After reading her first paragraph, I approach a reply
to Diane Pecknold with considerable trepidation. There,
she recalls having to be "physically separated" from
someone with whom she had a discussion concerning the
question of whether Woody Guthrie was a country singer! I
must admit, though, that I feel an even greater sense of
fear as I tread into the realm that she inhabits, the
forbidding waters of cultural studies.

Ms. Pecknold begins her argument by saying that "it is a
distortion to call Woody Guthrie a country singer," but
then concludes her little essay with the remark that
"maybe he was just alt.country before his time." Maybe she
was just being facetious with the remark, but it sounds to
me like she was suggesting that alt.country performers are
not "country." My feeling has been that people like Iris
DeMent, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Steve Earle, and Tim O'Brien
are, in fact, "too country" to receive airplay on Top Fortyt
stations. Like Woody Guthrie, their individualistic and
distinctive talents, and their independent spirits, have won
for them audiences that extend far beyond the "traditional"
country audience.

It is true that Woody's recording career "was built primarily
through Moe Asch at Folkways," and that the audience that
emerged from this collaboration--mostly Northern, "progressive,"
and urban--did most to create the image that grew up around him.
These facts, however, do not in any sense diminish the country
nature of his performance style and repertoire. Similarly,
bluegrass music did not lose its country identity because it was
presented to this same audience by Folkways in the late fifties
and early sixties. The Lilly Brothers, for example, remained
dyed-in-the-wool rural entertainers even though they recorded for
Folkways and played seven nights a week in a seedy bar in Boston.

Folkways also made people everywhere aware of the beauty and
variety of early hillbilly music through the famous Harry Smith
collection. Some old-time musicians such as Buell Kazee, Tom
Ashley, and Maybelle Carter began renewed careers among younger
fans through this historic collection. And, again, they did not
cease to be "country" because of the cultural intervention into
their lives represented by Moe Asch and Folkways. (I might also
add that Johnny Cash has not ceased to be "country" despite the
iconization and lionization of his personality and career promoted
by the Rock Music world and Hollywood).

I have no quarrel with Simon Frith's observations about the need
for musical genres to have "implied communities," or that "they
must offer their listeners a part in some social narrative." But
I would insist that country music has reached many communities,
and that it has woven a variety of social narratives during its
lengthy history. As much as any other performer I can think of in
country music, Woody Guthrie spoke directly to and on behalf of
the working folk of his time. Woody's tales of broken and illicit
love, outlawry, rebels, ramblers, home, and populist outrage were
integral parts of the working classa culture of the thirties and
forties. The working folk that I grew up with in East Texas longed
for the creature comforts and material benefits that urban capitalism
promised, but those dreams were not soon realized. They were still
up for grabs when Woody's creative powers were finally stifled by
Huntington's Chorea.

It is jarring to see Ms. Pecknold equate Nudie suits with
"respectability," or to interpret them as an "embrace of
materialism." Most "respectable" people I've known (that is, folks
who didn't like country music) laughed at Nudie suits, and saw them
as gaudy expressions of classlessness. But that's really beside the
point. Woody may very well have disassociated himself from that
"aesthetic," but then so did hundreds of other entertainers, amateur
and professional. Bluegrass musicians, for example, chose a different
kind of sartorial attire, but none of them denied that they were
"country."

Finally, it seems to me that Ms. Pecknold has adopted the Nashville
or industry definition of country music, and that she has more than
implied that there are a variety of litmus tests that must be followed
before the country label can be authentically affixed to a musician. I
want to remind her, though, that there are literally thousands of
singers and musicians in America who perform each week in bars,
churches, VFW and American Legion Halls, and elsewhere, with no thought
of commercial gain ("the embrace of commercialism," that she refers to),
and no intention of wearing a Nudie suit. Their political positions
range all over the map. And they all, rightly, think of themselves as
"country."

Bill C. Malone

Humanities & Social
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