Addendum to Lex: With neither the mellow sound of Asleep at the Wheel nor the layers of George Jones or Alan Jackson, here’s another. But its an endless genre. Sometimes, of course, we might wonder at the lives of people guided by “what would Willy do.”
Still, the rebellious music of America’s self-reliant and restless heartland venerates its traditions – in war and in music. Sure, they are evolving, active traditions – living traditions. Frankly, I can’t see it absorbing much that seems to be moving on the surface of our current political and artistic culture.
Maybe I’m wrong. We’ll see. This genre and this culture accepted, molded and was molded by, much from the late sixties and seventies. A favorite Austin memory was a Split Rail night from the early seventies: Freida and Her Firedogs performed a broad range; with long legs and long arms, Marcia Ball’s voice ached as Tammy Wynette’s could. And the gay guys in the front tables asked for “You Ain’t Woman Enough to Take My Man”; it was someone’s birthday. And the rednecks and the students from UT and hippies laughed and applauded. It was a good time. When we look at the culture as it is now, it needs a uniter. I’m not sure who.
OT: I guess I never fully engage with life; that means that CMT is always playing when I’m supposed to be getting grades in. It’s nice that’s now it’s multi-tasking and not, well superficial. Thanks to CMT. They are joining my pantheon of Denis Dutton and Brian Lamb – the people who enrich my life by their aggregation.
Country music is a robust beast. It has roots that go back to the Celtic music of Scotland and Ireland, centuries-deep roots. It has mutated and evolved and stayed viable through everything this continent could throw at it for over 300 years.
Bob Wills absorbed jazz, blues and even some mariachi, but still had those hillbilly fiddles going.
It is pliable.
We still don’t have the epics about meth labs and the rotted out small towns of the plains yet.
And if things get bad, as they will from time to time, so much more will the poets sing of hard days and happier times and love amidst the storm.
It is all fodder for the bards and troubadours.
For all I know, the best is yet to come.
Carrie Underwood would be a uniter, no? I think it speaks well of country music fans that the likes of Simon Cowell would care to jump in, and she is the biggest American Idol to date. But we need an outlaw…
Interesting point. Sure, Lex is right, country music isn’t going away. But its the uniter we need (the Johnny Cash show of the late sixties was another great example). By the way, is it an accident that the two great country music states are Texas & Tennessee – the states Laffer & Moore cite because of their low taxes; indeed, they observe “Gov. Perry and Texas have the jobs and prosperity model exactly right. Texas created more new jobs in 2008 than all other 49 states combined. And Texas is the only state other than Georgia and North Dakota that is cutting taxes this year.” Well, Gov. Goodhair may not be the dolt so many have taken him for.
These are not as apparently random dots as they might appear – the libertarian, individualist, risk-taking lyrics expand beside the family-oriented, father-oriented, religious-oriented music of blood. These are not the values of high-tax, high-dependence, dense safety net people.