Now that the NASCAR dads have moved on to New Country, I wonder how long until the NPR crowd "discovers" Classic Country. Every other style of Southern musical expression -- blues, jazz, bluegrass, you name it, has been embraced by the Blue Staters with the exception of Country.
The Red Staters now listen to Shania Twain and the rest of the pseudo-country singers, so it's socially safe to like the old timers now. Johnny Cash is already beloved of the latte crowd, and Willie Nelson is writing protest songs. It seems only a matter of time until Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, and Hank Thompson are no longer backwoods hicks, but rather musical visionaries with a raw, earthy authenticity.
Posted by Discoshaman at janvier 28, 2004 12:42 AM | TrackBack
Brilliant. Just brilliant.
Posted by: Aravis at janvier 28, 2004 04:35 AMWelll, "O Brother Where Art Thou" has made really classic country acceptable among the NPR crowd, as long as you treat the explicit gospel messages as a sort of cultural curiosity (rather like having a nice little CD of Tibetan Buddhist chants playing in the background.)
But Hank Williams et al may simply be too rooted in old-style, implicit, unquestioning cultural Americanism (in its good and bad aspects) ever to fly with that crowd. It just assumes too much, and without guilt, about its own worldview being normal.
Posted by: pentamom at janvier 28, 2004 03:53 PMYeah, I just about hurled when I saw Tim Robbins hosting a Johnny Cash tribute. The Dems want to ride on Cash's "sticking up for the common man" coattails.
Posted by: Lee Anne Millinger at janvier 28, 2004 05:42 PM