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Hidden in the Mix
The African American Presence in Country Music
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Edited by:
Diane Pecknold
Language:
English
Published/Copyright:
2013
About this book
A collection of essays considering how country music became "white," how that fictive racialization has been maintained, and how African American artists and fans have used country music to elaborate their own identities.
Author / Editor information
Diane Pecknold is Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Louisville. She is the author of The Selling Sound: The Rise of the Country Music Industry, also published by Duke University Press, and editor (with Kristine M. McCusker) of A Boy Named Sue: Gender and Country Music.
Reviews
"Hidden in the Mix is a comprehensive and worthy addition to the canon of popular music history. It breaks new ground and digs deep. By looking at both historical traditions (the banjo, early blues-hillbilly music) and contemporary cultural phenomena (hick-hop and country pop), as well as African American artists past and present (Bill Livers, Ray Charles, Cowboy Troy), the book greatly expands our knowledge of this intriguing subject."—Holly George-Warren, author of Public Cowboy No. 1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry
"Diane Pecknold's collection is profoundly important in implication and a long-awaited intervention in the country-music literature."—Aaron A. Fox, author of Real Country: Music and Language in Working-Class Culture
“Diane Pecknold rounds up some of the better music writers in academia in order to put a light on country's many black roots and the country's unease with said roots. It's not perfect, but what's good here makes the collection indispensable.”
-- RJ Smith The Record, NPR
“Country music is white music. Its performers are white; its repertoire is white; its audience is white. That's the genre's image, anyway. But it's largely a myth, debunked decisively in Hidden in the Mix.”
-- Noah Berlatsky Chicago Reader
“A fascinating and long-overdue compendium of essays that shed new light on country music’s complex and diverse history.”
-- Bill Baars Library Journal
“Hidden in the Mix . .. steps in to set the record straight, within a dozen essays that tackle varied topics while persistently analyzing the racial history of country music and how it manifests itself, or is ignored, in the present – including in the works of country-music historians.”
-- Dave Heaton PopMatters
“While rich in detail and strong in opinions, these scholarly essays are nuanced and balanced. The writing quality is superb too…. Hidden in the Mix is an excellent contribution to country music scholarship.”
-- B. Lee Coor Popular Music and Society
"The collection helpfully analyzes the paradox that country music has been stereotypically framed as 'white music,' but a long tradition of black performers and fans exists. It uncovers the historical discourses that over time obscured country music’s multiracial origins and history."
-- Leigh Edwards Journal of American Culture
“This is a useful collection with an engaging interdisciplinary balance of focus and imagination…. [T]he book is on the whole accessible, fresh, and contemporary in its tone and synthesis. The non-music specialist as well as the music history insider should find much to appreciate.”
-- Steven Garabedian Journal of Southern History
“Hidden in the Mix is a worthwhile book that will appeal to the student of history, culture, music, and the South’s role in shaping American identity.”
-- Barbara A. Baker Alabama Review
“[S]imply the best collection of academic essays about popular music I have read in years. … When it comes to proving the centrality of American music to the study of American history, Hidden in the Mix has few recent equals.”
-- Harvey G. Cohen Journal of American Studies
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Frontmatter
i -
Requires Authentication UnlicensedLicensed
Introduction Country Music and Racial Formation
1 - PART ONE Playing in the Dark
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1. Black Hillbillies African American Musicians on Old-Time Records, 1924–1932
19 -
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2. Making Country Modern The Legacy of Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music
82 -
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3. Contested Origins Arnold Shultz and the Music of Western Kentucky
100 -
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4. Fiddling with Race Relations in Rural Kentucky The Life, Times, and Contested Identity of Fiddlin’ Bill Livers
119 - PART TWO New Antiphonies
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5. Why African Americans Put the Banjo Down
143 -
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6. Old-Time Country Music in North Carolina and Virginia The 1970s and 1980s
171 -
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7. “The South’s Gonna Do It Again” Changing Conceptions of the Use of “Country” Music in the Albums of Al Green
191 -
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8. Dancing the Habanera Beats (in Country Music) The Creole-Country Two-Step in St. Lucia and Its Diaspora
204 -
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9. Playing Chicken with the Train Cowboy Troy’s Hick-H op and the Transracial Country West
234 -
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10. If Only They Could Read between the Lines Alice Randall and the Integration of Country Music
263 -
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11. You’re My Soul Song How Southern Soul Changed Country Music
283 -
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12. What’s Syd Got to Do with It? King Records, Henry Glover, and the Complex Achievement of Crossover
306 -
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Bibliography
339 -
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Contributors
361 -
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Index
365
Publishing information
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
eBook published on:
July 10, 2013
eBook ISBN:
9780822394976
Pages and Images/Illustrations in book
Main content:
384
Other:
21 illustrations, 3 tables
eBook ISBN:
9780822394976
Audience(s) for this book
Professional and scholarly;
