prberk
Well-Known Member
A few thoughts:
The album, “O Mickey Where Art Thou,” that Disney released during the “O Brother Where Art Thou” craze around 2000, demonstrated that Disney can produce first-rate country/bluegrass interpretations of classic Disney tunes when they allow Nashville A-Team musicians, artists, and vocalists to produce it. That album involved folks in Nashville who had deep country roots and approached the project with passion. Look it up.
That said, they can also produce a fun, entertaining show that affectionately calls us to another time with or without “Disney” songs to bring us out of it. The original Country Bear Jamboree took us to an old fashioned “medicine show” style revue of “our musical heritage of the past,” to quote the show. It was well-researched and produced with obvious passion at the time by writers, artists, musicians, and voice actors who knew the genre, including western star Tex Ritter (“Big Al”) and the Stoneman Family, the patriarch of whom was at the 1927 Bristol Sessions - the historic recordings considered to be the first commercial recordings of Appalachian folk music that was to become recognized as “country music.” The first show, like this one, seemed to employ both Disney or Hollywood voice talent with country (and western) music professionals who knew the genre to produce a show that paid homage to Americana and the musical heritage of the past while being entertaining in a new way.
I think they could do that again.
Could the current show use an update? Yes. Are there modern folks in Nashville who can do music that pays homage to the past but have a foot in the present? Absolutely! (Marty Stewart, Riders in the Sky, and Opry band members who play with both classic artists and newcomers every week, for obvious examples.) Can Disney songs be involved? Yes. (Even the original threw in “Davy Crocket.”)
So, I would love to see an update helmed by Nashville artists along with writers and vocalists who understand the music and medicine shows of the past. That’s the beauty of it. It can even involve Disney songs. But I really wish it would not be a Disney song revue. Think of the Hoop De Doo Revue. It represents a similar time period — old western medicine show revues — and its value, just as Walt envisioned for his themed lands, is that of bringing us to a time and place with unique showmanship.
I don’t mind an update, and I trust that there are Nashville and Disney artists who can do it with passion and understanding of the genre and time period. But it should not be all Disney songs. It should be Americana songs representing our “musical heritage of the past,” with a little bit of “chit chat and flip flam,” to quote Henry.
The album, “O Mickey Where Art Thou,” that Disney released during the “O Brother Where Art Thou” craze around 2000, demonstrated that Disney can produce first-rate country/bluegrass interpretations of classic Disney tunes when they allow Nashville A-Team musicians, artists, and vocalists to produce it. That album involved folks in Nashville who had deep country roots and approached the project with passion. Look it up.
That said, they can also produce a fun, entertaining show that affectionately calls us to another time with or without “Disney” songs to bring us out of it. The original Country Bear Jamboree took us to an old fashioned “medicine show” style revue of “our musical heritage of the past,” to quote the show. It was well-researched and produced with obvious passion at the time by writers, artists, musicians, and voice actors who knew the genre, including western star Tex Ritter (“Big Al”) and the Stoneman Family, the patriarch of whom was at the 1927 Bristol Sessions - the historic recordings considered to be the first commercial recordings of Appalachian folk music that was to become recognized as “country music.” The first show, like this one, seemed to employ both Disney or Hollywood voice talent with country (and western) music professionals who knew the genre to produce a show that paid homage to Americana and the musical heritage of the past while being entertaining in a new way.
I think they could do that again.
Could the current show use an update? Yes. Are there modern folks in Nashville who can do music that pays homage to the past but have a foot in the present? Absolutely! (Marty Stewart, Riders in the Sky, and Opry band members who play with both classic artists and newcomers every week, for obvious examples.) Can Disney songs be involved? Yes. (Even the original threw in “Davy Crocket.”)
So, I would love to see an update helmed by Nashville artists along with writers and vocalists who understand the music and medicine shows of the past. That’s the beauty of it. It can even involve Disney songs. But I really wish it would not be a Disney song revue. Think of the Hoop De Doo Revue. It represents a similar time period — old western medicine show revues — and its value, just as Walt envisioned for his themed lands, is that of bringing us to a time and place with unique showmanship.
I don’t mind an update, and I trust that there are Nashville and Disney artists who can do it with passion and understanding of the genre and time period. But it should not be all Disney songs. It should be Americana songs representing our “musical heritage of the past,” with a little bit of “chit chat and flip flam,” to quote Henry.
