Reading Country Music: Steel Guitars, Opry Stars, and Honky Tonk Bars

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Introduction / Cecelia Tichi 1
Sing Me a Song about Ramblin' Man: Visions and Revisions of Hank Williams in Country Music / Christopher Metress 4
Blue Moon of Kentucky Rising Over the Mystery Train: The Complex Construction of Country Music / David Sanjek 22
Bloody Daggers and Lonesome Graveyards: The Gothic and Country Music / Theresa Goddu 45
A Musical Legacy, A Way of Life: A Photo Essay / Charmaine Lanham 65
Commercial (and/or) Folk: The Bluegrass Industry and Bluegrass Traditions / Mark Fenster 74
Mountains of Contradictions: Gender, Class, and Region in the Star Image of Dolly Parton / Pamela Wilson 98
Keeping Faith: Evangelical Performance in Country Music / Curtis W. Ellison 121
Girls with Guitars - and Fringe and Sequins and Rhinestones, Silk, Lace, and Leather / Mary A. Bufwack 153
Event Songs / Charles K. Wolfe 188
Country Green: The Money in Country Music / Don Cusic 200
Country Music and the Contemporary Composer: The Case of Paul Martin Zonn / Michael Kurel and Cecelia Tichi 209
"My name is Sue! How do you do?" Johnny Cash as Lesbian Icon / Teresa Ortega 222
The Dialectic of hard-Core and Soft-Shell Country Music / Richard A. Peterson 234
"The Sad Twang of Mountain Voices": Thomas Hart Benton's Sources of Country Music / Vivien Green Fryd 256
Mecca for the Country Music Scholar / Ronnie Pugh 286
Country Music, Seriously: An Interview with Bill C. Malone / Cecelia Tichi 290
Reading the Row / Christine Kreyling 307
The Metric Makings of a Country Hit / Jocelyn Neal 322
"The Voice of Woe": Willie Nelson and Evangelical Spirituality / T. Walter Herbert 338
"I'll Reap My Harvest in Heaven": Fred Rose's Acquaintance with Country Music / John W. Rumble 350
Jim Crow and the Pale Maiden: Gender, Color, and Class in Stephen Foster's "Hard Times" / Amy Schrager Lang 378
Selected Discography 389
Notes on Contributors 395
Index 399

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With its steel guitars, Opry stars, and honky-tonk bars, country music is an American original. The most popular music in America today, it’s also big business. Amazing, then, that country music has been so little studied by critics, given its predominance in American culture. Reading Country Music acknowledges the significance of country music as part of an authentic American heritage and turns a loving, critical eye toward understanding the sweep of this peculiarly American phenomenon.
Bringing together a wide range of scholars and critics from literature, communications, history, sociology, art, and music, this anthology looks at everything from the inner workings of the country music industry to the iconography of certain stars to the development of distinctive styles within the country music genre. Essays include a look at the shift from "hard-core" to "soft-shell" country music in recent years; Johnny Cash as lesbian icon; gender, class, and region in Dolly Parton’s star image; and bluegrass’s gothic tradition. Originally published as a special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly, this expanded book edition includes new articles on the spirituality of Willie Nelson, the legacy and tradition of stringed music, and the revival of Stephen Foster’s blackface musical, among others.

Contributors. Mary A. Bufwack, Don Cusic, Curtis W. Ellison, Mark Fenster, Vivien Green Fryd, Teresa Goddu, T. Walter Herbert, Christine Kreyling, Michael Kurek, Amy Schrager Lang, Charmaine Lanham, Bill Malone, Christopher Metress, Jocelyn Neal, Teresa Ortega, Richard A. Peterson, Ronnie Pugh, John W. Rumble, David Sanjek, Cecelia Tichi, Pamela Wilson, Charles K. Wolfe

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