Merle Haggard
Occupation
Musician
Country: Portraits Of An American Sound Trailer
Country music has long been associated as a storytelling journey, but the evolution of the country sound has been made most obvious not by the music but by the image. There was a time when arenas would sparkle from all the rhinestones and when stetsons were a must-have. Then Johnny Cash brought his man in black phase into the mix, and with it a rebellion that few had seen before amongst those of that genre. Pretty soon it was all about carving out your own niche, fixing your own trademark look; whether it was Kenny Rogers and his white three-piece suits, or Tanya Tucker with her 'badgirl' catsuits and tight pants. Pictures from the mutation of country music throughout the last eight decades are perhaps some of the most telling because something about the looks of these country stars had as much of an impact as the music itself.
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All We Are Saying Review
Weak
Here's an intriguing and potentially electrifying documentary concept: Rosanna Arquette gets the lowdown on life in the music biz by chatting with A-list rock stars, including Sting, Steven Tyler, Gwen Stefani, Tom Petty, Yoko Ono, Stevie Nicks, Thom Yorke, Elton John, Mr. and Mrs. Sonic Youth, and a dozen others from the '60s through the '90s. This is gonna be great, right?Sadly, producer, director, and "experiencer" Arquette did exactly one thing well: the title. All We Are Saying is appropriately a dull, bloated gab marathon. And since she didn't clear the featured artists' music for the movie, it's all talk, no song, not even a few bars from a stage performance. Imagine The Aristocrats without the joke, stretched out over 105 minutes.
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