(Editor's Note-This is the fifth in a series
of reflective narratives written by members of
the H-Southern-Music Advisory Board. Those of
Bill Malone, Kathy Ogren, Brian Ward, and Jeff
Todd Titon can be found on the H-Southern-Music
homepage.

Professor James Akenson is a professor of
curriculum and instruction at Tennessee
Technological University and is the founder of
the International Country Music Conference.
He received his PhD. from the University of
Wisconsin, Madison. In collaboration with his
long-time friend, the recently deceased Charles
Wolfe, he has edited numerous books on country
music, including _The Women of Country Music:
A Reader_ and _Country Music Goes to War_. Above
all, Dr. Akenson’s focus is on using music as a
tool in the classroom.

Below is Akenson’s account of finding his way to
the South, country music scholarship, and regional
roots music. We at H-Southern-Music welcome the
feedback of list members to Akenson's commentary.)


I am a native of Minnesota, yet always had a modest
interest in country music having listened to the Sunday
morning Renfro Valley Gathering on WCCO radio in
Minneapolis. I also listened to country music in limited
amounts plus was interested in the groups of the 60s
such as Peter Paul, and Mary, the Chad Mitchell Trio,
and the Limeliters. I also read issues of “The Little
Sandy Review” while working in the Periodical Room at the
University of Minnesota as well as taking a full year
sequences in History of the South and American Intellectual
History from the wonderfully quirky David Noble.

Upon moving to Cookeville to teach at Tennessee Technological
University, I started to consistently listen to country
music and read about it from authors such as Charles Wolfe,
Bill C. Malone, Ronnie Pugh, Nolan Porterfield, Wayne Daniel,
Jimmie Rogers, Tracey Laird, Neil Rosenberg, Robert Oermann,
and many others. Over time, I incorporated country music (very
broadly defined to include many categories from Bluegrass and
Cajun to Western Swing)  into my teaching, writing, and
professional presentations. I have made an effort to learn more
about other forms of southern music by listening and reading
about gospel, R and B, southern rock, Blues, Zydeco, and jazz
and incorporating them into my teaching.

It has been my privilege for the last 23 years to be involved
with the International Country Music Conference from which I
have learned a great deal and met colleagues who I count as
close friends. All in all, my journey in southern music has
been a marvelous and unexpected bonus in my personal and
professional life. Listening to Tennessee Ernie Ford’s
“Sixteen Tons” back in Lake Harriet Elementary School in South
Minneapolis, I could never have guessed that I would one day
be a member of the H-South Advisory Board for the Southern
Music discussion group. To paraphrase a recent country song
“God bless the winding road that lead me straight to H-South
Southern Music.”

James Akenson
Tennessee Tech University

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