Portland Public Library

Yankee twang, country and western music in New England, Clifford R. Murphy

eng

Includes bibliographical references (pages 187-197) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Yankee twang

bibliography

877367779

Clifford R. Murphy

Music in American life

country and western music in New England

Merging scholarly insight with a professional guitarist's keen sense of the musical life, this book delves into the rich tradition of country & western music that is played and loved in the mill towns and cities of the American northeast. Clifford R. Murphy draws on a wealth of ethnographic material, interviews, and encounters with recorded and live music to reveal the central role of country and western in the social lives and musical activity of working-class New Englanders. As Murphy shows, an extraordinary multiculturalism informed by New England's kaleidoscope of ethnic groups created a distinctive country and western music style. But the music also gave - and gives - voice to working-class feeling. Yankee country and western emphasizes the western, reflecting the longing for the mythical cowboy's life of rugged but fulfilling individualism. Indeed, many New Englanders use country and western to comment on economic disenfranchisement and express their resentment of a mass media, government, and Nashville music establishment they believe neither reflects nor understands their life experiences

New England country and western music and the myth of Southern authenticity -- A history of New England country and western music, 1925-1975 -- Finding community in the New England country and western event -- Home on the grange : the frontier between "American" and "immigrant" worldviews in New England country and western -- It beats digging clams : the working life of country and western musicians in the barnstorming era -- The New England cowboy : regional resistance to national culture