Divides over music can be very deep, and interest me quite a lot. It’s clear that our notion of genres didn’t really exist in the same way in the 1920’s when the commercial recording of folk musics (country, blues, cajun, etc.) began. I would argue (but don’t have space here for the proof) that these are much more the product of marketing gnomes than the music or the musicians, and that the world would be a much better place if we could just make those little boxes go away.

There’s a wonderful quote (that I’ve never been able to document) about Charlie Parker listening to country music on juke boxes in NYC, much to the horror of his hangers-on. When asked why he kept choosing country, he said it was for the stories. Great stuff.

Your description captures my relationship with country music quite well. On our school bus during my Jr. High years we played country in the morning and pop/rock in the afternoon (a 1 hour ride). The cultural divide over music was nearly as deep as the racial divide in some places.

Now, listening to Willie Nelson sing some country blues is one of my favorite experiences. I agree with Sub-evil about the stories. I find well spun ballads hard to resist.

Agreed. In the end it just wasn’t something he wanted to work through, so we’ve moved on to another book (The dream merchant). I went ahead and finished up Not the end of the world, though, because I found it quite gripping. I finished it two days ago and I’ll try to write up some more on it if time allows.

I loved the comment about listening to country music alone :-). I actually had nothing but distain for country music growing up and only came to appreciate the good bits upon returning to Texas for grad school. My dad grew up in Chicago, and my mom in SoCal, so we were an auslander family and a bit odd (e.g., our house was full of books).

When I was a kid I thought all country music was the Nashville dross that dominates the radio, and I didn’t have any time for it. Moving to Austin in 1986 was a real eye-opener (although it took a while because my prejudices were pretty deep) and I came to really love the great, deep tradition of country music running from people like Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family up through people like Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Michelle Shocked. (And part of my First Year Seminar course on American Roots Music is about helping students find at least part of this history for themselves.)

I’m afraid I do listen to it on my own, but I often sing along loudly if that helps. The week John Peel died I found myself singing Hank Williams’ great “I’m so lonesome I could cry” over and over and over, and it did help.

Sub-Evil Boy quite likes certain kinds of country in a way that’s really wonderful and based (I think) a lot on his love for the stories. He liked Johnny Cash from a very early age, and announced out of the blue the other day how he really liked Jimmie Rodgers’ “Waitin’ for a train” when it wandered by on the iPod. Cool.

It sounds like it is a good thing you are reading and analyzing with the youngster. As you said, it sound pretty dark.

Reminds me of the saying that many people shouldnt be allowed to listen to country music alone. No wonder those cowboys (and girls) drink so much. No doubt, being from Texas youve never been exposed to these things :-)