High Lonesome: The American Culture of Country Music [Hardcover]

Cecelia Tichi (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1994

Accompanied by a musical CD offering nearly one hour of the best in country music, a close-up look at country music argues that it has become a national art form, reflecting the same themes that have characterized American art and literature over three centuries. UP.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Some maintain that country music is the country's music and reflects traditional American concerns. That's English professor Tichi's position, anyway, as she explores the links between country music and American literature and art. In country, she argues, story is paramount and told through lyrics that amount to folk poetry. With this thesis in mind, she examines in detail such common country themes as home, the road, loneliness, spiritual pilgrimage, and nature. She manages to avoid the academic's pitfall regarding pop music--condescension--but often seems to lack the longtime fan's empathy (she admits ignorance of country until just a few years ago). Also, she draws too many of her musical examples (some of which are heard on an accompanying CD) from younger performers whose accessible but watered-down styles have sparked country's recent resurgence but whose very popularity stacks the deck in favor of her argument that country remains firmly in the American cultural mainstream. Still, Tichi makes a compelling case for country music as a legitimate object of American studies. Gordon Flagg

From Kirkus Reviews

A dry exegesis of country music by the author of Electronic Hearth (1991). Tichi (English/Vanderbilt Univ.) is a novice fan of country music whose background is strongest in American literature and art. Proceeding thematically, she addresses common issues in American culture, including the tension between the individual and society, the lure of home versus the call of the road, and nature as both a nurturing and potentially dangerous force. Lacing together anecdotes, interviews, and analysis of songs, she comes to the conclusion that country music addresses many of the same topics as more ``serious'' art forms, making it ``emphatically [a] national music.'' While her discussions can be interesting, ultimately she offers little new to explain the popularity or quality of country music. The musicians she favors--Emmylou Harris, Rodney Crowell, Laurie Lewis, Nanci Griffith, and Barry and Holly Tashian--all come out of a folk-rock background (in the '70s, they would have been called singer/songwriters), so they naturally tend to take an intellectual, pseudoliterary approach to songwriting and performance. Tichi's musical knowledge is slim, leading to some factual errors, as when she ascribes ``Dueling Banjos'' to Earl Scruggs, though it was in fact recorded by Marshall Brickman and Eric Weissberg. And the comment that ``the ability to read music would be futile for bluegrass...the music simply moves too fast to be read off the page'' would come as a surprise to any classical violinist who's ever tackled Paganini. The book is accompanied by a CD that primarily focuses on new country acts; this material is readily available, and it would be surprising if a reader who was attracted to this book did not already own most of these recordings. A tip of the academic mortarboard towards the ten-gallon-hat crowd that will befuddle members of both groups. (122 b&w photos and 16-page color insert) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 318 pages
• Publisher: Univ of North Carolina Pr (July 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807821349
• ISBN-13: 978-0807821343
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,957,422 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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