On the "hick-libs." 🧵
Several years ago I was shocked when I heard that a Texas country singer whose music I really enjoyed was a Beto O'Rourke-supporter (Ryan Bingham). For the life of me, I couldn't understand how someone associated with rural West Texas could be on the left.
Several years ago I was shocked when I heard that a Texas country singer whose music I really enjoyed was a Beto O'Rourke-supporter (Ryan Bingham). For the life of me, I couldn't understand how someone associated with rural West Texas could be on the left.
Around the same time, I heard Kacey Musgrave's breakout album. I loved (and still do) her western sound and style, as well as her songwriting ability, but the final track on the album ("Follow Your Arrow") made her leftist persuasions plain.
Over the next few years, a number of country artists (many mainstream) revealed their varying levels of dedication to leftist causes. Some prominent names range from Marren Morris to Sturgill Simpson to more recently Kelsea Ballerini and her drag participants at the CMAs.
One of the best examples of the increasing leftist political colonization of country music came in 2020 when Luke Combs participated in an awkward struggle session with Marren Morris where he ostensibly apologized for his associations with the Confederate flag.
However, mainstream country music is often more subversive than the off-brand, hipster, "authentic" country - snap tracks and hip-hop beats with an accompanying steel guitar is the current vehicle for marketing country, but not as much for marketing progressive politics.
The "raw," "real," and "authentic" music of coffee house country is where the social-political goals of Marxist activists really shine the brightest. This stripped-down, folksy, regional, traditional instrumented crooning is seen by its adherents as "the real thing."
Tyler Childers & Jason Isbell are poster children for this hipsteresque/traditionalist country. Both are products of Appalachia and have legitimate connections to much of what they sing about. Unlike corporate country their music often actually features ties to land and history.
It's common for millennials/zoomers who vehemently dislike country music to make special exceptions for the likes of Childers, Simpson, Isbell, Musgraves, or on the more "based right" side, Colter Wall and Cody Johnson.
However, it's impossible not to notice a significant leftist trend among the "musically authentic," rurally focused musicians. They don't tend to play big stadiums, opting instead for "art houses" and old theaters in downtown Lexington, Charleston, Birmingham, and Knoxville.
So while the hick-lib celebrities would have us believe that Appalachia and rural Oklahoma is home to covert gay coal miners and queer cowboys, the overwhelming majority of those who they claim to represent can be found at large stadiums cheering Kenny Chesney and Luke Bryan.
This is not to say there aren't legitimate hick-libs in red America, but how widespread is this fanbase? Well, let's look at where Tyler Childers went to high school - one of the bluer areas near where he grew up. As you can see, it's not very blue.
While data isn't available for Green Hill (where Jason Isbell grew up), Kacey Musgrave's hometown had a whopping 91% showing for Trump in 2020 (though Kacey would probably maintain that Golden, Texas is both backward and racist).
So obviously, someone like Childers who looks, sounds, and claims to be thoroughly representative of his Appalachian roots is, on a social level, he's not close to fully representative because his ethics are a form of leftist (or you could say culturally Marxist) colonization.
Collaboration has a long tradition in revolutionary movements - whether Soviet Russia, Communist China, the French Revolution, or during other colonial actions, be they benevolent or malevolent.
So how should we think about "hick-libs?" What do they represent? Why are Hollywood, Nashville & many leftist institutions (i.e. most institutions) pushing a narrative & trying to force a feeling that even coal miners, cowboys & country fans are secretly San Franciso homosexuals?
Think of the hick-lib as a collaborator - someone who stands to gain socially, financially & gain better opportunities by helping the regime in power make the normal, sensible population of rural, red parts of the country feel surrounded, discouraged, and despondent.
The good news is that for real, authentic, American/Christian/rural-based music, the demand is currently high. The opportunity to provide excellence as an alternative to both corporate country music and progressive coffee house country has never been more needed and wanted.
If you have the skill and drive to strum a guitar and sing the truth about what is, what was, and what ought to be, then today is your day. Put the pen to paper. Sing about the old, sing about the new - write about struggle, joy, heartbreak, and victory - you'll be a rare breed.
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