Country music reflects fans’ belief in redemption
Anyone looking for the late Johnny Cash will find him in the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Gospel Music Hall of Fame, the Folk Music Hall of Fame and many other American music honor rolls.
But when asked to describe his musical values, Cash preached country gospel: “I love songs about horses, railroads, land, Judgment Day, family, hard times, whiskey, courtship, marriage, adultery, separation, murder, war, prison, rambling, damnation, home, salvation, death, pride, humor, piety, rebellion, patriotism, larceny, determination, tragedy, rowdiness, heartbreak and love. And mother. And God.”
That’s the kind of raw, tear-jerking storytelling that country fans embrace, according to author Malcolm Gladwell in a recent Revisionist History podcast called “The King of Tears.” That emotional worldview may be one reason people in different regions and social classes have trouble understanding one another.
“I’m talking about the bright line that divides American society — not the color line, or the ideological lines. I’m talking about the ‘sad song line,’” said Gladwell, best known for his work in The New Yorker and best-sellers like The Tipping Point.
Contrast the worldviews of rock and country, he said. Anyone who studies Rolling Stone magazine’s top 50 rock songs will mainly hear “songs about wanting to have sex, songs about having sex, songs about getting high, presumably after having sex. … In all of those 50 songs, nobody dies after a long illness, no marriage disintegrates, nobody’s killed on a battlefield, no mother grieves for a son.”
In terms of raw country emotions, Gladwell said, it’s hard to top the epic memorial service after the death of superstar George Jones in 2013. At one point, Vince Gill sobbed his way through the heart of his classic “Go Rest High on That Mountain,” with Patty Loveless singing a harmony line alone. That song was inspired by the death of Gill’s brother, as well as the death of country star Keith Whitley.
“It’s heartbreaking. Listening to that song makes me wonder if some portion of what we call ‘ideological division’ in America actually isn’t ideological at all,” Gladwell said. If “you’re from the rock and roll half … when you listen to a song written about a guy’s brother who died young of a heart attack, and another guy who drank himself to death, you’re going to think, ‘Who are these people?’”
That’s true, but there’s more to it than emotions. Gill’s song contains images of angels and heaven, as well as grief and tragedy. The chorus proclaims: “Go rest high on that mountain. Son, your work on earth is done. Go to heaven a-shoutin’, love for the Father and the Son.”
Working-class people who cry listening to classic country understand sin, said Steve Beard, author of the Cash profile in the book Spiritual Journeys. Many country music fans fill juke joints on Saturday night, but they still believe in redemption on Sunday morning.
“They did wrong — but they knew it,” Beard said. The musical result is a “Southern Protestant version of the confessional. There is no veil between the priest and the sinner. There is only a microphone and a heart laid bare. Bloody authenticity, the smoking gun, the shameful guilt. … All out there for the world to see.”
Right now, blunt melancholy isn’t very popular on country radio, as music executives court young listeners, noted Jewly Hight, author of Right by Her Roots: Americana Women and Their Songs. Nevertheless, the timeless ties between sin and salvation remain strong in the work of many mainstream artists.
Consider the end of “Tryin’ to Go to Church,” by Ashton Shepherd: “I’ve been tryin’ to go to church. I’ve been tryin’ to do better. But me and Saturday night we always wake up together. I know what I oughta be doin’ but I keep on losin’ track. I try to stay outta trouble, but the devil’s draggin’ me right back. … Lord help me.”
When dealing with hard times and brokenness, “faith is one of those bases that country artists know they can touch,” Hight said. “It’s like you know you need God, but in country songs you’re still going to make up your own mind about what that means. … People in country songs are hurting, but they still don’t want to be judged.”