Missed a day yesterday – got started writing in earnest, so there’s only so many brain cells to spare on any given day, eh? OK, lousy excuse, but I’m here, aren’t I?

Topic for today: Country Music series by Ken Burns. Yes, it was Iran, apparently, that blew up the Saudis. Guess they’re getting serious about trying to pressure the world to let up on sanctions, but they just get worse. What about cyberattacks? Nobody wants to talk about them. But anyway: Country Music by Ken Burns.

We’ve covered 4 episodes of the show, and – as usual with Burns – the work is exceptional. I’ve learned a lot about the history of this genre, and it makes me sad that it’s now become so homogenized. But since I don’t listen to any new music forms, guess that is to be expected. It’s all pap and consistency! Too bad.

One fact does stand out to me – and it seems to me now to be a truism: hard times seem to bring out the best in the arts – all of them. The textual works created by the WPA; the murals; and yes, the music of The Carters, Jimmie Rodgers, and then later on Hank Williams. But it must be said that the entire genre really owes a great deal to what was known as ‘race’ music – whatever that is. But many black artists helped people like Rodgers and AP Carter find and recreate the music that African Americans created. They are owed a great deal of gratitude – should it be in the form of reparations? Boy howdy, that’s a big subject for another day, eh?

Big Huh! The song Hard Times, one of my favorites, was written by Stephen Foster. Who knew the guy who wrote Way Down Upon the Suwannee River could produce a set of lyrics and a tune that are so compelling? For example:

While we seek mirth and beauty and music bright and gay there are frail forms fainting at the door. Though their voices are silent their pleading looks will say Oh Hard Times Come Again No More

Doesn’t get much better than that.