Redneck Liberation: Country Music as TheologyIn this unique book, David Fillingim explores country music as a mode of theological expression. Following the lead of James Cone's classic, "The Spirituals and the Blues, Fillingim looks to country music for themes of theological liberation by and for the redneck community. The introduction sets forth the book's methodology and relates it to recent scholarship on country music. Chapter 1 contrasts country music with Southern gospel music--the sacred music of the redneck community--as responses to the question of theodicy, which a number of thinkers recognize as the central question of marginalized groups. The next chapter "The Gospel according to Hank," outlines the career of Hank Williams and follows that trajectory through the work of other artists whose work illustrates how the tradition negotiates Hank's legacy. "The Apocalypse according to Garth" considers the seismic shifts occuring during country music's popularity boom in the 1980s. Another chapter is dedicated to the women of country music, whose honky-tonky feminism parallels and intertwines with mainstream country music, which was dominated by men for most of its history. Written to entertain as well as educate and advance, "Redneck Liberation will appeal to anyone who is interested in country music, Southern religion, American popular religiosity, or liberation theology. |
Contents
| 23 | |
The Gospel According to Hank Country Musics Hillbilly Humanist Moral Core | 43 |
The Apocalypse According to Garth Riding toward the Postmodern Roundup | 69 |
Stand by Your Man and Your Daughters Shall Prophesy The Emergence of HonkyTonk Feminisim | 101 |
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ain't Alan Jackson album American Appalachian audience blues Brooks's career celebrates cheatin Chris Gaines Christian Coal Miner's Daughter core country artists country music Country Music Culture country songs cowboy Dance Daughters Shall Prophesy Dixie Chicks Dolly Parton dualism embodies expressed fans female feminism Friends in Low Garth Brooks George Jones George Strait Goodson Gospel Music Haggard Hank Williams Hank's gospel songs heaven hillbilly humanism hillbilly humanist Honky Tonk honky-tonk hope Jesus Journal of Country Learned from Country liberation life's listeners living Loretta Lynn Low Places Lynn's mainstream male marginalized moral musical traditions Nashville one's oppression Opry Popular Culture portrays Press of Mississippi protagonist radio record redneck religion religious romantic love rural secular sexual sing singer social song's South Atlantic Quarterly Southern Gospel spirituals style suffering Tammy Wynette themes theological Tichi Twain University Press voice woman women artists women's experience working-class Wynette's York
Popular passages
Page 25 - Tempted and tried we're oft made to wonder, Why it should be thus all the day long, While there are others living about us, Never molested tho
Page 1 - I Laid My Mother Away,' he sees her a-laying right there in the coffin. He sings more sincere than most entertainers because the hillbilly was raised rougher than most entertainers. You got to know a lot about hard work. You got to have smelt a lot of mule manure before you can sing like a hillbilly.
Page 13 - Richard A. Peterson, Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997), 55.
Page 30 - Farther along we'll know all about it Farther along we'll understand why Cheer up my brother, live in the sunshine We'll understand it all by and by.
Page 1 - What he is singing is the hopes and prayers and dreams of what some call the common people.
Page 8 - Martin Luther King, Jr., Why We Can 't Wait (New York: Harper & Row, 1963). 7. Abe Fortas, Concerning Dissent and Civil Disobedience (New York: Signet, 1970), 18. 8. Andrew Sinclair, "Prohibition: The Era of Excess,
Page 158 - Cassels, Louis. WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?: A Comparison of the Faiths Men Live By.