Ken Burns set to create 'Country Music' documentary series

If you enjoy taking a more academic, or at least cinematic, approach to music, you're in luck: PBS announced Monday that renowned documentarian Ken Burns would be working on a series titled Country Music. We probably don't need to explain to you what it'll be about.

It won't be Burns' first foray into music-based work. He released Jazz during 2001 on PBS. Although the ten-part series received its fair share of criticism (which we'll allow, considering how dense and widespread the genre is), it also inspired many to go back and rediscover performers that they hadn't heard of yet. The series was accompanied in 2000 by 22 compact discs, each serving as a compilation of tracks from a performer featured in the documentary series. There hasn't been any announcement as of yet whether the performers on the Country Music series will get similar treatment, but we can hope.

Although many, if not all genres are deserving of such a documentary to better illuminate their histories, we're loathe to find one more deserving than country music. All too often we hear fans claim that they listen to all music "except country," which reflects an ignorance of the genre's history and range of styles. Although long considered to be primarily "white people" music, country has developed from the music of various cultures, from the blues to bluegrass.

Unfortunately, we'll have to wait for a while for Burns to reveal the history of country music. PBS has the series slotted for a 2018 debut as the filmmaker works on his series: Yosemite: A Gathering of Spirit, The Roosevelts, Jackie Robinson and Vietnam, respectively.

Still, we can't wait for a camera, slowly panning over a sepia-tone photo of Dock Boggs.