Culture
Nashville premiere review: Chastain & Shannon’s care for ‘George & Tammy’ a draw for both longtime and new country fans
By: Ian Saint
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Ahead of the long-awaited “George & Tammy” miniseries’ Dec. 4 debut on Showtime and Paramount+, WOUB’s Ian Saint was invited to attend Paramount and CMT’s very first screening & reception with cast, crew, and the world-famous couple’s loved ones in Nashville
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (WOUB) — Upon greeting the audience seated in the exquisite Soho House Nashville theater and confiding her overwhelming emotions about this long-anticipated world premiere, actor Jessica Chastain suddenly lit up and exuberantly expressed her excitement to see a couple of VIPs in attendance.
Given her superstar status as Best Actress winner at the last Academy Awards, it would be reasonable to speculate that it was Meryl Streep, Halle Berry, or another legend enshrined in this coveted class. Or perhaps Madonna, who infamously pulled Chastain onstage in 2015 to dance with her during the Queen of Pop’s concert in Prague.
Alas, the source of Jessica’s elation — which was quickly matched by her co-presenter and co-star, Michael Shannon — was “Peanutt! Charlene!”
These names belong to country songwriting power couple, Earl “Peanutt” Montgomery and Charlene Montgomery. The Montgomerys, with Betty Tate, co-wrote George Jones’ smash hit “Loving You Could Never Be Better.”
The single’s success was a critical validation for Jones, as it hailed from his first album with Epic Records after splitting with longtime producer Pappy Daily. Parting ways with Daily was very costly for Jones, not only financially; but also to his conscience, as Pappy had been a father figure and rare steady presence throughout George’s turbulent journey from struggling Texas rockabilly musician to Grand Ole Opry headliner. Jones reluctantly made the heartbreaking decision to break his contract so that he could record with his new bride, Wynette, and her producer Billy Sherrill.
Peanutt, Pappy, and Sherrill are all portrayed throughout “George & Tammy” — which wound up being produced as a six episode mini-series, directed by John Hillcoat, in lieu of a feature film as initially envisioned. The screenplay was adapted from “The Three of Us: Growing Up With Tammy and George,” a memoir penned by Georgette Jones, the sole child born to “Mr. and Mrs. Country Music.”
A common pitfall of biopic films about music icons is glazing over contributions from key players — or outright erasing them, entirely — in recounting the ascents of the title subjects; but the miniseries format allows better pacing for depicting the nuances of complicated situations and people in this remarkable story.
Considering how both Jones and Wynette were married several times, threading this needle of fairness to all is no easy task.
For example, Jones recorded hit songs written by Wynette’s second and fifth husbands. In one scene of the first episode, Tammy is in a recording studio with husbands two (Don Chapel), three (Jones), and five (George Richey) all interacting with one another while she was still married to Chapel.
The Nashville theater audience was largely filled with people who were characterized in the show — in addition to Peanutt and Georgette, we were made aware that Tammy’s oldest two daughters with her first husband were in the house — and/or their descendants.
The risk of somebody (if not many) feeling slighted by how they (or a loved one) were framed was quite high.
However, after the action-packed first two-episodes (addressing the dissolution of George & Tammy’s prior marriages, their courtship, and their nuptials) concluded, the theater erupted in rapturous applause.
This speaks to a tremendous strength of “George & Tammy”: honest, authentic portrayals of complicated people.
It would be very easy to overly glamorize Jones and Wynette’s love story, or their respective ascents to fame. It would also be very easy to overly sensationalize their wilder antics; particularly those of Jones, and the mythologized anecdotes from his maniacal benders.
“George & Tammy” doesn’t succumb to those temptations.
There are graphic scenes of Jone’s booze-fueled romps, quickly vacillating from amusing buffoonery to appalling barbarism. But there are also scenes of him immersed in regret and reconciliation.
“I just think inside of this persona — that may be, from the outside, a macho-looking kind of persona — there’s this really sweet, sensitive, intelligent, kind, very poetic, soul,” he said. “I feel like particularly in country music, that that can happen to performers. That they have to generate some kind of persona that’s so at odds with who they actually truly are. And it just must drive you crazy sometimes. So it’s no wonder that, you know, you resort to different methods of dealing with that.”
Likewise, Chastain’s embodiment of Wynette demonstrates that she was not the submissive spouse many have thought her to be. She did not “stand by [her] man” unconditionally. After all, she sought divorces with four of “her men,” including Jones, her longtime muse.
In fact, *leaving* her man is ultimately how Wynette arrived in Nashville in the first place. It’s astonishing to process that Wynette’s Tennessee tenure began as a single mother of three girls, crammed into a room at the Acorn Motel.
“I just think inside of this persona — that may be, from the outside, a macho-looking kind of persona — there’s this really sweet, sensitive, intelligent, kind, very poetic, soul. I feel like particularly in country music, that that can happen to performers. That they have to generate some kind of persona that’s so at odds with who they actually truly are. And it just must drive you crazy sometimes. So it’s no wonder that, you know, you resort to different methods of dealing with that.” – Actor Michael Shannon on George Jones, who Shannon portrays in “George & Tammy”
“George & Tammy” compellingly depicts how often Wynette actually had to “stand UP TO [her] man.”
When she is determined to leave her first husband, we see her enduring unbearable electroshock intervention while pregnant with her third daughter — which she blames for the baby’s two-months premature birth — as a last-ditch attempt to coerce her into staying with him.
This phenomenon wasn’t limited to men Wynette was romantically entangled with.
When Wynette makes suggestions to producer Billy Sherrill, he reacts with hostility. He reminds Wynette of how much she struggled to obtain a record deal until he signed her to Epic Records — stating that she would record “Three Blind Mice” if he thought it was a good idea.
She apologizes and acquiesces; but by the time she records “Stand By Your Man” (of all tunes) at episode two’s end, she asserts her challenges to Sherrill’s directions, and he concedes.
Whether or not you are a fan of country music, “George & Tammy” is a fascinating show about a woman triumphing through the headwinds of an industry that flagrantly favors men.
One-by-one, several male partners (whether romantic and/or professional) attempt to convince Wynette that she wouldn’t be able to attain success without them controlling her direction — only for her to soldier on, leaving them eating crow. Wynette’s gumption, tenacity, and resilience in the face of bitter misogyny are as dazzling as her musical talents.
The miniseries opens at the hallowed Ryman Auditorium, home of the Grand Ole Opry show (until 1974); with King of Country Music, Roy Acuff, rocking “Wabash Cannonball” alongside the Smokey Mountain Boys. Familiar landmarks, events, and people (both onstage and behind the scenes) of country music at the time are peppered throughout.
While mid-century country music fans will enjoy recognizing the many references to this “countrypolitan” era, the series has great potential to make many new fans of country music. I declare this as a relatively new fan, myself.
Interestingly, it was Lorrie Morgan who thrusted me – a metalhead, with the mane to show for it — into country music fandom, after I interviewed her for WOUB almost exactly one year ago.
This is striking in retrospect because Morgan toured with Jones at the height of his “No Show Jones” notoriety; and her stunning cover of his “A Picture of Me (Without You)” — it’s worth noting, that was co-written by Tammy’s future husband, George Richey — rocketed the song back to the Top 10 two decades later.
Morgan’s ultimate idol, though, was Wynette. As a matter of fact, Morgan duetted with Wynette at her very final Grand Ole Opry appearance; in 1998 Morgan closed Wynette’s public memorial service at the Ryman with an emotional rendition of “Stand By Your Man.”
Morgan relayed to me an observation that her recent concerts have seen a growth in attendance from “younger people, that aren’t even really familiar with my music” but have discovered country artists hailing from prior decades. She speculated that today’s country radio wasn’t resonating with them because “they’ve gotten away from the music. It’s all technical, and it’s all about looks and youth, and unfortunately — and fortunately — that’s not what country music is about. It’s about heartache.”
The story line and soundtrack of “George & Tammy” certainly don’t suffer from a shortage of songs containing introspection, heartache, catharsis, and vulnerability. George and Tammy each croon tunes that compliment the ups and downs of their lives, and also duet several more.
The vulnerability in the actors’ vocal delivery is detectable, as well. During the post-screening panel discussion with CMT’s Leslie Fram, music director Rachael Moore revealed that Chastain and Shannon did not lip-sync — instead, they went through the painstaking process of singing all of the songs (totaling over 30) live on set.
Chastain and Shannon both specified “Two Story House” as their favorite duet, with Shannon pointing out the personal significance of Wynette writing that song after their divorce. Shannon further identified “The Door” as his favorite Jones solo selection (“it manages to say so much, so quickly — which is [like] so many of the songs, they’re not even that long, and they’re epic with what they say in the amount of ground they cover.”)
When Shannon singled out “Help Me Make It Through the Night” as his favorite Wynette selection, Chastain shared “we didn’t plan this at all, but we had the opportunity to sing that in Nashville, at the Ryman on the anniversary of Tammy’s death…. so [upon realizing the anniversary] that was probably the most emotional moment I’ve had had on this [film].”
To further emphasize the length of time it took to get this miniseries to broadcast, several key characters of the story died between Jessica’s 2011 onboarding and when filming began — including Don Chapel, Sherrill, and even Jones himself.
“George & Tammy” is a joy for country music enthusiasts but also an excellent primer for those who aren’t acquainted with the genre. Even for the most country-averse nose-turn-uppers, this is a vivid work of art about unpacking the human condition.
UPDATE: “George & Tammy” premiered on Sunday, December 4; and episode one has been uploaded for free steaming on SHOWTIME at this link. (Link: https://www.sho.com/george-and-tammy/season/1/episode/1/the-race-is-on) New episodes will broadcast weekly on the SHOWTIME channel, every Sunday, at 9 p.m. ET / 8 CT. Weekly new episodes for SHOWTIME streaming subscribers will also post on Fridays, on SHOWTIME and PARAMOUNT+ with SHOWTIME bundle subscriptions.