Beyond The Canvas: Episode 3

- [Announcer] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.

- My first production that I can remember was the best Christmas Pageant ever in Nashville, Tennessee.

I had no lines, just a little chorus parts but that gave me a chance to look at every single person in the audience during the show and seeing them smile and laugh and have feelings and emotions and from that moment on, I said, "I'm going to do this for the rest of my life."

(funky music) - Hi, everyone.

This is "Beyond The Canvas".

From "PBS NewsHour", I'm Amna Nawaz.

In this episode, we meet storytellers and performers who even in their darkest moments, found happiness and joy in their work.

You'll hear from the iconic Latin music duo Gloria and Emilio Estefan, ♪ Do it ♪ ♪ Tonight, I promise ♪ country singer, Kacey Musgraves, ♪ Slow burn ♪ the legendary Joan Baez ♪They rode the big trucks till ♪ they lay down and die♪ and just now, actress Adrienne Seymour.

- When are you going to learn that?

- Now while each of these performers has their own unique spark, they all share a belief in the power of art to heal and give us strength.

The artists you're about to meet were first featured on the "PBS NewsHour" but in this episode, you'll meet them on a new canvas and maybe see them and their work through a different lens.

That's right here, on "Beyond The Canvas".

- "Orange Is The New Black" came about just like any other audition.

They called me in for Black Cindy.

Immediately when I read it, I said, "Oh my gosh, I know this girl."

To me, she represented a lot of girls that I had run across when I had moved to Atlanta just very fiery and speak their minds and pop their fingers and roll their eyes and roll their heads and just tell their truth.

And so when I read her, I said, "I think I could embody her."

- Of course she aint smiling, she got screwed by me, by everybody.

Suzanne, everything is broken and life is unfair.

When are you going to learn that?

- The play that I did in Shakespeare in the Park was called "Taming Of The Shrew".

I got to work with Phyllida Lloyd who is a phenomenal director.

And I was always afraid of Shakespeare.

Iambic pentameter and just going up on a line and all that kind of stuff but she really taught me how to own the language and in that ownership, how to own the character and once I got past that fear, I had the most amazing time.

What was so revolutionary about that experience was that I lost my dad literally in the same time that I was doing that show.

And so I was experiencing incredible highs and incredible lows at the same time.

But one of the things that my dad taught me and told me before he passed was happiness.

And so that's the thing that I always try to embody in my work and in my life and in who I am.

I feel like when I'm in the pocket with something, I'll sometimes hear this little chime or this little ding somewhere off in the distance, and I feel like it's my dad being like, (snaps) "You got it, you on the point girl."

My dad was very proud of me, of his children, because one of the things he always said was, "Do what makes you happy."

And a lot of times when I get in very confusing places in my life and I don't know what choice to make, I always think about what he said, which is do what makes you happy.

And so that's how I make my decisions.

I don't question, I just go inside of myself and I say, "What will make me happy in this moment?"

Because that's what my dad taught me.

My name is Adrienne Seymour and this is my brief but spectacular take on all the characters of my life.

- The wisdom from Morey's father is a touching and important lesson for us all.

Our next guests also seem to know a little bit about the pursuit of happiness.

And they've spent their lives playing music that brings us joy.

I sat down with Gloria and Emilio Estefan in 2019, after they received the Gershwin Prize from the Library of Congress, the nation's highest songwriting honor.

And we talked about what keeps them together and what keeps them going year after year.

("Conga") That beat.

It is instantly recognizable.

♪ Come on, shake your body, baby ♪ do the Conga ♪ ♪ I know you can't control ♪ yourself any longer ♪ ♪ One, two, three, four ♪ Sounds from the 1980s that dominated radio and MTV.

Making Gloria Estefan and her band, The Miami Sound Machine, including her husband Emilio Estefan, one of the most popular musical acts of the time.

♪ Rhythm is gonna get you ♪ ♪ Tonight ♪ Breaking through from the Spanish language genre to number one hit on the Billboard Pop Chart.

♪ No way ♪ We sat down with the Estefans to learn more about their music, their journey and their relationship.

How does this work?

- I think it's love, love and respect.

A lot of respect.

Love is absolutely the main thing, respect and communication.

- That and he makes me laugh every single day in my life.

- Every single day?

- Every single day, in some way, sometimes not on purpose.

(laughter) He makes me laugh.

Now, you know what it is?

I think we're a balance.

We are very different personality wise but when it comes to the things that are important in a good partnership, we have the same values, morals, our family come first, the priorities.

We're on the same page, we rarely differ when it comes to business or music so if you don't argue a lot that really makes it for a great great life and very fast.

- You really don't argue a lot?

People will find that hard to believe.

- [Gloria] We don't.

- Love is making the other person happy.

As long as, you know, that's right, that's a secret.

I mean, sometimes you don't do things if you think she gonna get upset.

And sometimes I do things that makes you happy and I think that's been our secret.

- It was music that brought you together in the first place.

- It was.

They'd been playing around town.

They just played for the mayor, so we're all excited, "Oh, good, this guy's gonna come "to give us pointers on how to do this thing."

So, he knocks on the door, we're at my friend's house and they open the door and in comes this guy with a giant accordion around, you know like, and in very short shorts, which made it look like he was naked because the accordion was covering the shorts.

So I was sitting on the floor and I remember looking up and he has great legs.

So that was the first thing I saw, it was very nice.

And then a couple months after that, my mom dragged me to a wedding.

I walk in.

And there's his band and everybody's having a blast.

It felt like a scene out of a movie for me especially because there was a guy playing "Do The Hustle" on the accordion.

Hello.

- The guy with the legs.

- It was him.

I didn't recognize him till we kind of bumped into each other in a doorway, and I go, "Wait a minute," because I hadn't seen him with the band.

I go, "You're that guy."

He goes, "You're that girl."

Then he asked me to sit in with the band that night, a couple songs.

Then he asked me to join the band that night but I said no.

- What was it about her?

Why did you chase after her like that?

- It was not the first time that as I met her.

I mean, I just saw her singing, I said she has such a beautiful voice.

So I said, "Why don't you come and sing with us in the band, "it will be something totally different "because I love her voice."

This is the best country in the whole world and dreams can come true- - [Amna Voiceover] And be rewarded.

Between the two of them, they've won three Grammy's and three Latin Grammy's, stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, induction into the Latin Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and for Gloria, a Kennedy Center Honor.

- You know, you said something once in an interview about the first time you met Gloria.

This goes back to what you're sharing about her family.

You said when you first met her that there was a lot of sadness - Yes.

- in her.

Where did that come from?

- Well, we left Cuba, my mom and I.

My dad took us out of Cuba because he was a police officer.

So when the coup happened on New Year's Eve, he came home to my mom and he said, "We're in trouble, the President just left the country."

And she told him, "Don't go back," and he said, "I have to go back, I'm a police officer."

"I can't abandon my post."

So then he told my mom, "I have to get you and Gloria out "because this is gonna get very ugly."

So I was alone with my mom because my dad then went to the Bay of Pigs Invasion, he was a political prisoner for two years.

So for those two years, I started playing guitar and singing.

I sang since I talk.

It just came with me.

So music was my catharsis.

My mom would make me play for her friends and I would like stare at the floor because I don't like being the center of attention.

But when I sang, people would cry.

And I'd say to my Mom, "Why do you make me sing "if people are going to cry?"

(laughter) And she goes, "They're crying "because you're moving them emotionally.

"It's not because they don't like what you're doing."

- You've now lived the majority of your lives here.

- Yes.

- You were a child when you first came, you were a teenager, right?

But you said we still have an immigrant mentality.

- Yes, we do.

- What does that mean?

- He keeps the slippers that are in hotel rooms.

(laughter) He's got a stack of them like this.

I go, "Why?"

You never know.

He still likes to buy on sale, we don't owe anything.

So, that kind of thing where you're always thinking, "This could go away, this could go away.

"You have to be safe, you have to be careful."

- You still think this could all go away?

- Of course it could, and it can.

Everybody has to really realize that things can go away.

- I think in this country, people take things for granted.

And one of the things that we take for granted is freedom.

I mean, we came to this country, not looking for maybe a better opportunity, we was looking for freedom.

And you know something, keeping that safe is really keep your feet on the ground and saying, "You know something, we're blessed "we've been blessed with our career, "we've been blessed with our family, "we have the healthy kids."

I mean we're very happy people and you know something, we are blessed that we are alive and that we made a recovery in something that we love, that is music.

♪ Rhythm is gonna get you ♪ ♪ The rhythm is gonna get you ♪ ♪ Rhythm is gonna get you ♪ ♪ The rhythm is gonna get you ♪ ♪ Tonight, I promise ♪ - Like the Estefans, the desire for freedom has always been a driving force for country singer and songwriter, Kacey Musgraves.

But the road to success wasn't one she just walked.

It was one she carved out herself.

The Texas-born musician has now won six Grammy's and five Country Music Association Awards.

Musgraves opened up to Jeffrey Round last year about finding the creative freedom to challenge the boundaries of traditional country music.

♪I'm alright with a slow burn♪ - [Jeffrey Voiceover] The song "Slow Burn" opens Kacey Musgraves' show on her sold-out tour and her new album "Golden Hour".

♪ I'm gonna do it my way ♪ ♪ It'll be alright ♪ ♪ If we burn it down and it ♪ takes all night ♪ ♪ It's a slow burn ♪ - It's just kind of a musing on myself and just kind of, when I was making the album, kind of where I was mentally.

Just thinking that like, it's not always about just getting to the end or getting the biggest, the fastest, it's about taking your time and really enjoying the journey there.

♪Cause baby I ain't Wonder ♪ Woman♪ - [Jeffrey Voiceover] Just 30 years old, the Texas-born Musgraves seems to be enjoying her journey in music and doing it on her own terms, making the music she wants while defying expectations for both country music as a genre and for herself.

♪If you can't lose the weight, ♪ then you're just fat♪ Her debut studio album, 2013 "Same Trailer Different Park" included the hit single "Follow Your Arrow."

A song that encouraged women to break the boundaries set by others.

♪You might as well just do ♪ whatever you want♪ ♪ So ♪ ♪ Makes lots of noise ♪ ♪ And kiss lots of boys ♪ ♪ Or kiss lots of girls ♪ ♪ If that's something you're ♪ into ♪ ♪ Cause mama's hooked on Mary ♪ Kay ♪ "Merry Go 'Round" found similar inspiration and earned her a Grammy for Best Country song that year, in addition to Best Country Album.

♪ Mary, Mary quite contrary ♪ ♪ We get bored so we get ♪ married ♪ ♪ And just like dust we settle ♪ in this town ♪ ♪ Oh I bet you think you're John ♪ Wayne ♪ But with her new album "Golden Hour", she's reaching for a new and broader audience by expanding the sounds and expectations of a country music record.

♪ And we all know the end of the ♪ story ♪ With songs like "High Horse" veering into pop and electronic music and it's garnered huge critical and popular support.

♪ And I think we've seen enough, ♪ seen enough ♪ - With this record I was like, "I want to reach beyond country music."

And not leave country music behind, I want to take it with me.

I want to take my version of it to people who normally would never even consider listening to it.

- Yeah, why was that important to you?

- I kept imagining, just reaching places that I've never been and reaching people that have never heard of me but at the same time, it was a very inwardly focused album.

I was really thinking a lot about my feelings, I was feeling like really open enough to share them.

- You said you want to take my version of country music - Mhm.

- to people.

What does that mean, what's your version?

- Well, my version of country music is largely comprised of and inspired by the roots of the genre.

I grew up singing very traditional Country and Western music, like literally yodeling, like wearing fringe and cowboy hats.

I mean, singing songs- - Which you did, even in the first few albums, right?

- I did, a little bit, yeah, more so than this.

But I've always been inspired by this huge range of other things.

I grew up listening to Shaday and oh, my gosh, Alison Krauss and Fleetwood Mac, Dolly Parton, the Bee Gees and I'm like where can- I love Imogen Heap, I love Daft Punk, like where can these things all live together?

So I guess it is country music to me in the sense that it's storytelling and there are country instruments on it but it's it's a different version of country.

I don't know, really, how do I even describe it.

♪ Wish we didn't live ♪ ♪ Wish we didn't live so far ♪ from each other ♪ ♪ I'm just sitting here thinking ♪ 'bout the time that's slipping ♪ ♪ And missing my mother ♪ - So what does a song have to have for you, to work for you?

- Oh, that's interesting.

Well, a song has to have some element of truth to me, lyrically, for me to be able to sing it.

I don't just get in there and go, "Oh, I want to write a song about lady named Debbie "and she's going through this and this."

It starts with me and it's got to come from here or I can't sing it, it's not gonna be believable.

♪ Now you're lifting me up, ♪ instead of holding me down ♪ ♪ Stealing my heart instead of ♪ stealing my crown ♪ ♪ Untangled all the strings ♪ round my wings that were tied ♪ - The road ahead for Kacey Musgraves' music stretches long into the future but all roads eventually come to an end.

For the legendary Joan Baez, being able to know when to take a step back, meant listening to her own voice.

Before Baez set off on her final tour, she sat down with NewsHour's Jeffrey Brown to discuss the last chapter of her musical career and what comes next.

♪ My brothers and sisters were ♪ working the fruit trees ♪ ♪ They rode on that truck till ♪ they lay down and die ♪ - My first vocal coach, very smart man, I was in my 30s.

I said, "When will I know it's time to quit singing?"

He said, "Your voice will tell you."

And it has.

- [Jeffrey Voiceover] Baez has been making music in public since the late 1950s.

Renowned for reworkings of traditional ballads, as folk music rose to popularity.

♪They call the Rising Sun♪ Her first album came out in 1960.

From early on political activism mixed with the music.

She sang at the 1963 march on Washington, ♪Tree of love♪ against the Vietnam War and on behalf of many other causes over the years.

- But this is the last.

- This is the last.

- [Jeffrey Voiceover] But when we met recently at her Northern California home as she prepared to go back out on tour, the 78 year old had more down to earth concerns.

- I'm not as young as I was yesterday.

- Right.

Are you feeling it as you prepare to go?

- Feeling my age?

- Yes.

- Always.

- Yeah?

- Mhm, stuff hurts, you know, you're laughing.

- But you're still gonna get out there on the bus.

- I'm gonna get on that bus and hope it doesn't completely break my whole system.

- [Jeffrey Voiceover] Last year, Baez released an album titled "Whistle Down The Wind", 10 songs by writers she admires.

♪ So on that day and in that ♪ place ♪ ♪ The President sang Amazing ♪ Grace ♪ It was her first recording in almost 10 years and she says also her last.

- Conceptually, it was like an echo to the first album.

Josh Ritter wrote folk song.

Folk song, folk song, "Silver Blade", the first album had "Silver Dagger".

♪ And in her right hand a silver ♪ dagger ♪ - [Jeffrey Voiceover] The earlier song was a traditional folk ballad of a wronged woman.

♪ But when I marked the silver ♪ blade ♪ The new line captured on this music video has a new twist.

♪ I lay buried deep beneath his ♪ wings ♪ - In the first song "Silver Dagger", the young maiden, her mother's threatening her, "Don't get married.

"The guys are all like your father," and she caves, you know.

And in the new one, not at all.

She rides off with the guy she falls in love with.

He turns out to be a rotten guy and he rapes her in his castle.

And instead of her crawling away to never again have anything to do with a man, she stabs him in the back with a silver blade.

Which, ladies, doesn't mean you have to assassinate the guy.

Just don't have to let him treat you like that anymore.

♪ Hello hello cried Henry ♪ Martin ♪ - [Jeffrey Voiceover] Baez says she's not a nostalgic person but she has been going back to listen to her younger self.

- Yeah, I've been listening to that voice.

Its part to connecting with myself now.

- You've been listening to it just- - Just to listen to it.

Because it's brilliant and it's one of a kind and I can say that because my job is maintenance delivery.

And the rest of it really is a gift.

- And when you look back at that person who had that voice?

- Ballsy.

- Ballsy, yeah.

Ambitious?

- No, not ambitious.

Really, not for myself.

Probably very ambitious about the politics, trying to get something done and reading everything and being on top of it in that sense.

- Do you feel like the moment shaped you or were you and others kind of shaping it?

- Well, that was a special period of time.

During which this enormous amount of talent just exploded.

And one of the problems now is that people look back and they want that now and you can't have it.

I mean, you can't have a repeat.

Something new has to emerge.

But yes, it formed me and happy to say yes, I helped form it.

- [Jeffrey Voiceover] These days Baez stays active in political causes but warns people against romanticizing the 60s.

She calls herself a realist.

- We are facing a massive defeat, if not the administration then its global warming.

I don't know whether my grandchild is going to have a life, let alone a good life.

My remedy for that is be in denial 80% of the time.

- Be in denial?

- Mhm.

- That's how you feel?

- Yes, to just put one foot in front of the other and you take the 20% and you do your daily life and part of that has to be what are you going to do for everybody else?

What are you going to do for the human race?

And for that, everybody has to choose but they have to choose.

- [Jeffrey Voiceover] She looks to young people to speak up and take action.

- I'm not the standard bearer, I'm not the out the front of the line.

The kids' doing that.

They really are.

And I want to support them any way that I can because I think the kids are probably the only ones who really get it about climate change.

I really do.

They look in their future and they say, "Do we have one?"

- [Jeffrey] Baez has a new creative outlet now.

- He is about two thirds done.

- [Jeffrey] Painting.

Portraits that once again mix politics with art.

She calls her subjects, people like Nelson Mandela and Gloria Steinem, "Mischief Makers".

- This is the only kind of, I know what I'm gonna do on retire kind of thing.

It's probably not going to be fixing my roses although that'll be part of it.

- You just used that R-word, to retire, is that what you're doing?

- No, I've never used it before.

It's sort of like saying 80.

When I realize I'm going to be 80 in two years, I feel just mortified and I walk down the house saying 80.

80, I'm gonna be 80, until it lost it's horror.

♪ Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye ♪ Rosalita ♪ ♪ Adios mis amigos, Jesus y ♪ Maria ♪ ♪ You won't have a name when you ♪ ride the big airplane ♪ ♪ And all they will call you ♪ will be deportees ♪ ♪ And all they will call you ♪ will be deportees ♪ (applause) - And we certainly won't be saying goodbye to the music of Joan Baez anytime soon.

She's left an indelible mark that will be appreciated for generations to come.

You can see and hear much more from Baez and the artists you met here today on our website pbs.org/newshour/canvas and tune in to the "PBS NewsHour" each night for even more Canvas arts and culture reporting.

Coming up on "Beyond the Canvas", comedic duo Steve Martin and Martin Short.

- Can you describe the moment when you first met?

- I went to Steve's house to pick up a script for "Three Amigos".

I couldn't believe how great and beautiful this house was.

A Picasso here and a Bacon there and I said to Steve, "How did you get this rich because I've seen your work."

And you said?

- I said, "Could you get this script tp Martin Short?

(laughter) - [Amna Voiceover] Award winning costume designer for "Black Panther", Ruth Carter.

- A costume designer is a storyteller.

She tells or he tells stories through wearable art.

And it's not only just like buying a shirt or creating something original, it's also giving it a little bit more of a story.

- [Ana Voiceover] Documentarians, Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi.

- [Jimmy] As Alex was practicing his climb, we were practicing how we were going to shoot it.

- The risks were so high and so they had to just be perfect.

And I told the crew that the day before I was like, "You stay focused on exactly what you're doing, "no mistakes."

- [Amna Voiceover] And legendary actress Rita Moreno.

- There's something about sex that always brings out the funny in me.

- Tune in next time to meet the people in front of the camera and behind it.

I'm Amna Nawaz.

For all of us at the "PBS NewsHour", thanks for joining me here on "Beyond The Canvas".

We'll see you soon.

♪ Rhythm is gonna get you ♪ ♪ Rhythm is gonna get you ♪ ♪ Rhythm is gonna get you ♪ ♪ Rhythm is gonna get you ♪ ♪ Tonight ♪ ♪ Deportees ♪ ♪ And all they will call you ♪ will be deportees ♪ - [Announcer] This program was made possible by contributions to your PBS station from viewers like you.

Thank you.