once.

0:44:54 > 0:44:58# Cos life goes on and so will I... #

0:44:58 > 0:45:03Most of all - recklessly, restlessly creative.

0:45:04 > 0:45:08This was an era when the Nashville stars would lay bare their lives

0:45:08 > 0:45:11as they struggled with their personal demons,

0:45:11 > 0:45:14and with Music City's institutions.

0:45:14 > 0:45:18There were several artists who chaffed at the restrictions

0:45:18 > 0:45:20on their creativity. Johnny Cash is one.

0:45:20 > 0:45:25Dolly Parton, another person who famously tussled with the establishment of Nashville.

0:45:28 > 0:45:33To succeed in Music City required a mix of determination and subterfuge.

0:45:33 > 0:45:36Dolly Parton appeared a simple country girl,

0:45:36 > 0:45:40but she knew exactly how to play Nashville and win.

0:45:41 > 0:45:46Being a poor southern woman, and a very smart woman,

0:45:46 > 0:45:49she was able to hide behind that

0:45:49 > 0:45:51Southern Belle thing.

0:45:51 > 0:45:54It's used as a weapon.

0:45:54 > 0:45:57'Direct from Nashville, Tennessee...'

0:45:57 > 0:45:59She persuaded Porter Wagoner,

0:45:59 > 0:46:02a heavyweight in the Country Music scene,

0:46:02 > 0:46:05to put her on his top-rated TV show.

0:46:05 > 0:46:08But that was by no means the limit of her ambitions.

0:46:08 > 0:46:11'Now, today's special guest star, Miss Dolly Parton!'

0:46:11 > 0:46:13APPLAUSE

0:46:13 > 0:46:16I had come to Nashville to be my own artist, to have my own band,

0:46:16 > 0:46:18and did have a little, you know, group.

0:46:18 > 0:46:22And I was... I'd had a couple of top ten records when Porter saw me.

0:46:22 > 0:46:27But his show was going to send me on out there to be a big artist

0:46:27 > 0:46:30and I said, "I want to be my own star."

0:46:30 > 0:46:33I said to her one time, "You know, Dolly, I'd hate

0:46:33 > 0:46:36"to be between you and something you really wanted."

0:46:36 > 0:46:38She said, "Well, I'd run over you,

0:46:38 > 0:46:41"but you're so nice, I'd run over you easy."

0:46:43 > 0:46:45So, she was determined to get what she wanted.

0:46:49 > 0:46:51Dolly's persistence was matched

0:46:51 > 0:46:53by her talent as a singer and songwriter.

0:46:53 > 0:46:56She seduced audiences with her down-home country values

0:46:56 > 0:46:59and her unquenchable spirit.

0:46:59 > 0:47:03# But if you try to control me Then you won't ever know me

0:47:06 > 0:47:11# And I'll be moving on when Possession gets too strong... #

0:47:11 > 0:47:15Occasionally, we would have a little run-in about something,

0:47:15 > 0:47:19but I always won, because I always would, because I'm the boss.

0:47:19 > 0:47:21I'm the one that signs the cheque,

0:47:21 > 0:47:24and I'm the one that does the working in that area.

0:47:24 > 0:47:26Well, she's great at what she does,

0:47:26 > 0:47:30and I'm so proud that she learned a lot of that from me.

0:47:30 > 0:47:34# I'll be moving on when Possession gets too strong... #

0:47:36 > 0:47:39DOLLY PARTON: When I felt "I need to be going now,

0:47:39 > 0:47:43"cos I can't spend my whole life being a part of somebody else's group."

0:47:43 > 0:47:45So, then I started trying to move myself away,

0:47:45 > 0:47:48started talking to him and he wasn't hearing of it.

0:47:48 > 0:47:51So we fought a lot, because we were very similar,

0:47:51 > 0:47:54we were very headstrong. He knew what he wanted and I knew what I wanted,

0:47:54 > 0:47:56and we were both going to get it.

0:47:56 > 0:47:59At each other's expense, if that's what we had to do.

0:47:59 > 0:48:01So, he was... He was having a real hard time with that.

0:48:01 > 0:48:03APPLAUSE

0:48:03 > 0:48:07Dolly and Porter revealed the truth in their duets,

0:48:07 > 0:48:09a cathartic experience for them

0:48:09 > 0:48:13and their TV audience watching in homes across America.

0:48:13 > 0:48:19- BOTH:- # We're holding on Nothing left to hold onto

0:48:21 > 0:48:25# I'm so tired Of holding on to nothin'

0:48:28 > 0:48:31# The years have shown no kindness

0:48:31 > 0:48:34# For the hard times we've been through

0:48:35 > 0:48:39# We squeezed the life From every dream

0:48:39 > 0:48:43# But we still go right on bluffin'

0:48:43 > 0:48:48# With really nothin' left To hold on to

0:48:48 > 0:48:51BOTH: # Oh why do we keep holding on

0:48:51 > 0:48:56# With nothing left to hold on to?

0:48:56 > 0:48:59# Let's be honest with each other

0:48:59 > 0:49:02# That's the least that we can do

0:49:02 > 0:49:07# I feel guilty when they Envy me and you

0:49:08 > 0:49:14# We're holding on with Nothing left to hold on to. #

0:49:14 > 0:49:18Dolly Parton had to have a big break with him, law suits,

0:49:18 > 0:49:24and ultimately, leaving Nashville for a time to go pursue other things

0:49:24 > 0:49:28that she could do - acting and making more pop-orientated music.

0:49:28 > 0:49:30Let's pick it up a little bit, honey!

0:49:30 > 0:49:33There's all kinds of things to do in Tennessee.

0:49:33 > 0:49:36But next time, let's take the pink Cadillac!

0:49:38 > 0:49:40Country Music, like every other commercial art form,

0:49:40 > 0:49:43recognises success above all other merit.

0:49:43 > 0:49:48Demonstrated success means you get the big car, the big money

0:49:48 > 0:49:49and the big audience.

0:49:51 > 0:49:56Nashville fans lived the dreams and aspirations of their stars.

0:49:56 > 0:49:58They shared in their struggles and soul-searching.

0:49:58 > 0:50:01That's what made the relationship so special.

0:50:02 > 0:50:10# Oh, the faucet started drippin' In the kitchen

0:50:13 > 0:50:21# And last night your picture Fell down from the wall... #

0:50:23 > 0:50:28I always believed that we touched the working man,

0:50:28 > 0:50:30the working family.

0:50:30 > 0:50:35And the songs was written about those type of people.

0:50:35 > 0:50:39I could feel their hurt in these songs, the way they were written.

0:50:39 > 0:50:43And when I would sing them in the studio, they would come off that way

0:50:43 > 0:50:46and they could feel that...

0:50:46 > 0:50:50that hurt even more powerful from the songs.

0:50:50 > 0:50:58# Things have gone to pieces Since you left me

0:51:00 > 0:51:08# Nothing turns out half right Now it seems

0:51:11 > 0:51:16# There ain't nothing in my pocket

0:51:16 > 0:51:20# But three nickels and a dime

0:51:21 > 0:51:29# But I'm holding to The pieces of my dream. #

0:51:30 > 0:51:35When you hear a song like that and it touches home,

0:51:35 > 0:51:42it opens up your mind and your heart and makes it an automatic hit.

0:51:42 > 0:51:44But so much of it came from here.

0:51:44 > 0:51:47I mean, the sound came from here, but, you know, he just...

0:51:47 > 0:51:52It was like he couldn't help it. It was like he'd just sing and this stuff would come out

0:51:52 > 0:51:54and you'd say, "Where in the hell is that coming from?"

0:51:54 > 0:51:57The way he pronounced his words and the way he made them sound,

0:51:57 > 0:51:59and the way he phrased and everything,

0:51:59 > 0:52:01it was just totally unique.

0:52:04 > 0:52:07Dearly beloved, we are gathered together

0:52:07 > 0:52:10in the presence of God and these witnesses...

0:52:10 > 0:52:13George mirrored his turbulent life in his art.

0:52:13 > 0:52:18He even transformed the TV stage into church to marry Tammy Wynette.

0:52:18 > 0:52:22# Yes, we take each other

0:52:22 > 0:52:27# Forsaking all others

0:52:27 > 0:52:34# Together, till death do us part. #

0:52:34 > 0:52:39I now pronounce you man and wife.

0:52:42 > 0:52:45APPLAUSE

0:52:45 > 0:52:49I think, like George Jones, Tammy Wynette was one of those

0:52:49 > 0:52:56singers who was all of the aspirations of the working class,

0:52:56 > 0:53:00bottled up in one great voice.

0:53:00 > 0:53:05# Our little boy is four years old

0:53:05 > 0:53:09# And quite a little man

0:53:09 > 0:53:17# So we spell out the words We don't want him to understand... #

0:53:18 > 0:53:22Tammy's was a voice that touched the soul of conservative America.

0:53:23 > 0:53:26My next door neighbour was an aspiring country singer

0:53:26 > 0:53:30and he sat out on the front step and us kids were like...

0:53:30 > 0:53:32It was like the pied piper.

0:53:32 > 0:53:34And he was introducing us

0:53:34 > 0:53:38to these songs that seemed really dangerous to us.

0:53:38 > 0:53:42You know, he's singing, # D-I-V-O-R-C-E. #

0:53:42 > 0:53:44- and we're going... - SHE GASPS

0:53:44 > 0:53:47"You know, guys, I heard Tommy's mom is dating Timmy's dad," you know?

0:53:47 > 0:53:50"And that's not supposed to be OK."

0:53:50 > 0:53:54And all sorts of stories that were very grown-up at the time.

0:53:55 > 0:53:58# I love you both and this will be

0:53:58 > 0:54:03# Pure H-E-double-L for me

0:54:03 > 0:54:05# Oh, I wish that we could stop

0:54:05 > 0:54:14# This D-I-V-O-R-C-E. #

0:54:14 > 0:54:18Most of the people who come to Nashville before the '70s,

0:54:18 > 0:54:22it's a whole lot better than picking cotton.

0:54:22 > 0:54:26They're used to doing incredibly hard work that pays badly.

0:54:33 > 0:54:35A lot of them have real problems

0:54:35 > 0:54:38when they get successful because it's too easy.

0:54:38 > 0:54:40They live in big fancy houses

0:54:40 > 0:54:43and they grew up in very humble circumstances.

0:54:43 > 0:54:46that's a tough thing for people to adjust to.

0:54:46 > 0:54:49Not always, but often they feel like they're getting away with something

0:54:49 > 0:54:53and it's going to be taken away from them at any moment.

0:54:53 > 0:54:55- What have I done?- You are drunk.

0:54:55 > 0:54:57- I am not!- Yes, you are.- No, sir.

0:54:57 > 0:55:00If Tammy's husband George was stopped for drunk driving,

0:55:00 > 0:55:02which happened quite frequently,

0:55:02 > 0:55:05it increased his status as a local hero.

0:55:05 > 0:55:08- Hey!- Come on, now, George!

0:55:08 > 0:55:11APPLAUSE

0:55:11 > 0:55:13And when No-Show-George missed yet another gig

0:55:13 > 0:55:15and got thrown into jail,

0:55:15 > 0:55:20the fans just loved his contempt for the rules they had to live by.

0:55:23 > 0:55:27But George couldn't handle the pressures of being a country legend.

0:55:27 > 0:55:32His life descended into a cycle of addictions and broken relationships.

0:55:32 > 0:55:35Memories of Tammy were hard to erase.

0:55:35 > 0:55:41# Even though you've been gone A long, long time... #

0:55:41 > 0:55:44When they divorced, Jones took it very hard.

0:55:44 > 0:55:47He was living in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, which is

0:55:47 > 0:55:49250 miles from Nashville.

0:55:49 > 0:55:52And he would drive from Muscle Shoals,

0:55:52 > 0:55:56all the way to Nashville, to what had been his home with Tammy.

0:55:56 > 0:55:59And he would drive through the driveway, never stop,

0:55:59 > 0:56:02and drive back to Muscle Shoals.

0:56:02 > 0:56:04A round-trip drive of 500 miles.

0:56:04 > 0:56:08He would do that twice a day, just to go through her driveway.

0:56:08 > 0:56:11# You're still here

0:56:11 > 0:56:17# In the diary of my mind... #

0:56:17 > 0:56:22There's nothing one could do to damage a show business career

0:56:22 > 0:56:25that George Jones has not done,

0:56:25 > 0:56:31and yet he is the only American recording artist in all genres of recorded music

0:56:31 > 0:56:34who's had a number one song in each of the past five decades.

0:56:38 > 0:56:41Thanks to the notoriety of Nashville's legends,

0:56:41 > 0:56:42by the early '70s,

0:56:42 > 0:56:46country was selling 150 million albums a year across the States -

0:56:46 > 0:56:49something even presidents could not ignore.

0:56:52 > 0:56:56In 1974, mired in the scandal of Watergate,

0:56:56 > 0:57:01Nixon used the Opry as a platform to address the nation.

0:57:01 > 0:57:04His sponsor was Mrs Grissom's Salad.

0:57:04 > 0:57:08# With Mrs Grissom's on the label There's quality on your table

0:57:08 > 0:57:12# The name Mrs Grissom Guarantees it's good. #

0:57:13 > 0:57:15What country music is,

0:57:15 > 0:57:19is that first, it comes from the heart of America,

0:57:19 > 0:57:22because this is the heart of America.

0:57:22 > 0:57:25It talks about family, it talks about religion,

0:57:25 > 0:57:29the faith in God that is so important to our country,

0:57:29 > 0:57:32and particularly to our family life.

0:57:32 > 0:57:39And, as we all know, country music radiates a love of this nation.

0:57:39 > 0:57:42Patriotism.

0:57:42 > 0:57:47Country music, therefore, has those combinations which are

0:57:47 > 0:57:51so essential to America's character

0:57:51 > 0:57:53at a time that America needs character.

0:57:58 > 0:58:00But Nixon's Republican values

0:58:00 > 0:58:02were not those of a generation of performers

0:58:02 > 0:58:06who'd had to cultivate their audience outside of Nashville.

0:58:06 > 0:58:10# Stay all night Stay a little longer... #

0:58:10 > 0:58:13A transformed Willie Nelson had moved to Texas,

0:58:13 > 0:58:19playing his brand of country to tens of thousands of hippies and rockers across the South.

0:58:19 > 0:58:21# She lives away down On Shinbone Alley

0:58:21 > 0:58:24# And the number on the gate The number on the door

0:58:24 > 0:58:27# The next house over Is the grocery store

0:58:27 > 0:58:29# You gotta stay all night Stay a little longer

0:58:29 > 0:58:32# Dance all night Dance a little longer

0:58:32 > 0:58:34# Pull off your coat Throw it in the corner

0:58:34 > 0:58:38# Don't see why you don't Stay a little longer... #

0:58:38 > 0:58:41To cash in on this emerging audience,

0:58:41 > 0:58:44the executives at RCA came up with a money-making scheme -

0:58:44 > 0:58:48to market a country album made up of old recordings that were

0:58:48 > 0:58:50gathering dust in their vaults.

0:58:52 > 0:58:55It was all money to fill somebody's pockets, you know?

0:58:55 > 0:58:58They didn't care if there were better songs out there,

0:58:58 > 0:59:01so long as they got their piece of the pie.

0:59:01 > 0:59:04They went back and put together a bunch of songs that had been

0:59:04 > 0:59:08recorded years before and were laying around unreleased.

0:59:12 > 0:59:16To tie together that hotchpotch of mostly pre-recorded music,

0:59:16 > 0:59:19they went in search of a local publicist.

0:59:19 > 0:59:22Well, I worked over at Glaser Sound Studio

0:59:22 > 0:59:26and I always kept a dictionary under my desk.

0:59:26 > 0:59:29As I reached down, I picked up that dictionary, I opened it up,

0:59:29 > 0:59:34and I don't know why I went to the word "outlaw", but I did.

0:59:34 > 0:59:38And there was about this much information,

0:59:38 > 0:59:40and the very last line said,

0:59:40 > 0:59:44"Living on the outside of the written law."

0:59:44 > 0:59:48I agreed with her on it, I thought it was a good way to market it.

0:59:48 > 0:59:54If you were going to call it anything, call it what it is.

0:59:54 > 0:59:56Ironically, this designer collection,

0:59:56 > 1:00:01released in 1976, would transform Nashville.

1:00:01 > 1:00:05# Honking them tables And generally blowin'

1:00:05 > 1:00:08# My heart and pain. #

1:00:08 > 1:00:10You know what, that song, and that album,

1:00:10 > 1:00:15was the turning point for the whole industry here and the whole thing.

1:00:15 > 1:00:17It got away from what they called

1:00:17 > 1:00:20everybody doing records with the Nashville Sound.

1:00:20 > 1:00:23The people were so hungry for something different

1:00:23 > 1:00:26than what was on the radio, that they just ate it up.

1:00:26 > 1:00:27I thought, "This is fun!"

1:00:27 > 1:00:30We didn't have any idea it was going to do what it did.

1:00:30 > 1:00:35You know, it was just great, and it was very...economic.

1:00:35 > 1:00:38Very cost-efficient.

1:00:38 > 1:00:43I mean, to cut an album for 19,000 and sell quadruple platinum!

1:00:44 > 1:00:47And this broke the precedent

1:00:47 > 1:00:51of the control of the studios here.

1:00:54 > 1:00:57Having won the respect of the major labels with this first

1:00:57 > 1:00:59platinum album for country music,

1:00:59 > 1:01:02Willie and Waylon were at last their own masters.

1:01:02 > 1:01:06They took their Outlaw Country all across the States

1:01:06 > 1:01:10and built themselves a mainstream audience - and a rock'n'roll lifestyle.

1:01:10 > 1:01:14# Piano rolled blues Danced holes in my shoes

1:01:14 > 1:01:17# There weren't another other way to be

1:01:17 > 1:01:22# For lovable losers And no-account boozers

1:01:22 > 1:01:25# And honky-tonk heroes like me. #

1:01:31 > 1:01:35This hillbilly town had never seen anything like the Outlaws.

1:01:35 > 1:01:37I mean, they took it and ran with it.

1:01:37 > 1:01:41They achieved fame, and they made a lot of money.

1:01:41 > 1:01:44They made more money than they'd ever made,

1:01:44 > 1:01:46and God bless them for that, cos they sure needed it.

1:01:46 > 1:01:49So, that was the beginnings of the Outlaw movement.

1:01:49 > 1:01:54It was about creativity and self-expression. At first!

1:01:54 > 1:01:57Then you hand it over to the marketing folks and it can be about

1:01:57 > 1:02:00cool-looking album covers and what people are wearing.

1:02:06 > 1:02:08Hey, hold up!

1:02:09 > 1:02:13In the wake of the runaway success of the Outlaw phenomenon,

1:02:13 > 1:02:17Hollywood leapt on the cowboy bandwagon.

1:02:17 > 1:02:18You a real cowboy?

1:02:21 > 1:02:24Well, it depends on what you think a real cowboy is.

1:02:27 > 1:02:29I think Urban Cowboy, the movie,

1:02:29 > 1:02:31I think it brought a lot of new people in.

1:02:31 > 1:02:33Some of them stayed, some of them didn't.

1:02:36 > 1:02:40But people in New York City started buying cowboy hats and boots and doing the two-step.

1:02:40 > 1:02:42It was a social sort of thing for a while,

1:02:42 > 1:02:45but it was a real shot in the arm for country music.

1:02:45 > 1:02:47# She found out what everybody knew

1:02:47 > 1:02:50# Too many cooks spoil the stew

1:02:50 > 1:02:52# She don't care what nobody thinks

1:02:52 > 1:02:55# She's gonna be bad till The whole town stinks. #

1:02:55 > 1:02:58Country became a fashion item.

1:02:58 > 1:03:01But the sales of Stetson hats and cowgirl boots

1:03:01 > 1:03:03did little to excite the Outlaws.

1:03:05 > 1:03:06They're wearing the T-shirts,

1:03:06 > 1:03:09they're singing the same songs, they're wearing the hats!

1:03:09 > 1:03:11You know, and they're mouthing the words,

1:03:11 > 1:03:14and I thought, "God, it's missing."

1:03:14 > 1:03:19I thought music got dreadfully stale during that period,

1:03:19 > 1:03:23because record labels were trying to cross over, cross over.

1:03:23 > 1:03:26# Yeah, you gotta step that step

1:03:26 > 1:03:29# Walk that walk

1:03:29 > 1:03:31# Shake that thing

1:03:31 > 1:03:33# And honey, talk that talk. #

1:03:33 > 1:03:38Traditional country music really had died, you know?

1:03:38 > 1:03:42And because it wasn't getting played on radio any more, they weren't

1:03:42 > 1:03:46signing artists in Nashville that was really traditional.

1:03:46 > 1:03:49# So, fine, yeah

1:03:49 > 1:03:53# My baby so doggone fine... #

1:03:53 > 1:03:55The music was pretty cliched.

1:03:55 > 1:03:58It was sort of rock influenced, very pop-ish,

1:03:58 > 1:04:01sort of sanitised to reach a broad audience.

1:04:01 > 1:04:03And there were a lot of critics who thought that

1:04:03 > 1:04:06that was the very thing that was wrong with country music at the time.

1:04:08 > 1:04:12The need to cross over was satirised in a song that's still

1:04:12 > 1:04:15performed in downtown bars.

1:04:50 > 1:04:53I think it started out as just a joke in a way.

1:04:53 > 1:04:56There's been this murder, you know?

1:04:56 > 1:04:58Country music has gotten killed,

1:04:58 > 1:05:01someone committed murder on Music Row.

1:05:21 > 1:05:25It wasn't just old Hank Williams who couldn't get any airplay.

1:05:25 > 1:05:27Almost none of Nashville's legends

1:05:27 > 1:05:30could now find a place on country radio's playlists.

1:05:30 > 1:05:34The corporate sponsors were targeting a younger audience.

1:05:34 > 1:05:38Being a radio guy, you know, I have to...

1:05:38 > 1:05:42I have to blame my own industry some for the state of country music.

1:05:42 > 1:05:45And the way we have tended to run our business.

1:05:45 > 1:05:50And record labels were doing what record labels always do,

1:05:50 > 1:05:52which is try to homogenise things

1:05:52 > 1:05:56so that they get the broadest common denominator.

1:05:56 > 1:05:59And when you do that, you take the personality

1:05:59 > 1:06:00and integrity out of art

1:06:00 > 1:06:04because you're trying to make it more bland

1:06:04 > 1:06:06to appeal to a wider demographic.

1:06:08 > 1:06:12The major labels shocked many in Nashville by dropping

1:06:12 > 1:06:14the legendary names of the '70s.

1:06:15 > 1:06:18The company could come and knock down

1:06:18 > 1:06:21all of the blocks that had been built.

1:06:21 > 1:06:25I mean, Waylon, Johnny, Willie, Kris.

1:06:25 > 1:06:29These were the pillars of that era of country music.

1:06:31 > 1:06:36And it was a great grief, you know? An insult.

1:06:36 > 1:06:39# Sadly in search of

1:06:39 > 1:06:42# And one step in back of

1:06:42 > 1:06:47# Themselves and The slow-moving dream. #

1:06:47 > 1:06:52Once things get really downhill, desperation can ensue,

1:06:52 > 1:06:56and sometimes some interesting stuff comes through the desperation.

1:06:56 > 1:06:59In the '80s, some of that interesting stuff was what

1:06:59 > 1:07:02Steve Earle called "The great credibility scare".

1:07:06 > 1:07:08What Nashville was scared of was that a new

1:07:08 > 1:07:11generation of musicians would hammer the last nail

1:07:11 > 1:07:14into the coffin of its once-powerful studio system.

1:07:15 > 1:07:18# Hey, pretty baby Are you ready for me?

1:07:18 > 1:07:23# It's your good rockin' daddy Down from Tennessee

1:07:23 > 1:07:25# I'm just out of Austin Bound for San Antone

1:07:25 > 1:07:28# With the radio blastin' And the bird dog on

1:07:31 > 1:07:34# There's a speed trap up ahead in Selma Town

1:07:34 > 1:07:38# But no local yokel gonna shut me down

1:07:38 > 1:07:42# Cos me and my boys Got this rig unwound

1:07:42 > 1:07:45# And we've come a thousand miles From a guitar town. #

1:07:45 > 1:07:48I really genuinely thought at that moment,

1:07:48 > 1:07:51that I might be the future of country music.

1:07:51 > 1:07:53I based the whole thing on the idea that good country

1:07:53 > 1:07:56and good rock'n'roll were the same thing.

1:07:56 > 1:07:59And I grew up hearing Buck Owens and The Beatles

1:07:59 > 1:08:02and Roger Miller on the same radio station,

1:08:02 > 1:08:05so I really didn't know the difference at one point in my life.

1:08:05 > 1:08:07You know, I just knew what was good and what I listened to

1:08:07 > 1:08:10and what I turned... When I turned the channel.

1:08:12 > 1:08:13With Guitar Town, Steve Earle

1:08:13 > 1:08:16went straight to the top of the country charts,

1:08:16 > 1:08:19by combining '80s rock with country-style story-telling.

1:08:21 > 1:08:25I think it's country because it's about the things that

1:08:25 > 1:08:29I always found important about country music.

1:08:29 > 1:08:31It's about people that...

1:08:33 > 1:08:35It's about empathy.

1:08:35 > 1:08:38I think that's what great songwriting's about, anyway.

1:08:38 > 1:08:41People don't really care about you feeling sorry for yourself

1:08:41 > 1:08:45cos you're riding around in a bus that costs more than their house.

1:08:45 > 1:08:48The stuff they care about is the stuff they relate to about your life.

1:08:48 > 1:08:50It's you miss your kids,

1:08:50 > 1:08:55that you miss your wife, that you got your heart broke.

1:08:55 > 1:08:58# One of these days I'm gonna settle down

1:08:58 > 1:09:01# Take you back with me To a guitar town. #

1:09:07 > 1:09:11Steve Earle was treading a path to the future by sweeping away

1:09:11 > 1:09:16Nashville's old values with a mix of rock mystique and country sentiment.

1:09:17 > 1:09:19People like Steve Earle pointed a lot of people to Nashville

1:09:19 > 1:09:24as a place that was doing more than whatever was being

1:09:24 > 1:09:27heard on the mainstream radio at the time.

1:09:27 > 1:09:30Even opened the mainstream radio up to it for a hot second.

1:09:30 > 1:09:34That was also the decade that Ricky Skaggs came out of bluegrass

1:09:34 > 1:09:37and started recording traditional country music

1:09:37 > 1:09:40and had a string of terrific, very traditional hits.

1:09:40 > 1:09:41# Well, these Highway 40 blues

1:09:43 > 1:09:46# I've walked holes in Both my shoes... #

1:09:46 > 1:09:51Skaggs was searching for a sound that would reawaken the spirit

1:09:51 > 1:09:54of the old Ryman Auditorium and the religious roots of

1:09:54 > 1:09:59a country music that he felt had been trivialised by the urban cowboys.

1:10:00 > 1:10:06When I came to Nashville, I really wanted to try to blend

1:10:06 > 1:10:09bluegrass music that I had grown-up with, you know,

1:10:09 > 1:10:13try to blend that with traditional country music again.

1:10:28 > 1:10:33# I may look like a city slicker Shinin' up through my shoes

1:10:33 > 1:10:36# Underneath I'm just A cotton picker

1:10:36 > 1:10:39# Picking out a mess of blues

1:10:39 > 1:10:45# Show me where I start Find a horse and cart

1:10:45 > 1:10:51# I'm just a country boy A country boy at heart. #

1:10:53 > 1:10:56I think there was something definitely spiritual

1:10:56 > 1:10:59to the call back to bluegrass.

1:10:59 > 1:11:02I feel like I was at a place in my life where

1:11:02 > 1:11:05I really wanted to grow spiritually.

1:11:05 > 1:11:12# God sent in his love On the wings of a dove... #

1:11:12 > 1:11:16Well, I've referred to myself as a "musicianary" a lot of times.

1:11:16 > 1:11:18I think a musicianary is kind of,

1:11:18 > 1:11:21in a way, kind of a missionary that plays music.

1:11:23 > 1:11:26But I have an evangelistic heart, you know?

1:11:26 > 1:11:29I love God and I love the Bible,

1:11:29 > 1:11:32I love the truth that's in the Bible.

1:11:32 > 1:11:35I'm not ashamed to say "Jesus" from the stage

1:11:38 > 1:11:42Evangelism had never been far from the Nashville stage.

1:11:42 > 1:11:45And in the early '90s, Garth Brooks combined it

1:11:45 > 1:11:49with the religious fervour of Ricky Skaggs and the rock posture of Steve Earle

1:11:49 > 1:11:53to become the biggest selling country act of all time.

1:11:56 > 1:11:58What I do is divine intervention.

1:11:58 > 1:12:00It's a gift from God.

1:12:00 > 1:12:02And when God gave me the gift,

1:12:02 > 1:12:05God did not put any restrictions on it.

1:12:05 > 1:12:09"You can only sell this many units, you can only sing in these places."

1:12:09 > 1:12:13So, I don't think it's fair for me to put restrictions on it.

1:12:13 > 1:12:16The point is, I must take it to the people.

1:12:16 > 1:12:18So, here goes.

1:12:18 > 1:12:22# We all came here For a party tonight

1:12:22 > 1:12:26# And you gonna get left If you don't get right

1:12:26 > 1:12:28# So, forget your troubles And forget the news... #

1:12:28 > 1:12:31He was winning back the youth market that Elvis

1:12:31 > 1:12:34had stolen from Nashville some 40 years earlier.

1:12:34 > 1:12:37# And if your tie's too tight Then adjust the noose

1:12:37 > 1:12:40# Cos if you're gonna hang tight Cut loose... #

1:12:40 > 1:12:43Garth changed performance.

1:12:43 > 1:12:46Garth went out and he had fire shooting up.

1:12:48 > 1:12:50One show he got on the wire

1:12:50 > 1:12:53and came all the way down the Texas Stadium to the stage.

1:12:58 > 1:13:00I didn't want to see it.

1:13:00 > 1:13:02I had him insured,

1:13:02 > 1:13:06but you couldn't insure him for what he was worth!

1:13:06 > 1:13:09But he did all this crazy stuff that he loved

1:13:09 > 1:13:11and was influenced by as he was growing up.

1:13:11 > 1:13:14He made the performance a bigger deal.

1:13:17 > 1:13:20When you walk out on stage, it just comes from somewhere else.

1:13:20 > 1:13:25And you just feel it, you can taste it. You can smell it.

1:13:25 > 1:13:27And all of a sudden, man, it's just there.

1:13:27 > 1:13:29And no matter how tired you were, no matter how...

1:13:29 > 1:13:33How much you had on your mind about one thing or another, it's all gone!

1:13:33 > 1:13:34And now the fun starts.

1:13:40 > 1:13:45And I swear to God, his eyes are this big when he's on stage.

1:13:45 > 1:13:5040 rows back, you have the same feeling from him

1:13:50 > 1:13:53as you did in the first five or six rows.

1:13:53 > 1:13:56and that thing just poured off of him.

1:13:56 > 1:13:58And I turned around to my wife and I said,

1:13:58 > 1:14:01"My God, woman, this is the biggest one ever!"

1:14:03 > 1:14:07Garth's crossover success had been ignited by a controversial video

1:14:07 > 1:14:11aimed at the Nashville network.

1:14:11 > 1:14:14The Thunder Rolls was co-written by his friend Pat Alger.

1:14:16 > 1:14:19I didn't start out looking for some universal theme, you know,

1:14:19 > 1:14:21that's going to change the world.

1:14:21 > 1:14:24I'm writing about what I see before me,

1:14:24 > 1:14:27and sometimes out of that will come a universal theme,

1:14:27 > 1:14:31and I think somewhat that happened in The Thunder Rolls.

1:14:31 > 1:14:35I think that was a universal issue got brought up

1:14:35 > 1:14:39just as a sideline, but it wasn't what we intended.

1:14:39 > 1:14:44# He's heading back from somewhere that he never should have been

1:14:44 > 1:14:47# And the thunder rolls... #

1:14:48 > 1:14:51And the idea was, what about a guy who's cheating on his wife

1:14:51 > 1:14:55and every time he does, the thunder rolls.

1:14:55 > 1:14:58What kind of a better metaphor could there be, really?

1:14:58 > 1:15:02You know, you're caught, and the thunder rolls.

1:15:04 > 1:15:06# And the thunder rolls... #

1:15:09 > 1:15:14And Garth had to sort of face up to some of that in his own life, you know?

1:15:14 > 1:15:17# And the thunder rolls... #

1:15:17 > 1:15:21He shows you this controversial situation

1:15:21 > 1:15:24of a cheating husband who's also an abusive husband.

1:15:28 > 1:15:32And that got a negative reaction.

1:15:32 > 1:15:34Somebody called me from the office saying,

1:15:34 > 1:15:38"Hey, the video's about to play in about five minutes, so turn your set on."

1:15:38 > 1:15:41So I turned it on, and then I called back and said,

1:15:41 > 1:15:42"Wow, that was incredible."

1:15:42 > 1:15:47He said, "Well, I hope you enjoyed it cos they just banned it, so you're not going to see it again!"

1:15:47 > 1:15:51# As the storm blows on Out of control... #

1:15:54 > 1:15:57But the Nashville network didn't reckon with record boss Jimmy Bowen

1:15:57 > 1:16:02turning a local disaster into a national triumph.

1:16:02 > 1:16:06I had my publicity person, and I said, "Get in here quick!

1:16:06 > 1:16:10"I want you to hire publicity people all over this country,

1:16:10 > 1:16:14"every city of 50,000 or up. And I want you to go after this."

1:16:14 > 1:16:18And I got a call from Bowen late one night. He was laughing.

1:16:18 > 1:16:21And then I was scared, because I didn't like the situation,

1:16:21 > 1:16:24I don't like the whole thing of people banning stuff.

1:16:24 > 1:16:27And I said, "Man, why are you laughing?"

1:16:27 > 1:16:30He says, "Don't you understand? What would have taken us

1:16:30 > 1:16:33"four years to do is going to happen in about four days now.

1:16:33 > 1:16:36"You'll become a household name."

1:16:36 > 1:16:39He did more than that. He out-sold every act in America.

1:16:44 > 1:16:50Every generation just has a few acts that can happen so big

1:16:50 > 1:16:57and so fast that they have to take away from other artists

1:16:57 > 1:17:01on their label, and other labels for airplay.

1:17:02 > 1:17:05Garth soon leapfrogged all his competitors.

1:17:05 > 1:17:09Smaller country acts found their careers threatened.

1:17:09 > 1:17:12I had no idea if I would get cut. I know they cut...

1:17:12 > 1:17:15They probably cut at least 30 artists

1:17:15 > 1:17:17from the roster right off the bat.

1:17:17 > 1:17:22And so I was nervous, and I kind of had, you know,

1:17:22 > 1:17:26a vision of him being sort of the devil in my mind.

1:17:26 > 1:17:30Radio didn't want to hear about anybody else, just Garth, Garth, Garth.

1:17:30 > 1:17:35Everywhere we went, just Garth. It's a double-edged sword.

1:17:35 > 1:17:38And, we did an album, Jimmy didn't even release it.

1:17:40 > 1:17:43I felt like I was going to go down the toilet.

1:17:43 > 1:17:48I really felt like I was going to fall into the black hole of artists.

1:17:48 > 1:17:51Though Suzy had some major hits in the years that followed,

1:17:51 > 1:17:55the black hole swallowed many of Nashville's legends,

1:17:55 > 1:17:59as they tried to keep faith with their fans in their twilight years.

1:18:03 > 1:18:07# I hurt myself today

1:18:09 > 1:18:13# To see if I still feel

1:18:14 > 1:18:20# I focus on the pain

1:18:20 > 1:18:25# The only thing that's real... #

1:18:27 > 1:18:29It was, you know, just two weeks before he died

1:18:29 > 1:18:32when he recorded his last song. And, um...

1:18:32 > 1:18:34That... I just don't think he ever stopped.

1:18:34 > 1:18:37I think his energy and his love for his music kept him going.

1:18:37 > 1:18:40And his energy for life and spreading the joy that he had.

1:18:40 > 1:18:44# But I remember everything... #

1:18:44 > 1:18:47Battling persistent ill-health and the demands of her fans,

1:18:47 > 1:18:50Tammy Wynette travelled ceaselessly

1:18:50 > 1:18:52with an increasing dependence on her helpers.

1:18:53 > 1:18:57Tammy Wynette had a problem with substance abuse.

1:18:57 > 1:19:02It became very pronounced and her reputation became very widespread.

1:19:02 > 1:19:08She would play towns and she would feign an injury so that she

1:19:08 > 1:19:12could go to an emergency room and be given painkillers to get high.

1:19:15 > 1:19:19George Jones used his status as a country legend to do what they'd

1:19:19 > 1:19:23been doing since the earliest days of the Opry - selling stuff.

1:19:26 > 1:19:29That's one of my all-time favourites.

1:19:31 > 1:19:34They're all good, that's why their hits.

1:19:34 > 1:19:38But you know, I'm about to come out with the greatest line I ever have.

1:19:38 > 1:19:41'Introducing George Jones Country Gold dog food,

1:19:41 > 1:19:46'George's own line of 100% complete and balanced foods.'

1:19:46 > 1:19:49You thought I was talking about a new song, didn't you?

1:19:50 > 1:19:53The city that inspired those departed stars is still

1:19:53 > 1:19:57a magnet for thousands of young hopefuls, repeating the same cycle,

1:19:57 > 1:20:01toughing it out in the same bars their heroes did.

1:20:01 > 1:20:07# A three-minute positive Not too country up-tempo love song

1:20:07 > 1:20:12# A way for me to tell a little lover And it can't be too long

1:20:12 > 1:20:18# There be no drinkin', no cheatin' No lyin', no leavin'... #

1:20:18 > 1:20:21Many who visit these bars are themselves budding artists

1:20:21 > 1:20:23and songwriters.

1:20:23 > 1:20:27I wanted to carve my own path and I knew that that

1:20:27 > 1:20:28I would have to do that,

1:20:28 > 1:20:31I just didn't realise how hard, when I first got here,

1:20:31 > 1:20:33how hard it was going to be.

1:20:33 > 1:20:36I mean, when you're by yourself and you don't know anyone,

1:20:36 > 1:20:40but then you realise you have to have a team behind you

1:20:40 > 1:20:41to accomplish what you want.

1:20:41 > 1:20:46I mean, it was daunting at first, for sure.

1:20:46 > 1:20:49Shanna's teamed up with veteran songwriter Pat Alger,

1:20:49 > 1:20:51to improve her chances.

1:20:53 > 1:20:55We deal with real life as...

1:20:55 > 1:20:59As my buddy Garth Brooks said one time about my songwriting.

1:20:59 > 1:21:03Real life's good enough, we don't have to invent too much.

1:21:03 > 1:21:06You just have to find a poetic way to write about it.

1:21:06 > 1:21:09Instead of saying "This song is for you", say,

1:21:09 > 1:21:10# This is your song. #

1:21:10 > 1:21:13# This is your song

1:21:13 > 1:21:17This song's for you. #

1:21:17 > 1:21:19OK, yeah...

1:21:19 > 1:21:22Shanna and I have been writing for about six months now.

1:21:22 > 1:21:25You could say she's a seasoned novice.

1:21:25 > 1:21:27She's written a lot of songs.

1:21:27 > 1:21:31# Frozen in time

1:21:31 > 1:21:34# I see... #

1:21:34 > 1:21:36- Yeah.- That sounded good.

1:21:36 > 1:21:37Did songs used to be like that?

1:21:37 > 1:21:40Because I listen back to, like,

1:21:40 > 1:21:44Hank Williams Jr and Hanks Williams Sr,

1:21:44 > 1:21:47and, like, there's no hook. Like, I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry,

1:21:47 > 1:21:51there's the hook, but you think of like...

1:21:51 > 1:21:52- Yeah.- It's changed so much.

1:21:52 > 1:21:56- Well, if you look at a lot of those songs, they're only eight lines long.- Right!

1:21:56 > 1:21:59- They just sing them over and over. - Yeah.

1:21:59 > 1:22:01# This one's for you

1:22:01 > 1:22:05# This song's for you

1:22:05 > 1:22:10# Da da da dee da

1:22:10 > 1:22:14# Da da da dee. #

1:22:14 > 1:22:18- Something like... - # Da da da da da. #- Yeah.

1:22:18 > 1:22:21As Nashville songwriters have always been aware,

1:22:21 > 1:22:25creating a song is one thing, but getting it played is another.

1:22:25 > 1:22:27And it's not getting easier.

1:22:28 > 1:22:32There's a prevailing philosophy in programming

1:22:32 > 1:22:35that audiences tune out when you play something new

1:22:35 > 1:22:37and it's become much more ruled by caution

1:22:37 > 1:22:42and fear, and the fear of tune-out and keeping a very predictable

1:22:42 > 1:22:43demographic that you can...

1:22:43 > 1:22:47Tuned in so you can deliver those people to advertisers.

1:22:47 > 1:22:50# It was still getting colder When she made it to the shoulder

1:22:50 > 1:22:53# And the car came to a stop

1:22:53 > 1:22:57# She cried when she saw that Baby in the back seat

1:22:57 > 1:22:59# Sleeping like a rock... #

1:22:59 > 1:23:02If you're going to play the game of I Want To Be A Star,

1:23:02 > 1:23:05I want to sell millions and millions of records and I want to be

1:23:05 > 1:23:09on country radio, then you have to play within their rules.

1:23:09 > 1:23:12There's a tempo they want, there's a sound quality they want,

1:23:12 > 1:23:14there are subjects that they won't air,

1:23:14 > 1:23:17and you'd better produce those kinds of singles.

1:23:17 > 1:23:19And as long as you do that,

1:23:19 > 1:23:23and as long as you're successful, they'll play your records.

1:23:24 > 1:23:27There's so much more things for people to do now than there were

1:23:27 > 1:23:30when I was kind of coming up in the business, you know?

1:23:30 > 1:23:33We didn't have YouTube and the internet, really.

1:23:33 > 1:23:37I mean, you know, now you can go in and cut a song in your basement

1:23:37 > 1:23:41and put it out there on YouTube and get however many hits.

1:23:41 > 1:23:43You know, you kind of start to build a following like that.

1:23:43 > 1:23:46We had nothing like that.

1:23:46 > 1:23:50DIY technology offers newcomers the same sense of opportunity

1:23:50 > 1:23:54that was felt by those who came to Music City in decades past.

1:23:57 > 1:24:00Kacey Musgraves arrived from Texas six years ago

1:24:00 > 1:24:04and has won a Grammy and Best Country Album Award for her songs.

1:24:05 > 1:24:09I consider myself one of thousands and thousands

1:24:09 > 1:24:13who have moved to Nashville to pursue their dreams in songwriting

1:24:13 > 1:24:15and, you know, just playing music.

1:24:18 > 1:24:22When I think of inspirations, I look at people like Dolly Parton,

1:24:22 > 1:24:26major influence of mine, as far as songwriting goes.

1:24:26 > 1:24:30Willie Nelson, Loretta Lynn, she's another one.

1:24:31 > 1:24:37# If you ain't got two kids by 21 You're probably gonna die alone

1:24:37 > 1:24:41# Least that's what Tradition told you

1:24:41 > 1:24:44# And it don't matter if you... #

1:24:44 > 1:24:47Loretta Lynn I love, because she did push buttons,

1:24:47 > 1:24:49but it was in a very smart and intelligent way.

1:24:49 > 1:24:53And she also used a lot of humour in her songs, there was

1:24:53 > 1:24:56some sarcasm and I really love that a lot.

1:24:56 > 1:25:01# And it don't matter If you don't believe

1:25:01 > 1:25:04# Come Sunday morning You best be there... #

1:25:04 > 1:25:07When we were making the video we came across this big archive

1:25:07 > 1:25:10of all this old footage from all these perfect-looking

1:25:10 > 1:25:14'50s and '60s families and, you know,

1:25:14 > 1:25:18the song is about people not being perfect.

1:25:18 > 1:25:23I liked compounding that with just the footage me and, like, my dog.

1:25:23 > 1:25:27I just shot that with a friend. We kind of put it together,

1:25:27 > 1:25:31and just the footage you see of me in the video was literally shot on an iPhone.

1:25:31 > 1:25:33# Round and round we go

1:25:33 > 1:25:37# Where it stops nobody knows

1:25:37 > 1:25:40# And it ain't slowin' down

1:25:40 > 1:25:44# This merry-go-round... #

1:25:44 > 1:25:49What's important for today's artists is displaying their allegiance to the past.

1:25:49 > 1:25:54It offers a credibility that's rooted in Nashville's Southern lineage.

1:25:57 > 1:26:01When I was growing up I always watched country programmes,

1:26:01 > 1:26:06I was exposed to the music by my family, my grandfather.

1:26:06 > 1:26:10They were big fans of people like Buck Owens and Johnny Cash

1:26:10 > 1:26:14and Chet Atkins, and anyone that played country music.

1:26:14 > 1:26:18So I think was inevitable that you start to see those influences in our format.

1:26:18 > 1:26:23# This is country music

1:26:23 > 1:26:27# This is country music... #

1:26:27 > 1:26:29Brad Paisley, who's had a dozen number-one country hits,

1:26:29 > 1:26:35uses the iconography of Nashville's legends as his backdrop.

1:26:38 > 1:26:43- # This is country music - God bless the USA

1:26:43 > 1:26:48- # This is country music - Amarillo by the morning

1:26:48 > 1:26:54- # This is country music - Stand by your man

1:26:54 > 1:26:59- # This is country music - Take me home, country roads

1:26:59 > 1:27:04- # This is country music - I walk the line

1:27:04 > 1:27:12- # This is country music - A country boy can't survive... #

1:27:12 > 1:27:16I'm not knocking what's out there. Gosh, they're making a lot of money

1:27:16 > 1:27:18and Chet would be jingling his coins

1:27:18 > 1:27:21in his pocket with this new Nashville sound,

1:27:21 > 1:27:26but... I'm glad they're doing it and I don't have to do it.

1:27:26 > 1:27:29People of my generation and that are making records in Nashville

1:27:29 > 1:27:33right now, you know, we grew up on country music, obviously.

1:27:33 > 1:27:35But we also grew up listening to a lot of different things.

1:27:35 > 1:27:38And for... Again, it goes back to what we think is cool, it's cool.

1:27:39 > 1:27:42People in country music, we're not

1:27:42 > 1:27:47flying around on G-6's and drinking Cristal and all this other stuff.

1:27:47 > 1:27:50Man, we drink Coors Light and moonshine

1:27:50 > 1:27:53and hang out by a bonfire and are usually driving a pick-up truck,

1:27:53 > 1:27:56so it's... You know, that's what we sing about.

1:27:56 > 1:27:58# Crazy town full of neon dreams

1:27:58 > 1:28:03# Everybody plays everybody sings Hollywood with a...

1:28:03 > 1:28:06I think people that come to the show,

1:28:06 > 1:28:09they see what the passion is you have for what you do.

1:28:09 > 1:28:12Things that I can relate to, things that I go through in my life,

1:28:12 > 1:28:15I'm sure there's a lot of other people that can, too,

1:28:15 > 1:28:18and experience the same things I do, and I think it's just

1:28:18 > 1:28:21connected with people over the years.

1:28:21 > 1:28:27# Y'all came here to make it In this crazy town... #

1:28:29 > 1:28:30Since its earliest days,

1:28:30 > 1:28:35Music City has offered country fans an image of themselves in song.

1:28:35 > 1:28:39Whatever the style, the venue or the hype surrounding it,

1:28:39 > 1:28:43Nashville still holds a mirror to its fans and their way of life.

1:28:50 > 1:28:54# Somebody told me When I came to Nashville

1:28:54 > 1:28:58# Son, you finally got it made

1:28:58 > 1:29:02# Old Hank made it here We're all sure that you will

1:29:02 > 1:29:06# But I don't think Hank Done it this way

1:29:06 > 1:29:11# No, I don't think Hank Done it this way, OK. #