Robert Redford narrates as this series takes a look at the very earliest musical recordings of ordinary folks, that is to say, singers and musicians who were not professionals but simply played for the enjoyment of themselves, and their families and local communities. When record companies began to experience a downturn in sales in the 1920's, they sent their scouts into the non-traditional areas of the South and West in an attempt to discover new and different forms of music that had the potential to appeal to the masses. 'The Big Bang' first takes a look at the mountain folk tradition of Tennessee and the Ozarks, and the Carter Family, founders of modern country music. It also spends some time on the rise of the Memphis Beale Street sound, influenced by such practitioners as W.C. Handy and Will Shade's Memphis Jug Band. It's worth mentioning that none of these performers ever expected anything beyond their original recordings, with virtually all of them returning to their former lives, content with the twenty five dollars or so they earned for each recording, as royalties were not a part of the recording system just yet. With on screen appearances of folks like Taj Mahal, Willie Nelson, and Charles Musselwhite, we learn how these early pioneers influenced their own musical sounds and tastes, with Johnny Cash credited for coming up with the term 'The Big Bang' of country music, as personified by the early roots established by the Carter Family. What's of particular interest is hearing some of the original recordings actually made as far back as 1927 by the Western Electric Recording System. Songs like "Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow Tree" by A.P. and Sarah Carter with niece Maybelle, and in the everything old is new again department, just give a listen to the Memphis Jug Band's rendition of 'Cocaine Habit Blues'. Rap and hip-hop have nothing on the raw and bawdy lyrics of the early musicians. It's no wonder executive producer Jack White referred to these early recordings as 'happy accidents'.
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