Art Bouman
Country Blues: Complicating American Roots Music
Part 2: A Hard Times Politics
American Roots music, namely the music that developed into bluegrass and country is often stereotyped as being white, male and conservative. The contemporary iconography of this music is one of straw cowboy hats, blue jeans, tailgate parties, and pickup trucks; and unabashed waiving of confederate flags. Its ethos is one of an imagined rugged individualism, egoism and stubborn, willfully ignorant rebellion. Its archetype, the cowboy, celebrates the colonization of the American West, and the confederate flag glorifies and romanticizes the slave plantation system of the Antebellum South. These images have a deep history in the music, and were developed back in the 19th century. Songs like ‘I Wish I Were in Dixie’ which dreams of a return to the iconic cotton plantation, or songs like ‘Little Log Cabin Down the Lane’ which promotes the Jim Crow era myth that black people will slowly die out in the post-emancipation period, are still sung today at bluegrass, country and folk festivals across America. And while these songs and the political cultures they create exist, they are by far not the only side to this music.
In Part 1 of this project, I attempted to show that American Roots music comes from traditions that are outside of what would normally be considered the white conservative middle class experience. African traditions and musical technologies have helped define the sound of this music, but so have the experiences of working-class Americans, both white and black, whose stories and worldview often represented experiences, interests and desires which diverged and conflicted with those of the confederate planters of the South and the West.
The Appalachian song ‘Cold Icy Mountain’ laments the conditions of dire poverty and the hopeless search for greener pastures. It’s a deeply hopeless song which repeats “…for I will never see them (the singer’s wife and daughter) anymore” at the end of each verse. The song doesn’t romanticize the conditions of the rural poor, and presents the environment as cold and unforgiving. Similarly, the old Western song ‘Going Down the Road and Feeling Bad’ describes the desperation and resilience of migrant and itinerant laborers in the American West. Having been promised a decent wage and three meals a day, the singer stubbornly refuses to submit to oppressive working conditions, and dreams of a place “where the dustbowl never blows” and “the water tastes like wine.” These songs, like many others, fly in the face of the nationalistic romanticizing of America’s past, and the singers emphasize a resilience to the oppressive living conditions of their environments. These are songs of struggle and not ones of being served lemonade on the veranda on Sunday.
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As industry developed during the 19th and 20th centuries, labor songs became a staple of this music. While some that included visions of a world without bosses, like the 1916 IWW song ‘Dump the Bosses off Your Back’ are not as well remembered in the tradition, songs like ‘Walking Boss’ are still widely played. Perhaps because the lyrics are so subtle that they could be superficially interpreted as ‘apolitical’ or because it is a song which deals with railroad construction (which honestly could be its own subgenre within folk music) the song is still considered a standard within folk music circles. All that said, the chorus of the song clearly shows whose interests are being represented. The words “Walking Boss…I don’t belong to you, I belong to that steel driving crew,” remind the listener that regardless of what is happening on the job, the singer’s loyalties do not lie with the boss but lie with those who work beside them. By extension, it is a reminder to the listener where their class interests should lie.
‘Southern Texas’ could be considered one of the oldest anti-war songs in the American folk tradition. In it, the singer is described as a young man who becomes swept up in the illegal wars against Indigenous nations in the American South West. At the beginning of the song the singer is enamored with the romantic idea of “rambling” and with the rugged imagery of the “dying cowboys”. He declares that he “knew that he had to ride” and that he proudly “left his poor parents, when their hair was turning grey”. But in the second part of the song, as the singer feels the fear of battle and sees his companions die, he begins to regret his desire to participate in a regionally foreign and utterly pointless war. In the last verse he is reminded of his mother who tells him that the people on both sides of the war “…are all strangers, and at home you’d better be”.
As old as this song is, it brutally demystifies the process by which the West was colonized. It cuts through the romanticism of the ‘wild west’ and the ‘cowboy’ and shows that this war was fought by scared young men caught in the crossfire. While this song doesn’t challenge the racist and colonialist assumptions of the American settler society, it does challenge the idea that warfare is a glorious character-building experience. This is an idea which is still actively promoted by militaries around the world today.
The song has also been reinterpreted by singers throughout the generations. ‘German War’ (which uses a variation on the melody of ‘Southern Texas’) speaks about a man whose life was ruined by his experiences fighting in the First World War. A version of that rendition by Tennessee musician Clifton Hicks is included at the end of this essay.
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In my view, there are two sides to American Roots Music, there is a side which tells an idealized tale of the American experience. It is one where the sins of slavery, state violence against workers, and colonization are erased, or presented as a neutral process. It is a vision which glorifies nationalism and justifies the violent excesses of the state through appeals to a destiny made manifest. The modern-day songs where singers pretend like there is nothing left to do other than celebrate the victories of the past with tailgate parties and light beer clearly come from this side.
The other side of American Roots Music is one that recounts a rare glimpse into life as it was actually lived throughout American history. It challenges romantic assumptions by showing the indignity of the common experience. It holds up the goals, dreams and desires of people who were resilient in spite of immeasurable hardship and oppression. If it has contributed anything to contemporary genres, like country music, it’s in that space where the singer can talk about, process and move beyond the hard times that we all experience. In my view this side of American Roots music gives voice to a ‘hard times’ politics.