Artist:     Various Artists

Album:     Ken Burns Country Music (The Soundtrack)

Label:     SONY Music

Release Date:     8.30.19

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Unlike “Ashoken Farewell,” the theme song that weaved itself throughout Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary 29 years ago, and was stuck in my head for weeks, I’m not expecting any one of the 105 songs on here to do likewise this time, not even the iconic “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” that appears in three variations at the start, midway and end of this box set. Hearing the soundtrack before seeing this much anticipated film, I am now anxious to see how Mr. Burns used them to tell the story of this American art form, which I know will be excellent, but still incomplete. That said, he certainly covered a million miles of it. You only have to listen to the primitive stuff on disc one and what’s on disc five to realize that. They could have come from two different worlds, but they didn’t—there are themes and musical motifs that connect them.

Some areas seem to get scant coverage in this set, most notably Western swing and Rockabilly. The Everlys are here, but no Buddy Holly or Carl Perkins. Them boys were as country as it gets. There also are some artists that seem to get more attention at the expense of others. Johnny Cash was a true icon, but his style and sound never changed throughout his entire career. There are five Cash appearances, plus his daughter Roseanne doing two more of her father’s tunes on here. She does help wind up the show with a fantastic live version of “I Still Miss Someone,” what I consider to be the finest song her dad ever wrote. That leads me to a small bone to pick to Ken Burns’ researchers regarding songwriting credits. Cash is listed as the sole writer of “Folsom Prison Blues,” one of his biggest hits. The fact is, he lifted most of that song, both melody and lyric ideas, from Gordon Jenkins “Crescent City Blues,” and that case was settled decades ago. Jenkins name since then appears alongside Cash’s as the writer, but not here.

The accompanying 68-page book is beautiful with fantastic photos and graphics. The five CDs are nestled very snuggly into a five-page foldout collage of posters and photos. This massive undertaking of covering this subject from the late 1920s to mid-1990s had to be equal to anything Ken Burns has ever done. However, the omission on the soundtrack, of probably the biggest act to ever travel down country music’s long and winding road during this period—certainly recently—is a real mystery to me, and I’m sure it will be to many others. Did Mr. Burns leave him out because Mr. Brooks has friends in low places?

—Ken Spooner