CLASS CONSCIOUSNESS IN COUNTRY MUSIC

Melton McLaurin

The term class consciousness, like any term which attempts to define group mentality, is somewhat imprecise. This lack of precision, of course, lends itself to the provocation of scholarly dispute. Historians of the labor movement in the United States have written volumes about both the meaning of class consciousness and the question of whether American workers possess it, however defined. While there are some demurs, most historians, including the non-Marxists, have accepted a Marxist interpretation of the term "class consciousness."¹ Generally, Marxists insist that class consciousness is composed of two elements, a recognition by a particular group that they occupy a common, usually inferior, position within a society, and a commitment to changing that position through some type of political activity. "Class consciousness," according to an oft-cited definition by the English Marxist historian E.P. Thompson, "happens when some men, as a result of common experiences (inherited or shared) feel and articulate the identity of their interests as between themselves, and as against other men whose interests are different from (and usually opposed to) theirs. The class experience is largely determined by the productive relations into which men are born or enter voluntarily.²

Regardless of how class consciousness is defined, most historians of the labor movement in the United States, Marxists and non-Marxists alike, agree that American workers never developed it. Their explanations of why this is so, however, vary. Some of the more acceptable explanations for this lack of class consciousness among American laborers are the racial and ethnic minorities within the work force, the greater social mobility of the American worker compared to that of his European counterpart and the generally higher wages received by American workers, which it is claimed, allows them to join the middle class. Recent historians have identified as a cause republican virtues nourished by the American Revolution which established a political democracy in the United States before the coming of the Industrial Revolution.³

The failure of American workers to become class conscious in the Marxist sense does not, however, indicate a willingness to accept the status quo. Rather American workers were acutely aware of their inferior economic and social status. The method they chose to improve their status was trade unionism, not politics. Trade unionism sprang from what Samuel Gompers of the American Federation of Labor termed class awareness, a camaraderie among workers devoid of political consideration. This class awareness of American laborers, historians contend, is evident in the long, arduous and ultimately successful struggle to build a trade union movement.⁴

In the South, however, a strong trade union movement never developed. Again, historians have addressed the question of why Southerners failed to follow their Northern co-workers into the folds of trade unionism. In the only survey of the Southern labor movement, F. Ray Marshall lists a variety of reasons for the low rate of union activity in the South. He sees the racial problem as the most significant obstacle to unionization, but the power of management, especially in the company towns of the textile, lumber and mining industries, also stymied unionization efforts. So too did the location of many industries in rural areas, the high concentration of plants of several industries in the South and the fundamentalist (at least other-worldly), and often fatalistic, religious beliefs of the Southern worker.⁵ As a result of that failure, the South remains the nations least organized region, and its industrial workers the poorest paid.⁶

That the lyrics of commercial country music songs might indicate why trade unionism never flourished in the South may at first seem improbable. Yet country music can reveal much about the attitudes and values of the Southern working class, precisely because it sprang from their ranks and remains their music. Few would contend that country music is not possessed of a Southern flavor. It evolved from the music of the Southern Appalachian crescent, and its production centers today are located in the South, especially in Nashville, which maintains a prominence in the industry it earned nearly half a century ago. Despite the growing number of non-Southerners in the industry, today approximately three-quarters of country music writers and performers are natives of the South. Southern place names dominate the lyrics of country music.⁷ Even the expansion of what was once a regional music into a national audience resulted from the migration of Southerners, who took their music with them, to the urban centers of the north and west.⁸ Indeed, some current country music performers are the offspring of such transplanted Southerners.

The class origins of country singers and writers are as easily documented as is their Southern heritage. Since the South was predominately rural until after the Second Word War, many performers born before and just after the war come from rural backgrounds. Among those reared on farms are Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty, Porter Wagoner and Dolly Parton, to mention but a few contemporary stars. Some, like Bill Monroe, were the sons and daughters of small landholders, while others came from tenant families. Few, however, were the offspring of the landed gentry.⁹ Other country musicians engaged in what rural Southerners called "public work," that is, non-agrarian employment for wages. Elvis Presley, for example, was once a truck driver, Tammy Wynette a hair dresser, Billy "Crash" Craddock a dry wall finisher. Charlie Daniels came from a family of lumber jacks and saw mill workers, as did Presley. Hank Williams' father was a failed country merchant and strawberry grower, and Mel Tillis came from essentially the same background. Loretta Lynn, as surely everyone knows, is the daughter of a Kentucky coal miner, and Merle Travis was the son of a miner. The class origins of contemporary stars, in fact, are remarkably similar to those of such pioneering country greats as Vernon Dalhart, A.P. Carter and Jimmie Rodgers, the famous Singing Brakeman. Thus, for many country performers, both past and present, the working world portrayed in their music is a world in which they have had personal experience.¹⁰

Contemporary country music lyrics graphically portray the world of work experienced by the Southern labor force, continuing a tradition established with the origins of industry. These country songs, sung by artists who clearly identify with the workers for whom they perform, provide an excellent example of class awareness, as opposed to class consciousness. Such tunes are invariably written from the worker's viewpoint, and leave no doubt that the narrator is fully conscious of his or her position in society. Jimmie Rodgers, the first country singer to reach a truly national audience, sang often of the working man. His narrator was often the stylized rambling man down on his luck, at once to be pitied for his lack of material wealth and envied for his freedom. Yet during the Great Depression, when many of Rodgers' songs were recorded, drifters were very much a reality. In such songs as "Brakeman's Blues," "Waiting for a Train," or "Hobo's Meditation," Rodgers voiced the all too real condition of millions of American workers.¹¹

What Rodgers did in the thirties for hoboes and trainmen, Merle Travis did in the forties and fifties for coal miners. Travis' father and brother worked in the coal mines of Kentucky, and he was intimately familiar with the hard labor and constant danger miners endured. Travis' songs, based on his personal knowledge of the miner's life became country classics. "Sixteen Tons," which became a number one hit for Tennessee Ernie Ford in 1955, chronicles the life of a miner who, despite his hard labor, can never overcome his debt to the company store.¹² In "Dark as a Dungeon," Travis warns young men not to seek their fortune in the dark dreary mine, "where it's dark as a dungeon and damp as the dew, where the dangers are double and the pleasures are few."¹³ Jimmy Dean's "Big Bad John," a hit record of the early sixties, reiterates the themes of hard work and danger found in Travis' songs.¹⁴

Jimmie Rodgers made a hero of the railway worker in the early thirties when the American railway system was still in its glory. By 1940, however, another working man, also a rambler, had come to the fore in country music -- the truck driver. Ted Daffan's "Truck Driver Blues," a number one hit in 1939, was the first of many trucking songs on the country charts. Daffan's trucker complains of "feelin' tired and weary from my head down to my shoes," and "never did have nothin', I got nothin' much to lose." 15 In "Truck Driver Night Run Blues," a 1952 hit, the narrator bemoans leaving the farm for a truck driving job, and complains that he is now red-eyed, poor and worn out. ¹⁶ In the sixties, Dave Dudley made a folk hero of the truck driver and built his own career in the process. Dudley devoted entire albums to trucking songs, the most popular being a 1965 album, "Truck Driving Son-of-a-Gun." Dudley's songs emphasized the freedom of the road, not the boredom or the danger. But cuts like "Six Days on the Road" made clear that the trucker's life was no paradise. Johnny Bond, Red Simpson, Dick Curless and Red Sovine also chronicled the trucker's life during the sixties and seventies with such hits as "Tombstone Every Mile" and "Ten Days Out and Two Days In." Today, truck driver songs are an almost obligatory part of the repertoire of male country performers, including groups, as is exemplified by Alabama's recent hit, "Roll On, Eighteen Wheeler." ¹⁷

Miners, trainmen and truckers, despite their relatively low socio-economic status, represented the macho ideal of the unfettered male, as opposed to the production worker who is enclosed within the walls of the factory or plant. And in country music, the factory worker, while represented, is never idealized. Oddly, one type of factory worker has inspired no major hit records. Though employed by the dominant industry of the Piedmont South, the textile mill worker is not a popular country music figure. David McCarn's "Cotton Mill Colic" was a popular protest song of the late thirties, as was Dorsey Dixon and Wade Mainer's "Weave Room Blues." Dixon, however, was never a truly commercial country artist, as was McCarn. Jim and Jesse's 1965 release "Cotton Mill Man" barely managed to briefly break into the top fifty chart songs. Like the mill protest songs of the thirties, "Cotton Mill Man" leaves little doubt that mill work should be avoided. The narrator cites the hard work, low wages and boring life of the mill hand, and swears that his son will never work in a mill. ¹⁸

During the past two decades, country songs have included practically every type of industrial worker, including some who could have been employed only in Northern factories. Bobby Bare's "Detroit City" is the classic lament of the Southern boy working on an auto assembly line, homesick for his native region. Johnny Cash's Cadillac song also acknowledges the tedium of the auto assembly line. The Osborne Brothers' "Son of a Saw Mill Man" narrates the tale of the hard work and low pay of mill workers, as does the recent hit "14 Karat Mind," by Gene Watson. In the latter tune, the narrator pays his "hard earned saw mill dollars" to satisfy a girl friend's love of baubles and beads. Written by Felice and Boudleaux Bryant, the fifties hit "Pay Day" records the life of a Louisiana logger. Alabama's recent hit, "40 Hour Week," pays homage to practically every working class occupation imaginable. ¹⁹

While the overwhelming majority of workers mentioned in country tunes are male, working women do receive some attention. Country music, however, leaves little doubt that the woman's place is in the home. This is true even of the works of contemporary female vocalists. Loretta Lynn's alter ego in "One's on the Way," for example, is clearly a housewife in a working family, unaffected by women's liberation. ²⁰ Dolly Parton's office worker of "9 to 5" is one of the few women in country lyrics who can be considered a career woman, and it should be noted that this tune came from a major motion picture and was a crossover popular music hit. Waitresses often appear in country tunes, although "Heaven Help the Working Girl," recorded in 1968 by Norma Jean, was one of the first written from the waitress' point of view. The Statler Brothers' "Class of '57," released in 1973, portrayed working women realistically, describing them as teachers, hostesses and sales persons. ²¹

Rather than identify specific occupations, many male artists sing of the generic laborer whose economic condition is invariably unenviable.George Jones' "Small Time Laboring Man" os typical of such tunes. In this 1968 hit the narrator makes a dollar an hour for his eight hour day, working with his hands. Merle Haggard has recorded a number of such songs, including "Working Man's Blues," a 1969 number one record about a man who works hard all his life for his family. In "A Working Man Can't Get Nowhere Today," Haggard complains about constant pressure from bills, noting that "the higher I reach, the further down I go." The classic generic worker song, however, was written by Harlan Howard for Johnny Cash and became a big hit in 1969. "Busted," the tale of a down and out worker who has to make a living but doesn't know how, has been recorded by several artists, most recently as the title song on a 1982 John Conlee album.²²

Country music lyrics about workers reveal that the men and women they portray are aware of their status as members of the working class, sometimes painfully so. The logger in "Pay Day" knows that the "works like a donkey." Dave Dudley's truckers realize, as the title of a 1968 hit indicates, that "There Ain't No Easy Run." Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton, in autobiographical songs such as "Coal Miner's Daughter" and "Coat of Many Colors" graphically depict their working class origins and the realities of economic hardship. Perhaps the quintessential working class song, however, is "I'm Just a Common Man," written and recorded by Sammy Johns in 1982 and covered by John Conlee in 1983. The narrator of "Common Man" clearly knows his status. "I'm just a common man, drive a common van, my dog ain't got no pedigree." This common man drives a Chevy, drinks Budweiser and eats at fast food restaurants. He is a carbon copy of the protagonist in Bob McDill's "Red Necks, White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer," recorded in 1973 by Johnny Russell. In this song, too, the narrator understands his position in society. A red neck in a red neck bar, he declares, "No, we don't fit in with that white collar crowd, we're a little too rowdy and a little too loud." Current tunes portray the same class awareness, as is indicated by the recent Hank Williams, Jr. hit, "This Ain't Dallas," which reveals the fascination of a working class family with the riches of the characters on night time television soap operas. "This ain't Dallas," Williams sings, "just a two job working family...just a man and a woman trying to hold this thing together."²³

Despite the frequent references in country music lyrics to the working class status of its writers and performers, and of the music's audience, country music is devoid of practically any hint of class consciousness. Indeed, it rarely acknowledges the existence of trade unions. When unions are mentioned in country music, they are portrayed negatively. Johnny Dollar, for example, compared unions to wives in a 1970 release, "Truck Driver's Lament." My little lady and the unions are just alike, about changing their minds and going on strike."²⁴

Country music lyrics also reveal why trade unionism and class consciousness, despite the overwhelming evidence of class awareness, are not supported by the music's working class audience. Basically, the music outlines four mechanisms for coping with the economic and social realities of working class status, none of which envision class activity to promote change. The four are Rationalization, Acceptance, Hope and Revenge.

Rationalization is a theme encountered early in country music, since from its origins it appealed to an audience which possessed little in the way of material wealth. The most frequently encountered form of rationalization is "I'm poor, but I'm happy." Of course, the poor but happy rationalization is often accompanied by the assertion that rich is miserable, a refrain that smacks of sour grapes, and, it must be admitted, is found in other forms of popular music. Written by Felice and Boudeleaux Bryant, Jimmy Dickens' 1950 version of "Country Boy" states the theme well. The song praises the relaxed pace of the simple life and claims that the folks in coats and suits making lots of money can't have any fun because they have too many headaches. Too much learning will drive you crazy, Dickens sings, while boasting that "If ignorance is bliss, then I'm the world's biggest blister." Porter Wagoner covered Red and Betty Foley's 1955 hit, "Satisfied Mind," which states mathematically the inverse correlation between wealth and happiness. Not a rich man in ten, the song declares, has a satisfied mind, which is to be preferred over mere riches. The list of poor but happy tunes is endless, and includes such songs as "Silver Threads and Golden Needles," originally recorded by the Springfields, "Louisiana Man," released both by George and Gene and Rusty and Doug Kershaw, and "Poor Man's Riches," by Benny Barnes.²⁵

A slightly different version of the same theme is sometimes encountered, one with a twist. In these songs, the narrator has achieved fame and/or wealth, and longs for the simple things of life. Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings deliver this message in Luchenbach, Texas," as does Dan Seals in the recent hit, "Old Yellow Car." In this tune, which demonstrates the continuing appeal of the theme, the narrator, now rich and famous, drives a Mercedes with a built in bar, but wishes for the old yellow car of his youth.²⁶

Acceptance of one's station in life is also a common theme in country music. Songs with this theme usually simply describe life as it is, though many compare working class life with that of the well-to-do. Loretta Lynn's "One's on the Way" states this theme from the viewpoint of a working class housewife. The woman of this song imagines how several wealthy women, including Jackie Onassis, might live. But in Topeka, she observes, clothes need to be washed and ironed, meals need to be cooked and children need to be tended. There is no protest; the narrator accepts things as they are and tries to make the best of them.

Acceptance songs recorded by male artists are more numerous, since country music sees the workplace as the natural habitat of the male. George Jones' "Small Time Working Man," released in 1968, is typical of the acceptance songs written and sung from the male point of view. Again, the song describes the work routine of a laborer, without promise of change. The narrator works because he must, to feed his family, and looks forward to the comfort of Sundays. Merle Haggard's "Working Man's Blues," a 1969 tune, is of the same genre. The narrator thinks of simply throwing his bills out the window and leaving. But he doesn't. Instead, he keeps his nose to the grindstone and declares he will work as long as his two hands are fit to use. This theme is echoed in "Sixteen Tons," "Roughneck Blues," "Truck Driver's Blues," and others. But perhaps the most succinct statement of the acceptance theme is found in the last two lines of."Busted" the classic working man's song. "But I'll make a living, just how I don't know, Cause I'm busted."

While rationalization and acceptance are the most prevalent reactions to class status found in country music, the possibility of change is not foreclosed. A few country tunes allow for the hope of a better life, even if that hope is slim. "When I Get Rich," a 1950 tune written by Happy Wilson and Tommy Coley, is one of the earlier commercial country songs to express the hope theme. In it, the narrator describes what he will do once he becomes rich. He dreams of a mansion complete with swimming pool filled with bathing beauties, and a variety of creature comforts. In a rare reference to class consciousness, the narrator notes that he'll remember being poor and "being mad" at the rich, and acknowledges that once he is rich, "Then I'll be talked about by you." Jerry Reed's 1980 cover of a Jim Croce song, "Working at the Car Wash Blues," develops the same theme. In it, a worker in a car wash dreams of a job in an air conditioned office, sitting in a swivel chair, "talking trash" to the secretaries. A veritable anthem of hope is John Anderson's "I'm Just and Old Chunk of Coal, But I'll Be a Diamond Someday." Written by Billy Joe Shaver in 1977 and released by Anderson in 1981, this tune's title tells it all. The narrator says he is presently just an old chunk of coal, but fully expects to be a diamond someday. Unlike most hope songs, however, this one provides a method of achieving wealth. The narrator plans to apply spit and polish, smooth every personal flaw, learn the best words to talk, a better way to walk. "Chunk of Coal," in many respects, represents the ultimate self-improvement song.²⁷

Hope, however, is not as popular a motif in country lyrics as is revenge. Most revenge songs are sung by males, and taken as a group they are perhaps the most significant in explaining why both class consciousness and trade unionism failed to develop in the South to the extent that they did in the rest of the nation. Just as in most acceptance songs, the narrator sees it as his or her task to somehow muddle through life, expecting no favors and receiving few, in revenge songs the individual responds to what are seen as class or job grievances in a direct and personal manner.

One of the basic revenge themes is sexual. The working class man strikes back at his rich antagonist, who may or may not be known to him. Revenge is usually obtained by the sexual conquest of the rich man's wife or girl friend. To some degree, the revenge theme appears quite similar to rationalization songs. For example, the 1955 Fred Horton tune, "You'll Cry in the Door of Your Mansion," sees a poor boy lose his love to a rich man. He tells her she will cry in the door of her mansion, that the gold her husband gives her cannot replace a lost love. She can kiss her husband with her lips, but never with her heart. This theme is repeated in "A Poor Man's Roses or a Rich Man's Gold," released in 1957. "Silver Threads and Golden Needles," released by various artists since its 1963 debut, contains the same theme, as does Jeannie Pruett's "A Poor Man's Woman," a 1975 release and a number of other songs.²⁸

These songs all rather forcefully state that wealth can never buy love, that only the poor have true romantic bliss. Current tunes with this old theme include "Love Will Get You Through Times With No Money, Better than Money Will Get You Through Times With No Love," by the Girls Next Door.²⁹ Of course, this theme can be found in other popular music forms, but not at the same frequency as in country music songs.

Such songs, however, do not portray sex as a direct means of injuring someone of the upper class, as several popular country songs do. This theme is perhaps best stated in Conway Twitty's 1981 hit, "Tight Fittin' Jeans," written in 1980 by Mike Huffman. The hero of this sexual fantasy is a cowboy drinking in a bar. An unchaperoned lady walks in, one who is used to champagne. She and the cowboy strike up a conversation, she reveals that she married for money and is used to riches. But, she says, "I've always dreamed of being just a good ole girl, So tonight I left those crystal candle lights to live a dream, and partner there's a tiger in these tight fittin' jeans." What transpires next is a foregone conclusion, although Twitty, always the gentleman, says he'll never tell. The last lines of the song are the most significant. "Now she's back in her world and I'm stuck in mine," but he'll always remember "When a cowboy had a millionaire's dream." It does not require a doctorate in psychology to understand the import of Twitty's message.³⁰

As if to insure that no one misunderstands, Twitty employs the same theme, with a slight twist, in a recent hit, "Don't Call Him a Cowboy." In this number, Twitty advises women in a bar not to be taken in by the fancy duds of an obviously wealthy urban male. "Don't call him a cowboy," Twitty advises, "until you've seen him ride." The implication is clear. Rich men are sexual failures, working class men are studs who can "satisfy."³¹

John Conlee reverses the sexual revenge motif in another recent hit, "Old School." This song is the tale of a young boy and girl who go through school together. After graduation she marries an upwardly mobile young man, a "big deal," as Conlee puts it. Meanwhile the boy takes a vocation, driving a truck, marries and raises a family. At a class reunion the girl, now divorced by her rich husband, asks her old friend over, telling him it can be just like it was. He turns her down, not because he no longer wants her, but because of the superior moral values of the working class. "You say everybody does it, well I don't care if they do, I'm from the old school, where hearts are true." Here the working man obtains his revenge by refusing to have sex with the ex-wife of a successful man.³²

The most overtly class aware songs, however, are not sexual. Rather, they stress the ability of the male worker to physically better his opponents. This theme is glimpsed in "Sixteen Tons." The tune's protagonist endures the hard work and low pay of the mines, the constant debt to the company store. Yet, the last verse reveals his anger, yet it is not directed at the company, but expresses in personal terms. "If you see me coming, better step aside, A lot of men didn't and a lot of men died. I've got one fist of iron and the other of steel. If the right one don't get you then the left one will." While not directed at the company, this threat clearly applies to company representatives in the community, as well as to others.

Johnny Cash's "Oney," a hit in the early seventies, makes a direct, and very specific, personal threat against management. In the song, which is dedicated to the working man, the narrator is preparing to retire after working 29 years in the same shop. What he remembers most about the job is the mean foreman, Oney. At his retirement ceremony he plans to "give Oney his." "I'll make up for every good night's sleep I've lost, When I'm gone I'll be remembered as the working man who put his point across, With a right hand full of knuckles 'Cause today I show old Oney who's the boss." Cash's hero in "Oney" never mentions unions, or rallying fellow workers to stop a foreman's oppression. He endures for a working lifetime, thinking only of how, once free of the economic necessity of work, he can physically best another individual who happens to represent the company. For the protagonist of this song, everything is viewed in strictly personal terms.³³

Yet another expression of personal revenge against management is found in "Take This Job and Shove It," Written by David Allen Coe, a specialist in macho songs, in 1977, the tune became a hit for Johnny Paycheck in 1978. paycheck, like Dave Dudley and several others, had based a career upon songs of the working man, and this tune became country music workers' anthem. The protagonist, a production line worker for 15 years, has recently been divorced. He works at a job he hates, where "The foreman is a regular low down dog, the line boss is a fool..." Yet he doesn't think of joining a union, or attempting to raise the class consciousness of his fellow workers. Rather, he envisions a time when "I'm gonna blow my top and somebody's gonna pay. Lord, I can't wait to see their faces when I get the nerve to say Take this job and shove it, I ain't working here no more."³⁴

While Epic Records, which released this song, tried to present Paycheck as the spokesman for then striking Nashville Teamsters, the sentiments expressed by "Take This Job and Shove It" are hardly those of trade unionism, and certainly not those of the class conscious individual. Paycheck's hero looks forward to telling his employer to go to hell, a purely individual revenge. Like Cash's worker in "Oney," he has no plans to lead an effort to organize the plant to improve the wages and working conditions of the entire work force.³⁵

Even from this brief and incomplete analysis, two basic concepts about working people clearly emerge from the lyrics of country music. The first is that there is a recognition of their class status by both performers and audience, indeed, even a strong identification with it. From its origins with Jimmie Rodgers to such contemporary performers as Tom T. Hall, Dolly Parton or Alabama, country music has been written and sung primarily by the working people of the South. The music portrays a keen awareness of the plight of the worker, of the necessity for daily toil, of the long odds against achieving wealth or position. It is also evident that the music offers mechanisms of rationalization, acceptance, hope and revenge.

One element links all four of the coping mechanisms, and says much about the failure of trade unionism and class consciousness to develop in the South to the extent that they did in other regions. It is the element of individualism. Each of the coping mechanisms is employed by the individual, not the group. The individual rationalizes his or her condition, whether as a housewife or a factory worker. The individual accepts the necessity of working to provide for the family, or to maintain the household. The individual hopes to improve his or her condition, to strike it rich, usually in some unspecified manner, at some point in the future. It is the individual who, through some personal act, seeks revenge against a member of the upper class or an employer. Country music simply does not consider group action designed to change for the better the status of the worker. Union activity is not offered as an option, nor, for that matter, is political activity based on class consciousness.

This emphasis on individualism in part reflects the narrative form used in the composition of country tunes, but it is also in keeping with the high value placed on individualism in the South. It must be remembered that the South remained primarily agrarian until the Second World War, and that parts of the South remain among the nation's most rural areas. Thus individualism remains alive and well in the South a cultural reality that is reflected in the music the natives of the region produce. Individualism may not seem rational in today's world of international corporate giants, banking and financial systems, and global communications networks. And perhaps it isn't. Perhaps it is doomed by the inevitability of cultural change. It has been maintained at a price -- low wages, poor job benefits, when compared to those workers in the rest of the nation receive. And yet, the working people encountered in the lyrics of country music manage to maintain their dignity. One somehow senses that the same can be said of the working people of the South, who compose a large segment of the country music audience.