Posted on 11/15/2004 4:21:18 PM PST by neverdem
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November 15, 2004, 8:24 a.m. Gettin’ Our Scots-Irish Up
I am fortunate to have been given the opportunity to review Jim Webb's magnificent new book, Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America, for NRODT. It is a wonderful social history of an individualistic, stubborn, rebellious people responsible for creating America's strongest cultural force. Country music is at the heart of the Scots-Irish culture....In the hollows through those earlier years the dulcimer found its plaintive notes, the traditionally exquisite violin turned into such a hot fiddle that some warned it came from the devil [think Charlie Daniels: "The Devil came Down to Georgia"], and the banjar, a native African instrument made with a gourd, evolved into the hillbilly banjo. Indeed, anyone who wants to understand the Scots-Irish in America would do well to begin by listening to this genre. It is no accident that Webb describes the importance of country music for the Scots-Irish in his chapter entitled "Fight. Sing. Drink. Pray." Country music is about real life, about "hard living, cheating hearts, and good-looking women." It's also about sin and redemption. Country music teaches that actions have consequences, and no one has ever conveyed this reality more clearly than the hard-living, hard-drinking George Jones. The titles of his songs tell it all: "From Hillbilly Heaven to Honky-Tonk Hell," "Hell Stays Open All Night Long," "The Man that You Once Knew," "He Stopped Loving Her Today," and "I've Had Choices." I've had choices, since the day that I was born. Country music teaches these lessons in a way that puts to shame most of what passes for poetry these days. Consider what I believe to be the greatest country song of all time: "Amarillo By Morning," by the incomparable George Strait. Amarillo by morning, Up from San Antone
They took my saddle in Houston, Broke my leg in Santa Fe
Amarillo by morning, Up from San Antone
She put him out like the burnin' end of a midnight cigarette
Country music can be overtly religious, which, of course, scares the dickens out of secular elites in this country. Consider Jimmy Wayne's "I Love You This Much":
He can't remember the times that he thought
But even a man of faith can lose it at least for a while if the burden is great enough. The next time you get a chance, listen to Alan Jackson sing "you left my heart as empty as a Monday-morning church" about a man who has just buried his wife.
As Webb observes, when the Scots-Irish aren't praying, they are often fighting, singing, or sinning in other ways. Despite the admonition of countless fire-and-brimstone preachers from time immemorial, the Scots-Irish have lived the, ahem, secular life to the fullest. As an old Marine, the drinkin'-and-fightin' strain of country music has always appealed to me (not that I have ever engaged in such rowdy behavior, of course). To my way of thinking, there's nothing like the in-your-face music of Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings, Hank Williams Jr., Aaron Tippin, and Toby Keith.
I may not be a ten but the boys say I clean up good
The Scots-Irish have a 2000-year-old military tradition, so it's not surprising that country music is also overtly patriotic. Who can forget Alan Jackson's 9/11 musical memorial, "Where Were You?" or Toby Keith's moderate response to the terrorists, "Courtesy of the Red, White, and Blue" ("we'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way")?
Country music looks to tradition for continuity. There's nothing like a "ghost of Hank Williams" song. So Alan Jackson sings about "Midnight in Montgomery":
Midnight in Montgomery, silver eagle, lonely road
Of course, the elites in this nation hate country music just as they hate what Webb describes as the Scots-Irish culture. So after the elections, novelist Jane Smiley wrote in Slate that
The election results reflect the decision of the right wing to cultivate and exploit ignorance in the citizenry. . . . Ignorance and bloodlust have a long tradition in the United States, especially in the red states. . . . Listen to what the red state citizens say about themselves, the songs they write, and the sermons they flock to. They know who they are they are full of original sin and they have a taste for violence. . . .
Well, to Ms. Smiley and her fellow "elites," from us country-music fans: As Aaron Tippin sings in a different context, "Jane kiss this!"
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http://www.nationalreview.com/owens/owens200411150824.asp
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BTTT
PING for the Scots-Irish
A concept that socialists cannot comprehend.
And they can never understand it because the very basis of Marxist theory is that everything is economics.
Nooo, I don't think so. I'm willing to wager that there is more poverty and hate, more extremes of income and a higher cost of everything in the "Blue States".
Excellent post.
Yes. Had the socialists written the Declaration of Independence, they would have substituted the "pursuit of Happiness" with the pursuit of "identical possessions" and in doing so lost the very soul of the American Revolution.
Definetly more crime in the Blue States, too. There were 32 drive by shootings so far in Santa Rosa CA this year, for example, which is a town of 150,000, which is smaller than Colorado Springs, CO, for example.
Thanks for this post. It really finds a receptive ear from me. My grandfathers were both Scots and by the time I came along just about 67 years ago, both families had found their way, a few generations earlier, to Western Kentucky. Country music has been a big part of my life, and this article missed some of the best, as well as included some of the best. Ray Price's Burning Memories comes to mind, as well as his pionering "big sound" recordings with lots of strings.
Naturally, I spent time in the military, as did two of my three brothers. It was the thing to do. I would disagree with the author about the greatest country song, although he did mention both George Jones and "He stopped loving her today."
The Devil WENT Down to Georgia.
Gretchen WILSON
I'm married to one 'straight off the boat'. Wouldn't change a thing!
Muleteam1
I'm of Scot-Irish ancestry myself and just this weekend, I bought this book for my father for Christmas. Delighted to read a good review.
A real country fan would have mentioned David Allan Coe's "The Ride." Alan Jackson is SO mainstream ...
No doubt. I'm just South of Santa Rosa, CA (I used to play in bagpipe competition at the fairgrounds there in the 80's) and it's blue here in LA. Blue is an indication of the quality of urban and suburban life going down, except for gated communities, of which there are many. The blue states are a pathological demographic that needs to be studied, rather than held up as example.
bump
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