BBC TWO travels the Lost Highway and uncovers the story of country music on a journey to the heart of America and the music that has come to define it.

From the makers of the award-winning series Dancing in the Street and Walk On By comes another major heritage music series charting the history of country music in the words of its greatest performers and producers, musicians and songwriters.

2003 sees the 50th anniversary of the death of Hank Williams, the most iconic figure in country and one of the most revered songwriters of all time.

And country is currently enjoying a remarkable renaissance fuelled by the international success of the multi-million selling soundtrack to the Coen Brothers movie O Brother Where Art Thou.

Part 1 Down From The Mountain

The story of the current bluegrass revival and how the music of a remote, rural region of America came to represent the "authentic" experience of the whole nation.

When George Clooney made his way into a makeshift recording studio in the movie Oh Brother Where Art Thou he was re-living a turning point in musical history.

Before the first recordings were made country music was trapped in the isolated Appalachian Mountains.

Part 2 The Road To Nashville

This is the story of Hank Williams, country music's greatest songwriter whose hard-drinking honky tonk lifestyle led to a rock 'n' roll style death aged just 29 in 1953.

It's also the story of how Nashville would end up squandering the legacy of its greatest star - they thought he was just a drunk hill-billy performer - just as surely ashe had squandered his own life.

The Birth of Honky Tonk: Honky-tonk music came out of the inter-war Texas oil-fields where a rough and ready style of entertainment had developed in beer-joints and roadside bars - known locally as honky tonks - to cater for the migrant oil-riggers.

Part 3 Beyond Nashville

Country worships cowboy pride - those who have gone their own way and taken chances.There's a maverick streak, an independent spirit in the music that re-surfaces whenever country becomes too mainstream or too commercial for its own good.

This is the story of the outsiders from all over America who again and again have rejuvenated country by going beyond Nashville - from the Bakersfield Sound of the 1950s through to the outlaw movement of the 1970s to alt. country today.

Part 4 Sweethearts of the Rodeo

Women were once the bit players in Nashville, relegated to the role of merely accompanying male performers, but now they dominate the country music industry.

This is the story of how the women of country successfully fought for control of their identity,their songs and ultimately the future of the music itself.

- brief synopsis taken from BBC website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/print/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2003/02_february/06/lost_highway.shtml