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White Soul: Country Music, the Church and Working Americans
White Soul examines the social, political, and religious foundations of country music as the soul music of white, working-class Americans.
Country music gives voice to an economically battered subculture of hard-living and hard-working people who find self-expression in the music of honky-tonks and heartaches. It celebrates the "wild side of life" as a form of populist anarchism and escapist festivity. This unusual medley of sociology, theology, and country music history is also a compelling critique of the elitism of "good taste" in the dominant culture.
Tex Sample challenges the church to reach out to working-class people, who have often been ignored and demeaned by churches held captive to the tastes and lifestyles of the upper middle class.
Country music gives voice to an economically battered subculture of hard-living and hard-working people who find self-expression in the music of honky-tonks and heartaches. It celebrates the "wild side of life" as a form of populist anarchism and escapist festivity. This unusual medley of sociology, theology, and country music history is also a compelling critique of the elitism of "good taste" in the dominant culture.
Tex Sample challenges the church to reach out to working-class people, who have often been ignored and demeaned by churches held captive to the tastes and lifestyles of the upper middle class.
- GenresMusic
186 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1996
26 people want to read
About the author
Tex Sample
19 books3 followersIs a specialist in church and society, a storyteller, author.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 12, 2021
My family went camping a lot during my childhood, including a three-month holiday in the USA and Mexico in our VW Westfalia, and road trip soundtracks were a must on those journeys. Growing up I listened to a lot of contemporary Christian Music (Delirious?, Newsboys, Jars of Clay) but I also had to listen to my father's music - Leonard Cohen, Buena Vista Social Club, Norah Jones, Lou Bega, Tom Waits, Lyle Lovett. I didn't know much about country music back then but I thought that Lovett was a "grade above" a lot of the twangy country tunes that were hits on country radio. As I got older I became a fan of Buddy Miller, another country music veteran, and I recognized Johnny Cash as a truly great icon of country music and the redemptive power of faith, but I still shied away from popular country - it was the stuff of redneck, red state stereotypes, one joke being that all country music was either about the singer's lover, dog, or truck.
Tex Sample's "White Soul: Country Music, the Church, and Working Americans" offers an innovative and empathetic analysis of country music's relationship to the working class and Christian faith. As much as libraries and websites are keen to produce reading lists to understand the black experience in the USA, "White Soul" is equally deserving to be on a syllabus for a course on understanding the "white working class." It has helped me reframe my views on country music - views that have too often been aligned with the cosmopolitan dismissiveness that doesn't take country music seriously as the "indigenous music" of the working class (this being one of Sample's key arguments).
Sample begins each chapter with a bit of autobiography, reflecting on his experiences growing up and being taught that country music wasn't worthy "art" and his time working alongside working class people he would eventually come to minister to. In the first section of the book Sample lays out a case for considering country music as worthy of critical appreciation, drawing on the work of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and arguing that intellectuals have often been ignorant of the finesse and skill necessary to produce high performance country music and that those who have never entered the working class naturally view in as alien and thus cannot properly appreciate it. Sample states:
"Part of the issue here is that working people are more oral than literate. They think in proverbs, stories, and relationships more than in propositions, concepts, and discourse. It is not that they are illiterate, though some are, it is rather that they engage the world in oral terms, rather than the more literate forms of the university trained. They work not so much with ideas about ideas but with ideas about events...as Walter Ong has shown, so much of oral thought is oriented around memory, and as such it attempts to make things memorable. For this reason...in a complicated snarl of motivations and concerns, country music must pose itself in heavy formulaic characters, in agonistic struggle, and in festivity that 'lets the hellcat roar!'" (p. 32)
An elitist aesthetic is more detached compared to working class aesthetics which are more participatory and based on necessity (p. 30-31, 35-36). One can even think of the difference between the orderly decorum of an Anglican liturgy vs. a raucous holiness revival meeting. Sample further explains:
"As a music participates in a story, embodies a people, establishes an artistic tradition, communicates a story, develops the excellence and skills of its practices, and sings the people's existence, it is soul. In the case of country music, it gives musical and lyrical statement to the lives of working people, dramatizes and intensifies their experience, provides expressive moment to their feelings, offers itself in working-class taste, celebrates the contradictions of the working world and 'sticks it to' a dominate order with indigenous forms of resistance. These are the characteristics that make it white soul" (p. 70).
Sample asserts that despite stereotypes, country music cannot easily be labelled as "liberal" or "conservative"; instead, it is TRADITIONAL. Country music does not necessarily celebrate the platform of the Republican party with its tendency to cut taxes on the rich and extol the merits of free-market capitalism. Instead, country music affirms a traditionalism where "The basic commitment is not to liberty but to a religious and sociomoral world. Traditional life does not encourage the pursuit of self-interest but instead focuses on the restraint of self-interest and the solidarity of the community" (p. 93). Country music often proclaims traditional morality:
"It is easy to 'explain' traditional commitments as those of people who live in the past or who are 'culturally delayed' or not 'with it,' but traditional commitments play no small role simply in coping and survival in the working-class world. When life is lived up against the wall, when you live close to the line, the family and other traditional institutions provides support and resources to face the vicissitudes of life. Most women are a divorce away from poverty in the working-class world, and working men know that the family cannot make it on their income alone. It takes the family and the extended relationships it represents to make it, and country music knows it" (p. 92)
The working class draws upon the collective resources of the extended family (p. 129). Perhaps this is best illustrated today by J.D. Vance's memoir 'Hillbilly Elegy,' where his feisty grandmother steps in to help raise him when his mother falls into drug addiction. Sample continues to build a compelling case for how country music gives voice to the working class. He analyzes the lyrics of major country stars including Hank Williams, Dolly Parton, and Merle Haggard (particularly Haggard's 'Okie From Muskogee'). Country music's uplifting of traditional life offers roots for those who have felt tossed to and fro by the forces of modernity. Many love songs in country music proclaim the faithfulness of love despite the ups and downs of life and female singers such as Loretta Lynn, Jeannie C. Riley, and Parton have been able to express female feelings and angst as they have had to contend with men who come home "a-drinkin' (with loving on their minds)' and who live in the monotony of '9 to 5.' Sample also points out that country music has roots in black culture and that black artists like DeFord Bailey and Charley Pride (RIP) have been significant performers in the genre. Perhaps the best anthem of the populist, "everyman" instincts of white soul is found in Johnny Russell's 'Rednecks, White Socks, and Blue Ribbon Beer'.
Like fervent pentecostal revivals, country music provides impassioned expression for the working class who feel squeezed by the forces of modernity, elites who rule them with seemingly little mercy, and the struggles of ordinary living like loss of work, addiction, and broken relationships. Despite the deep faith of Johnny Cash, Charlie Daniels, and Reba McEntire, many of those who listen to country music feel ambivalent or alienated towards institutional religion. They complain about hypocrisy and see the Church as too distant from their own problems. One does wonder if this is indeed the case or if Sample is too focused on the Protestant Mainline to account for "low" churches but then again there certainly are "spiritual but not religious" believers who don't attend church or Bible studies yet who assert belief in God. There is also a strange exchange of God for girl in Florida Georgia Line's 'H.O.L.Y." where the band sings "You're the river bank where I was baptized / Cleanse all the demons...You're holy, holy, holy, holy / I'm high on loving you, high on loving you." These lyrics make me cringe but it could represent a dissatisfaction with God's work in the singers' life - his lover becomes his saviour - or one could read this has his lover being the tangible "hands and feet" of Jesus in his life. Overall, Sample suggests the Church should become more hospitable to country music because it is the "indigenous" creative expression of life of the working class.
"White Soul" is nearly 25 years old. As a relative outsider to country music, I did not recognize many of the names that Sample mentions. Some could accuse Sample of relying too much on anecdotes and generalizations and there are certainly some gaps in his study but by and large, Sample offers readers a refreshing and appreciative bridge between the Church and theology and the culture of country music. But what helped give even more credence to Sample's case was for me to turn on the local country radio station. Among the handful of songs I have listened to the last few days included:
"'Cause I love you more than a California sunset
I love you more in a twenty-dollar sundress
Hate that loaded down car you got your keys in
Girl, but I hate even more that you're leavin'
'Cause I love you more than the feeling when the bass hits the hook
When the guy gets the girl at the end of the book
But that ain't you and me so I guess I'll see you around
'Cause I can't love you more than my hometown"
- Morgan Wallen, 'More Than My Hometown' (2020)
A song where the narrator forsakes his lover for his "hometown," the rootedness of his community where he is "a same gas station cup of coffee in the mornin'" rather than his lover's penchant for wandering.
"'Cause I'm a redneck woman
I ain't no high class broad
I'm just a product of my raising
I say, 'hey ya'll' and 'yee-haw'
And I keep my Christmas lights on
On my front porch all year long
And I know all the words to every Charlie Daniels song
So here's to all my sisters
Out there keeping it country
Let me get a big 'hell yeah'
From the redneck girls like me
Hell yeah (Hell yeah)"
- Gretchen Wilson, 'Redneck Woman' (2004)
A song where the female singer prides herself on drinking beer instead of champagne, on preferring the price and practicality of Wal-Mart lingerie over Victoria's Secret, who doesn't give a damn about what the "high class broads" think of her. This is redneck "girl power!"
"I was the one phone call when my brother went to jail
Pawned my guitar just to pay his bail
No, I will never get it back
But I'm okay with that...
...So say I'm a middle of the road
Not much to show
Underachieving, average Joe
But I'm a hell of a lover
A damn good brother
And I wear this heart on my sleeve
And that might not mean much to you
But it does to me"
- Luke Combs, 'Does to Me' (2019)
In this song Combs affirms his ordinariness ("Underachieving, average Joe") who makes costly sacrifices for his family but chalks this up to the duty and love of kin. He shrugs at his accomplishes, not expecting accolades from those who might disdain them but instead celebrating these minor deeds as significant victories.
"A boy and a girl and a three on the tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
First comes lust then a shotgun marriage
Six months later, comes a baby in a carriage
You know what y'all, you know what y'all
The whole thing started with some alcohol
The whole thing started with some alcohol
One beer turns into a lit cigarette burnin' into a two beer buzz
Three beers turns into five and six
Then a love drunk kiss into the back of that truck
Just like that everything rearranges
Life changes out of the blue
It's just a Bud Light, but ain't it funny what one beer can turn into?"
- HARDY, 'One Beer' (2020)
This story-telling song chronicles what happens when a couple of teenagers get drunk, have sex, and get pregnant. There is not judgment in this song; rather, it simply, soberly, narrates how life is upended, how the young couple have to adjust to "Puttin' those life plans on the shelf / A couple American babies raisin' one up their self." The fact that they keep the baby is significant in and of itself. But the song still cautions listeners as to what happens when one beer leads to another and then turns into more than was ever expected.
These songs, most released within the last two years, fit into the "white soul" that Sample writes so passionately about. This book challenges readers to see country music in a new light as the "indigenous" music of the working class. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
Tex Sample's "White Soul: Country Music, the Church, and Working Americans" offers an innovative and empathetic analysis of country music's relationship to the working class and Christian faith. As much as libraries and websites are keen to produce reading lists to understand the black experience in the USA, "White Soul" is equally deserving to be on a syllabus for a course on understanding the "white working class." It has helped me reframe my views on country music - views that have too often been aligned with the cosmopolitan dismissiveness that doesn't take country music seriously as the "indigenous music" of the working class (this being one of Sample's key arguments).
Sample begins each chapter with a bit of autobiography, reflecting on his experiences growing up and being taught that country music wasn't worthy "art" and his time working alongside working class people he would eventually come to minister to. In the first section of the book Sample lays out a case for considering country music as worthy of critical appreciation, drawing on the work of the French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and arguing that intellectuals have often been ignorant of the finesse and skill necessary to produce high performance country music and that those who have never entered the working class naturally view in as alien and thus cannot properly appreciate it. Sample states:
"Part of the issue here is that working people are more oral than literate. They think in proverbs, stories, and relationships more than in propositions, concepts, and discourse. It is not that they are illiterate, though some are, it is rather that they engage the world in oral terms, rather than the more literate forms of the university trained. They work not so much with ideas about ideas but with ideas about events...as Walter Ong has shown, so much of oral thought is oriented around memory, and as such it attempts to make things memorable. For this reason...in a complicated snarl of motivations and concerns, country music must pose itself in heavy formulaic characters, in agonistic struggle, and in festivity that 'lets the hellcat roar!'" (p. 32)
An elitist aesthetic is more detached compared to working class aesthetics which are more participatory and based on necessity (p. 30-31, 35-36). One can even think of the difference between the orderly decorum of an Anglican liturgy vs. a raucous holiness revival meeting. Sample further explains:
"As a music participates in a story, embodies a people, establishes an artistic tradition, communicates a story, develops the excellence and skills of its practices, and sings the people's existence, it is soul. In the case of country music, it gives musical and lyrical statement to the lives of working people, dramatizes and intensifies their experience, provides expressive moment to their feelings, offers itself in working-class taste, celebrates the contradictions of the working world and 'sticks it to' a dominate order with indigenous forms of resistance. These are the characteristics that make it white soul" (p. 70).
Sample asserts that despite stereotypes, country music cannot easily be labelled as "liberal" or "conservative"; instead, it is TRADITIONAL. Country music does not necessarily celebrate the platform of the Republican party with its tendency to cut taxes on the rich and extol the merits of free-market capitalism. Instead, country music affirms a traditionalism where "The basic commitment is not to liberty but to a religious and sociomoral world. Traditional life does not encourage the pursuit of self-interest but instead focuses on the restraint of self-interest and the solidarity of the community" (p. 93). Country music often proclaims traditional morality:
"It is easy to 'explain' traditional commitments as those of people who live in the past or who are 'culturally delayed' or not 'with it,' but traditional commitments play no small role simply in coping and survival in the working-class world. When life is lived up against the wall, when you live close to the line, the family and other traditional institutions provides support and resources to face the vicissitudes of life. Most women are a divorce away from poverty in the working-class world, and working men know that the family cannot make it on their income alone. It takes the family and the extended relationships it represents to make it, and country music knows it" (p. 92)
The working class draws upon the collective resources of the extended family (p. 129). Perhaps this is best illustrated today by J.D. Vance's memoir 'Hillbilly Elegy,' where his feisty grandmother steps in to help raise him when his mother falls into drug addiction. Sample continues to build a compelling case for how country music gives voice to the working class. He analyzes the lyrics of major country stars including Hank Williams, Dolly Parton, and Merle Haggard (particularly Haggard's 'Okie From Muskogee'). Country music's uplifting of traditional life offers roots for those who have felt tossed to and fro by the forces of modernity. Many love songs in country music proclaim the faithfulness of love despite the ups and downs of life and female singers such as Loretta Lynn, Jeannie C. Riley, and Parton have been able to express female feelings and angst as they have had to contend with men who come home "a-drinkin' (with loving on their minds)' and who live in the monotony of '9 to 5.' Sample also points out that country music has roots in black culture and that black artists like DeFord Bailey and Charley Pride (RIP) have been significant performers in the genre. Perhaps the best anthem of the populist, "everyman" instincts of white soul is found in Johnny Russell's 'Rednecks, White Socks, and Blue Ribbon Beer'.
Like fervent pentecostal revivals, country music provides impassioned expression for the working class who feel squeezed by the forces of modernity, elites who rule them with seemingly little mercy, and the struggles of ordinary living like loss of work, addiction, and broken relationships. Despite the deep faith of Johnny Cash, Charlie Daniels, and Reba McEntire, many of those who listen to country music feel ambivalent or alienated towards institutional religion. They complain about hypocrisy and see the Church as too distant from their own problems. One does wonder if this is indeed the case or if Sample is too focused on the Protestant Mainline to account for "low" churches but then again there certainly are "spiritual but not religious" believers who don't attend church or Bible studies yet who assert belief in God. There is also a strange exchange of God for girl in Florida Georgia Line's 'H.O.L.Y." where the band sings "You're the river bank where I was baptized / Cleanse all the demons...You're holy, holy, holy, holy / I'm high on loving you, high on loving you." These lyrics make me cringe but it could represent a dissatisfaction with God's work in the singers' life - his lover becomes his saviour - or one could read this has his lover being the tangible "hands and feet" of Jesus in his life. Overall, Sample suggests the Church should become more hospitable to country music because it is the "indigenous" creative expression of life of the working class.
"White Soul" is nearly 25 years old. As a relative outsider to country music, I did not recognize many of the names that Sample mentions. Some could accuse Sample of relying too much on anecdotes and generalizations and there are certainly some gaps in his study but by and large, Sample offers readers a refreshing and appreciative bridge between the Church and theology and the culture of country music. But what helped give even more credence to Sample's case was for me to turn on the local country radio station. Among the handful of songs I have listened to the last few days included:
"'Cause I love you more than a California sunset
I love you more in a twenty-dollar sundress
Hate that loaded down car you got your keys in
Girl, but I hate even more that you're leavin'
'Cause I love you more than the feeling when the bass hits the hook
When the guy gets the girl at the end of the book
But that ain't you and me so I guess I'll see you around
'Cause I can't love you more than my hometown"
- Morgan Wallen, 'More Than My Hometown' (2020)
A song where the narrator forsakes his lover for his "hometown," the rootedness of his community where he is "a same gas station cup of coffee in the mornin'" rather than his lover's penchant for wandering.
"'Cause I'm a redneck woman
I ain't no high class broad
I'm just a product of my raising
I say, 'hey ya'll' and 'yee-haw'
And I keep my Christmas lights on
On my front porch all year long
And I know all the words to every Charlie Daniels song
So here's to all my sisters
Out there keeping it country
Let me get a big 'hell yeah'
From the redneck girls like me
Hell yeah (Hell yeah)"
- Gretchen Wilson, 'Redneck Woman' (2004)
A song where the female singer prides herself on drinking beer instead of champagne, on preferring the price and practicality of Wal-Mart lingerie over Victoria's Secret, who doesn't give a damn about what the "high class broads" think of her. This is redneck "girl power!"
"I was the one phone call when my brother went to jail
Pawned my guitar just to pay his bail
No, I will never get it back
But I'm okay with that...
...So say I'm a middle of the road
Not much to show
Underachieving, average Joe
But I'm a hell of a lover
A damn good brother
And I wear this heart on my sleeve
And that might not mean much to you
But it does to me"
- Luke Combs, 'Does to Me' (2019)
In this song Combs affirms his ordinariness ("Underachieving, average Joe") who makes costly sacrifices for his family but chalks this up to the duty and love of kin. He shrugs at his accomplishes, not expecting accolades from those who might disdain them but instead celebrating these minor deeds as significant victories.
"A boy and a girl and a three on the tree
K-I-S-S-I-N-G
First comes lust then a shotgun marriage
Six months later, comes a baby in a carriage
You know what y'all, you know what y'all
The whole thing started with some alcohol
The whole thing started with some alcohol
One beer turns into a lit cigarette burnin' into a two beer buzz
Three beers turns into five and six
Then a love drunk kiss into the back of that truck
Just like that everything rearranges
Life changes out of the blue
It's just a Bud Light, but ain't it funny what one beer can turn into?"
- HARDY, 'One Beer' (2020)
This story-telling song chronicles what happens when a couple of teenagers get drunk, have sex, and get pregnant. There is not judgment in this song; rather, it simply, soberly, narrates how life is upended, how the young couple have to adjust to "Puttin' those life plans on the shelf / A couple American babies raisin' one up their self." The fact that they keep the baby is significant in and of itself. But the song still cautions listeners as to what happens when one beer leads to another and then turns into more than was ever expected.
These songs, most released within the last two years, fit into the "white soul" that Sample writes so passionately about. This book challenges readers to see country music in a new light as the "indigenous" music of the working class. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
November 24, 2019
White Soul addresses something I often wonder about while listening to country music. I've been fascinated by the contradictions between songs about partying hard at the honky-tonk followed by those with a spiritual Sunday morning undertone. Sample, a Methodist seminary professor, hypothesizes that country music is a sort of "White Soul", which gives voice to the many contradictions and travails of working-class life, all while supporting a sort of 'populist anarchism' built through resistance to the status quo. I love how Sample examines the class tension inherent in country and perceptions of it. Personally, I've seen this in the lack of willingness people in elite east coast bubbles have to admit that they like country, for fear of being judged.
Also, Sample makes a compelling case for the church to take on working-class music and habits to better appeal to the community. It's certainly harder for some denominations than others to do, but Sample points out that the relatability of country music makes it an important tool. In particular, he analyzes how the church is an "alternative community with an ultimate allegiance to Christ and not to the nation ... an important antidote to the poisons of the nation-state that is bound to late capitalism" (160). This fits nicely with Carney's position in "Alienated America" that Trump support is explained by those with low religious practice and low institutional capital and helps explain why those with higher church attendance tend to be less anti-immigration according to studies. Sample succinctly gets to the core of how Christianity and its sense of community can undercut nationalist populism, and his argument for reformulating worship to address the contradictions of working-class life might just be a partial solution to the spread of exclusionary populism.
I have two observations on Sample's argument that reveal weaker points. First, calling the political spirit of country 'populist anarchism' is a bold statement that requires more examination than Sample devotes to it. Dealing with more political theory might help to ground those terms, both of which possess loaded meanings. To me, Sample's treatment of this issue is a little lacking.
The second observation (maybe less a gripe) is that while much of today's country music still parallels his argument (I was thinking of relevant songs as I read), the commercialized, bro-country, clap-track music that dominates the airwaves today is difficult to read into. There's no question that people like Luke Combs still address the contradictions of working class life and love, "When it Rains it Pours" being a good example, and that Tyler Farr's "Our Town" and Jason Aldean's "Rearview Town" deal with struggling rural communities that nonetheless are always home. However, listeners don't tend to read as much into the party anthem style of country people like Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line represent. It's become harder to apply the nuances of Sampe's case to these songs.
Overall though, this was a stellar book, tying together 3 of the fields that interest me the most!! It's wonderful to find a book that seems almost tailored for you, and Sample's unique argument resonated deeply with me. Was it imperfect? Sure, but amidst a tough 1L year in law school, I kept making time to work through "White Soul", because it was just that good.
Also, Sample makes a compelling case for the church to take on working-class music and habits to better appeal to the community. It's certainly harder for some denominations than others to do, but Sample points out that the relatability of country music makes it an important tool. In particular, he analyzes how the church is an "alternative community with an ultimate allegiance to Christ and not to the nation ... an important antidote to the poisons of the nation-state that is bound to late capitalism" (160). This fits nicely with Carney's position in "Alienated America" that Trump support is explained by those with low religious practice and low institutional capital and helps explain why those with higher church attendance tend to be less anti-immigration according to studies. Sample succinctly gets to the core of how Christianity and its sense of community can undercut nationalist populism, and his argument for reformulating worship to address the contradictions of working-class life might just be a partial solution to the spread of exclusionary populism.
I have two observations on Sample's argument that reveal weaker points. First, calling the political spirit of country 'populist anarchism' is a bold statement that requires more examination than Sample devotes to it. Dealing with more political theory might help to ground those terms, both of which possess loaded meanings. To me, Sample's treatment of this issue is a little lacking.
The second observation (maybe less a gripe) is that while much of today's country music still parallels his argument (I was thinking of relevant songs as I read), the commercialized, bro-country, clap-track music that dominates the airwaves today is difficult to read into. There's no question that people like Luke Combs still address the contradictions of working class life and love, "When it Rains it Pours" being a good example, and that Tyler Farr's "Our Town" and Jason Aldean's "Rearview Town" deal with struggling rural communities that nonetheless are always home. However, listeners don't tend to read as much into the party anthem style of country people like Luke Bryan and Florida Georgia Line represent. It's become harder to apply the nuances of Sampe's case to these songs.
Overall though, this was a stellar book, tying together 3 of the fields that interest me the most!! It's wonderful to find a book that seems almost tailored for you, and Sample's unique argument resonated deeply with me. Was it imperfect? Sure, but amidst a tough 1L year in law school, I kept making time to work through "White Soul", because it was just that good.
Read
February 20, 2023Tex Sample's White Soul is a compelling piece that argues country music is the music that encompasses the life of working-class people (mainly white working-class people, hence the title). His argument is mostly solid and provides very thought-provoking ideas and questions in regard to working people and their place in society. He also briefly touches upon the place of women and people of color in country music, as well as the sexism, racism and classism that undertones much of the music.
Towards the end of the book, Sample takes a religious turn and discusses how country music can be applied to the church, arguing for a "trashy" church: one where people would be free of a culture that values achievement over moral character. He is trying to convince theologians, and parishioners, to stop using differentiated language and move to a more oral based church, one that would invite working people to attend. He is sure to place a disclaimer that his ideas probably cannot be used at this time, and they can't, but they are interesting all the same. He encourages the church to look towards country music to understand the general state of working people and "get on their level", so to speak. His argument is not a new one, but it was the first time I'd ever heard a theologian argue for country music to be added to the listening list in Mass.
There were a few times the book contradicts itself, mostly towards the end. For example, the text mentions that there is nothing in country music to offer anything better, just some comfort to help get people through the night. However, Sample then contradicts this statement later on page 171 when he says that country music offers something "more."
I took issue with a lot of the bias this book presents. Sample's argument is against the elite upbringing and how white-collar people (in general) view the arts as something objective, using Immanuel Kant's idea that "art is for the sake of art." It may be unfair to suggest that working people have a superior view of the arts, which is what the subtext suggests, as that is steeped in subjectivity and perspective. In many ways, his own argument can be used against him. While he claims white-collar workers are looking down on how working people view music, literature and the arts, he is looking down on the white-collar workers for the same thing. The hypocrisy was jarring enough that I missed his message many times and had to re-read for objectivity.
I also had an issue with the preachy tone the text takes at the end of the book. Throughout most of the text, Sample presents objective and empirical findings on a rather subjective subject - and it was really interesting! Towards the end, however, objectivity is thrown out the window and the last paragraph of this book was one of the most preachy, on-a-soap-box paragraphs I've ever read. This disappointed me because it didn't go with the overall tone of the rest of the text.
All in all, I would recommend White Soul if the reader has never read a book regarding this type of argument before. It was a very interesting case study of working-class people and country music and presented information I had not considered before in a new light.
Towards the end of the book, Sample takes a religious turn and discusses how country music can be applied to the church, arguing for a "trashy" church: one where people would be free of a culture that values achievement over moral character. He is trying to convince theologians, and parishioners, to stop using differentiated language and move to a more oral based church, one that would invite working people to attend. He is sure to place a disclaimer that his ideas probably cannot be used at this time, and they can't, but they are interesting all the same. He encourages the church to look towards country music to understand the general state of working people and "get on their level", so to speak. His argument is not a new one, but it was the first time I'd ever heard a theologian argue for country music to be added to the listening list in Mass.
There were a few times the book contradicts itself, mostly towards the end. For example, the text mentions that there is nothing in country music to offer anything better, just some comfort to help get people through the night. However, Sample then contradicts this statement later on page 171 when he says that country music offers something "more."
I took issue with a lot of the bias this book presents. Sample's argument is against the elite upbringing and how white-collar people (in general) view the arts as something objective, using Immanuel Kant's idea that "art is for the sake of art." It may be unfair to suggest that working people have a superior view of the arts, which is what the subtext suggests, as that is steeped in subjectivity and perspective. In many ways, his own argument can be used against him. While he claims white-collar workers are looking down on how working people view music, literature and the arts, he is looking down on the white-collar workers for the same thing. The hypocrisy was jarring enough that I missed his message many times and had to re-read for objectivity.
I also had an issue with the preachy tone the text takes at the end of the book. Throughout most of the text, Sample presents objective and empirical findings on a rather subjective subject - and it was really interesting! Towards the end, however, objectivity is thrown out the window and the last paragraph of this book was one of the most preachy, on-a-soap-box paragraphs I've ever read. This disappointed me because it didn't go with the overall tone of the rest of the text.
All in all, I would recommend White Soul if the reader has never read a book regarding this type of argument before. It was a very interesting case study of working-class people and country music and presented information I had not considered before in a new light.
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December 26, 2010I am trying to read this book with no avail. I have come to the conclusion that the only use of this book would be a textbook. It is not very readable for pleasure. I think I might give it up for this one. It really is not as pertenant as I thought it should be.
December 23, 2007
Fascinating cultural studies approach to country music.
December 28, 2013
This reflects an America that i've never really experienced. It's culturally dated.
September 29, 2015
This was a textbook for a Music in Religion class. I found the book to be thought provoking and enjoyable. I would encourage those studying country music to read this book.
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