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 This eclectic collection of essays, originally published as a special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly and now expanded into the current work, is a rich example of scholarship focused on country music today. Tichi, director of American Southern studies at Vanderbilt and the author of High Lonesome: The American Culture of Country Music (Univ. of North Carolina, 1994), chose as her contributors writers from the fields of music, art, communications, history, literature, and sociology. These scholars and critics focus on subjects as diverse as the machinery of the country music business and Johnny Cash as a lesbian icon. From an essay on a mural by Thomas Hart Benton to one on the Country Music Research Center, there is much to gain by reading this anthology. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.?Kathleen Sparkman, Baylor Univ., Waco, TX Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. ""Reading Country Music" should be greeted with a proper hoe-down fiddle. . . . What's exciting about [this work] is the demonstration that cultural studies can be historical, persuasive, and on point." --Teri Tynes "This eclectic collection . . . is a rich example of scholarship focused on country music today. . . . [T]here is much to gain by reading this anthology. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries." --Library Journal Cecelia Tichi is William R. Kenan Jr. Professor of English and Director of American and Southern Studies at Vanderbilt University. She is the author of High Lonesome: The American Culture of Country Music . Reading Country Music Steel Guitars, Opry Stars, and Honky-Tonk Bars By Cecelia Tichi Duke University Press Copyright © 1998 Duke University Press All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-8223-2156-9 Contents Acknowledgments, Introduction, Sing Me a Song about Ramblin' Man, Visions and Revisions of Hank Williams in Country Music, Blue Moon of Kentucky Rising Over the Mystery Train, The Complex Construction of Country Music, Bloody Daggers and Lonesome Graveyards, The Gothic and Country Music, A Musical Legacy, A Way of Life, A Photo Essay, Commercial (and/or?) Folk, The Bluegrass Industry and Bluegrass Traditions, Mountains of Contradictions, Gender, Class, and Region in the Star Image of Dolly Parton, Keeping Faith, Evangelical Performance in Country Music, Girls with Guitars, —and Fringe and Sequins and Rhinestones, Silk, Lace, and Leather, Event Songs, Country Green, The Money in Country Music, Country Music and the Contemporary Composer, The Case of Paul Martin Zonn, "My name is Sue! How do you do?", Johnny Cash as Lesbian Icon, The Dialectic of Hard-Core and Soft-Shell Country Music, "The Sad Twang of Mountain Voices", Thomas Hart Benton's Sources of Country Music, Mecca for the Country Music Scholar, Country Music, Seriously, An Interview with Bill C. Malone, Reading the Row, The Metric Makings of a Country Hit, "The Voice of Woe", Willie Nelson and Evangelical Spirituality, "I'll Reap My Harvest In Heaven", Fred Rose's Acquaintance with Country Music, Jim Crow and the Pale Maiden, Gender, Color, and Class in Stephen Foster's "Hard Times", Selected Discography, Notes on Contributors, Index, CHAPTER 1 Sing Me a Song about Ramblin' Man Visions and Revision