Country music singers and their fans are usually considered to be politically conservative. Charlie Daniels, Lee Greenwood, Trace Adkins, Lorrie Morgan and Rodney Atkins all ran for either Republican John McCain or Republican Mitt Romney in the past two presidential elections. Many of the lyrics from the songs reflect beliefs that are widely held to be conservative values, such as Daniel’s “A Simple Man,” where he laments his belief that the world in the Bible has turned upside down. the advocates of drug-dealers punish them by hanging them from a high tree; or with kidnappers, murderers, and abusers of children, tying them to a stake, and “they will make a rest for rattlesnakes and bugs and alligators.” Toby Keith’s “Red, White and Blue Courtesy” was released shortly after the invasion of Iraq under President George W. Bush, with the pro-war crowd echoing these lyrics: “And you’ll be sorry you’re a traveler with the US. of A., cause we’re used to your ass Let’s face it, it’s the American way. Keith was also involved in a public feud with Natalie Maines, lead singer of “Dixie Chicks”. , a Texas native, told a London crowd that he and his cohorts were from the same state as Bush after he ordered the invasion of Iraq. That comment led to boycotts of the “Dixie Chicks” concert, as well as criticism of Keith’s feud with Maine “Red, White and Blue County,” he began, “ignorant.” Keith responded by displaying a picture of the head of the Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein at his concert.
Hank Williams Jr. Commenting on Fox News’ ESPN Job Price
Hank Williams Jr. lost his gig on ESPN’s “Monday Night Football” because of comments he made about President Barack Obama in Fox News Channel show “Foxes and Friends”. Williams called Obama and Vice President Joe Biden “the enemy” and compared Obama’s golf outing with John Boehner to Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu’s links to Adolph Hitler. Williams also called Obama and Biden “the three stooges.” (Hey, a musician is a farmer, not a mathematician).
Merle Haggard, Billy Joe Shaver Among Top Country Singers Progressive Songs
Although the music’s opinion is based on country conservatism, there have been country songs that come from a politically progressive point-of-view. In no particular order, here are ten country songs that can be considered from a liberal perspective.
- · “Passing the Rope” by Henson Cargil
Although later recorded by many artists—including George Jones and Jimmy Dean—Cargil’s version topped the regional charts in 1968. One of progressive music’s earliest songs, “Skip a Rope” discusses the impact of marital discord on children as well as racism .
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- · “Black Rose” by Billy Joe Shaver
This song by the prolific Texas singer chronicles the southern white man’s struggle with the (at the time) consensual interracial taboo with an African-American woman. Shaver sings: “The first time the devil did it, the second time I did it myself.”
- · “Hilliarius” by Merle Haggard
Haggard is best known for the conservative anthems “Fightin’ by My Side” and “Okie from Muskogee” (although he later claimed that “Okie” was satirical. Haggard wrote “Hillary” as a tribute to first lady Hillary Clinton during her ill-fated 2008 presidential run. However, “Hillary” It wasn’t Haggard’s first song that proved conservative in the country; years earlier, in 1972, he released “Irma Jackson,” which, like Shaver’s “Black Rose” touched on an interracial relationship between a white man and an African-American woman.
- · “Jesse Jackson” by Kris Kristofferson
Best known for “Me and Bobby McGee,” Kristofferson not only supported the presidential civil rights campaigns in 1984 and 1988, but also wrote a about “Jackson” Jackson’s famous commitment to racial equality.
- ·. One of Brooke’s sisters is gay, and she clearly supports it when she sings, “When we’re free to love whoever we choose… we’ll be free.”
- ·. The song also mourns the loss of soldiers in the Vietnam War.
- · (from the devil himself) that “the Christian coalition does not go to heaven on the right wing of the conservatives.”
- · “We Can’t Do It Here” by James McMurtry
The son of novelist Larry McMurtry, in “We Can’t Do It,” James McMurtry sings about the neglect of veterans returning from the Gulf War in the face of jobs manufacturing regions with low wages, losing teenage pregnancies, and workers’ struggles to earn minimum wage.
- · “Heir of the Fatherland” by Charlie Daniels
Yes, it Charlie Daniels. Before joining the right, Daniels, In “Long Haired Country Boy celebrated and stoned and drunk, and TV preachers to He hates to believe, like Jesus, that he even walks on water. Daniel later told Shawna Ortega of Songfacts.com that he changed the lyrics from “Stone in the morning, get drunk in the afternoon” to “I get up in the morning, I get down in the afternoon” because of his Christian faith. The opinions and issues of teenagers on drugs and alcohol.
Sources:
http://www.aboutmittromney.com/celebrities.htm
http://spectator.org/archives/2006/02/24/americas-hit-kickers
http://www.theblaze.com
http://www.songfacts.com
http://popwatch.ew.com
http://tasteofcountry.com/toby-keith-dixie-chicks-feud/
http://larryjamesurbandaily.blogspot.com/2007/03/living-in-promise-land.html
http://www.outlawmagazine.tv/ompromos/billyjoeshaver/
http://www.cnn.com/2003/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/14/dixie.chicks.reut/
http://www.contactmusic.com/news-article/tobey-keith-ends-feud-with-natalie-maines
- · (from the devil himself) that “the Christian coalition does not go to heaven on the right wing of the conservatives.”
- ·. The song also mourns the loss of soldiers in the Vietnam War.
