The opening sequence music for episode 2 was completely wrong.
It was an otherwise-excellent recording of Stephen Foster's "Hard Times", but it was by Mavis Staples, who has no authentic connection to American white "country" music.
This is not to denigrate Ms. Staples, who is a wonderful singer in her own right, but again, this was not the track to use for opening this segment.
A much more appropriate version would have been that of the great Red Clay Ramblers, recorded around 1978 (attached below). They essentially "revived" Hard Times, as I don't recall hearing it performed much before their version, yet it is more popular today.
The Ramblers' version should have been the track used.
Error 404 (Not Found)!!1Addendum (made after reading other comments above):I agree with dfwgator above -- there's too much of an attempt to interject black influence into this series (but that's a Ken Burns "trademark" and one had better steel oneself with that knowledge before digesting his product).
Yes, black music had some influence on the development of "country" music, but it's by-and-large the creation of Euro people, and reflects their heritage.
(Aside: Arthur Shulz, the black fiddler/guitarist, was an influence of Monroe, and Monroe traveled with DeFord Bailey back in the Jim Crow days).
I'll be interested to see what Burns and his writers say about Bill Monroe in episode 3 (I've only viewed 2 of them so far). In my view, if Ayn Rand's John Galt had been a musician, he would have been Monroe!
