Music vs. Monday: New Folkism

Jukebox at the Honky Tonk BOX PRINT reproduction by Dolan Geiman @ Etsy

Over the years, I have been made aware of a certain malignant appellation for the South which seems to be acceptable in the world of literature and stage, trumped only by that which is immortalized on the silver screen. At some point in time, Americans decided that a movie like Deliverance should be the cornerstone for all Southern-inspired dramas thereafter, so over the years the South’s hospitable charm has faded behind a mask of inbred inhospitables and backwoods perverts entering into a genre that I refer to as the Delignorance-style. Perhaps this would be fine and I could say, “You know, maybe it’s best if people think of the South as a dangerous place to travel, where taking a Wrong Turn (pardon the pun) will land you in some hillbilly’s cook pot.” (The reasons for saying such a thing apparent in my desire to keep the best places secured for kith and kin.) However, and the reader will allow a little immodesty here, I must admit I’m a little too educated to act so naive. To allow my Southern latitude to become fodder for those sensationalists glued to their blue lights flickering at night in the windows of their comfortable urban sanctuaries would be, well, reprehensible, if not an outright slap in the face of my gentility.

So, in defense of all things Southern, I propose a musical channel that will flow towards the bay of new belief--a a new lantern to cast light on the old back porch where in previous shadows is revealed not the hand of some skeletal meth-riddled murderer, but the farmers agile fingers, spiderlike, plucking the silvery strings of a homemade banjo. It is time to lay down those weary tunes of immodest perversion and to welcome in a new people, a new South, a new Folksim.

Below is a short list I have complied of a few authentic Southern musical melodies, paired against what I believe to be the more Hollywood-ized or mainstream- friendly songs. Feel free to add your own…

My pics vs. Mainstream:

:: Baroness. “O’appalachia.” Red Album vs. Eric Weissberg and Marshall Brickman. “Dueling Banjos.” Dueling Banjos (soundtrack from the motion picture: Deliverance.)

:: John Denver. “Thank God I’m a Country Boy.” The Essential John Denver vs. Josh Turner. “Backwoods Boy.” Long Black Train.

:: The Band. “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.” Rock of Ages vs. Neil Young. “Southern Man.” Decade.

:: Nappy Roots. “Country Boyz.” Watermelon, Chicken, and Gritz vs. Ludacris, Rick Ross, Playaz Circle & Ving Rhames, “Southern Gangsta.” Theater of the Mind.

:: Dock Boggs.“Bright Sunny South.” His Folkways Years:1963-1968 vs. Stephen Foster. “Oh Susannah.” Traditional.

:: Band Of Horses.“ Cigarettes, Wedding Bands.” Cease to Begin. vs. Faith Hill. “Sunshine and Summertime.” Fireflies.

:: Norman Blake. “Church Street Blues.” Whiskey Before Breakfast. vs. Alan Jackson. “Good Time.” Good Time.