Walking the Line: Country Music Lyricists and American Culture

An insightful and wide-ranging look at one of America{u0092}s most popular genres of music, Walking the Line: Country Music Lyricists and American Culture examines how country songwriters engage with their nation{u0092}s religion, literature, and politics. For iconic American country lyricists, walking the line presents a moment of expression, an opportunity to relate an idea, image, or emotion. As the chapters in this volume indicate, these country lyricists have tested and expanded such boundaries as they have challenged musical, social, and political conventions. From Jimmie Rodgers{u0092}s redefinitions of democracy, to revisions of Southern Christianity by Hank Williams, Dottie Rambo, and Willie Nelson, to feminist retellings by Loretta Lynn and Dolly Parton, to masculine reconstructions by Merle Haggard and Cindy Walker, to Steve Earle{u0092}s reworking of American ideologies, this collection walks the line in turn, exploring iconic country lyrics and defining what {u0093}country" means in country music.