High Lonesome: The American Culture of Country Music - Softcover

Tichi, Cecelia

3.09

11 ratings by Goodreads

9780807846087: High Lonesome: The American Culture of Country Music

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807846082 ISBN 13: 9780807846087

Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press, 1996

View all copies of this ISBN edition:

What does the 'country' in country music mean? Most interpret country as a regional or folk music that belongs to people in the hills and in honky-tonks, but Cecelia Tichi argues that it is in fact a national music form, one that belongs to all Americans. In High Lonesome, she shows that country music is strongly linked to our nation's literature and art. Country music, Tichi argues, explores the same themes that have intrigued this country's premier writers and artists over three centuries: the American road, the meaning of home, class struggle, spiritual travail, and the persistent loneliness of the American character. These are obsessions that country music artists like Dolly Parton, Hank Williams, Rodney Crowell, Merle Haggard, and Emmylou Harris share with artists not thought of as 'pop'--Ralph Waldo Emerson, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, Thomas Cole, Edward Hopper, and Georgia O'Keefe. Generously illustrated with photographs of country music artists and images of American art, High Lonesome uses interviews and biographical profiles to provide an insider's look at the schooling, customs, demands, and discipline of country music--an art form that Tichi maintains is emphatically part of mainstream American culture. from the book When the poetry of Walt Whitman links up with the country music of Hank Williams, when Dolly Parton and Ralph Waldo Emerson pair up and Mark Twain and Emmylou Harris are found to have a common ground, and the vacationing traveler is also involved, then new ideas about cultural relations become possible. It is not a trivia question to ask, What does country music have in common with Thomas Jefferson, Walt Whitman, American painters Thomas Cole and Edward Hopper, and twentieth-century writers John Steinbeck and Jack Kerouac? Songs and partial songs found on the High Lonesome CD * indicates partial songs Dolly Parton, 'My Tennessee Mountain Home' Barry and Holly Tashian, 'Home' Emmylou Harris, 'Hickory Wind'* Steve Earle, 'Guitar Town' Robin and Linda Williams, 'Rolling and Rambling' Merle Haggard, 'Ramblin' Fever' Emmylou Harris, 'Lonely Street'* Emmylou Harris, 'A River for Him'* Hank Williams, 'I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry' Laurie Lewis, 'The Cowgirl's Song' Tex Ritter, 'High Noon' Dolly Parton, 'Wildflowers'* Eddy Arnold, 'Bouquet of Roses' Emmylou Harris, 'Roses in the Snow'* Emmylou Harris, 'Timberline'* Emmylou Harris, 'Red, Red Rose'* Emmylou Harris, 'Wayfaring Stranger'* Peter Rowan, 'Trail of Tears' Barry and Holly Tashian, 'Let Me See the Light' Kathy Chiavola, 'I Am a Pilgrim/We Are Pilgrims' Laurie Lewis, 'The Maple's Lament' Cody Kilby, 'Bill Cheatham' Rodney Crowell, 'Many a Long and Lonesome Highway'

A UNC Press Enduring Edition -- UNC Press Enduring Editions use the latest in digital technology to make available again books from our distinguished backlist that were previously out of print. These editions are published unaltered from the original, and are presented in affordable paperback formats, bringing readers both historical and cultural value.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

Review:

The popular musical traditions of the rural black South, most notably the blues, have received from scholars of American history and culture richly deserved attention and analysis. Until now the same could not be said for the popular musical traditions of the rural white South. With High Lonesome Cecelia Tichi, savvy reader of and acute listener to country music, helps us negotiate the cultural discourse between country music and the myths of this country, never failing to show us a good time in the process.--William L. Andrews, University of Kansas
Tichi investigates popular music as a significant cultural indicator. . . . Country music reflects the complexities of home life and interpersonal relationships in such a way that it reverberates with the dilemmas of the metropolitan and suburban present.--Christian Science Monitor
[A] sophisticated and down-to-earth study. . . . [Tichi] examines the country phenomenon and tries to place it in historical and artistic perspective.--Parade
A daring but successful book. . . . Tichi takes country music seriously, and she gives the art form the kind of serious intellectual treatment that it has always needed and deserved.--Bill C. Malone, author of Country Music, U.S.A.
The book is gracefully written, jargon-free, highly original, and engaging throughout. Tichi's astonishing interdisciplinary imagination enables her to bridge the gaps between popular culture and high art, music and literature, poetry and painting. High Lonesome is provocative and quite versatile, a good choice for American studies courses.--Journal of American History
Like many a fine country picker, Cecelia Tichi saves her best lick for last in this impressive articulation of the significant contribution country music makes to American culture. . . . High Lonesome provides a persuasive argument that country is a vital and important part of American culture.--American Studies
A highly original interpretation of an underappreciated art form. . . . High Lonesome offers a new perspective on both interpretation of country music performance and the ways in which both country music and American literary, artistic, and popular culture mirror the American cultural experience.--Text and Performance Quarterly
Tichi makes a compelling case for country music as a legitimate object of American studies.--Booklist
A book to listen to, that will last. . .--Book Page
An ambitious book that glitters like rhinestones.--New York Times Book Review
A highly original and important analysis of country music as it relates to American culture.--Now & Then
Drawing on a wide range of historical and literary sources, Tichi presents a skillful, creative dissection of the American, not just southern, character [of] country music.--Choice
Tichi finds through her research what the thinking country fan has known for a long time: when you look past the drinkin', cheatin' and hurtin' cliches, there's a soulful message that speaks volumes about America.--Louisville Post and Courier
Lucid and insightful. . . . Tichi persuasively connects country music's recurrent thematic obsessions with those of the country at large.--Boston Globe
Exhaustively researched and copiously illustrated. . . . Offers a number of insights into the essential nature of country music. . . . All of it is interesting, thought-provoking stuff.--Washington Post

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.