Peter Coyote has been the narrator for 11 documentaries directed or produced by Ken Burns, but, it turns out, Burns can speak for himself, and did so quite eloquently in accepting the Newberry award and conversing about his career, and its genesis at Hampshire College.

But, as interesting as Burns was, the interview might have been a lot more fun if Coyote had been there for some sort of Billy Flynn/Roxie Hart “we both reached for the gun” moment.

After all, where would Burns be without Coyote? Speeding down a highway in New Mexico, unnoticed, with nothing chasing him? Regretting having chosen Gilbert Gottfried instead as his voice? Forgoing sound and following in the footsteps of 1922’s critically acclaimed silent documentary Nanook of the North? That might have worked for his film on The National Parks, but not so much for the ones on Jazz or Country Music.