Keeping the Sacred and Profane Coming, Y’all
James E. Akenson Mary Kutter, Carter Faith and AI Over the years discussions of the Sacred and the Profane in Country Music have been seen in journals, books, conferences, and social media. My friend and colleague Randy Williams and I have labored in the Sacred and Profane vineyard for quite a while. In fact, Randy […]
Six Degrees, Six Sigma, Or What
James E. Akenson Ray Griff Comes Around Just How Much? There’s all sorts of fascinating about unusual and unexpected connections that happen in our lives. Six Degrees of Separation gets a lot of attention. We’re supposed to be connected to anyone on the planet by a mere six connections through the right people. There are networks […]
Much More to the Hank Williams Story
Andrew Smith A review of A Psychological Biography Of Hiram “Hank” Williams, Volumes I, II and III by Paul R. Nail, Ph.D. Since Hank Williams’s passing roughly seventy years ago, he has remained a prominent figure in country music history, and his tumultuous life and early death still fascinate authors and fans alike. Over the […]
The Rich-R-Tone Folk Star Story: Appalachia On Record 1946-1954
Andrew Smith Bear Family BCD17549 (12-CD box set) The German Bear Family company has produced some excellent multi-CD sets of country music over the past few decades, though sadly, Bear seems to have ceased releasing new box sets—that is until now, with this collection, which lives up to the high standard of its predecessors, and […]
African American: No Surprise For Country Music
James E. Akenson In 1944 Swedish sociologist Gunnar Myrdal published An American Dilemma: The Negro Problem and American Democracy. It focused on the question of race in the U.S. and the disparities for African Americans maintained by the white power structure. Myrdal helped raise consciousness of racial disparities. The American Creed based on individualism, civil […]
EmiSunshine Brings Down The House Concert
James E. Akenson Here’s a question to ponder. What does a small town East Tennessee Baptist, a Symphony Orchestra, an old concept beloved by folkies and hippies, metaphors, Whipporwills, flowers, and a slight sense of being an outsider, have in common? Well that’s an EZPZ rider to answer. Here it is, boyz and gurls. Shades […]
Dylan Does Cookeville
James E. Akenson From the iron mines of Hibbing, Minnesota to the University of Minnesota, to the hip folk scene in New York, to the 1965 Newport Festival to Nashville, to just about everywhere else in the world Bob Dylan seems to have been everywhere. He also appeared in Cookeville, Tennessee recently. Well, that’s not […]
The Little Sandy Review Yogi Berra: Deja Vu All Over Again
James E. Akenson New York Yankees catcher Yogi Berra keeps coming up again and again as I go through life. Yogi Berra made famous the use of Deja Vu All Over Again. A touch repetitive. A touch redundant. But, it stuck in our cultural mind and heritage. Strangely, it speaks the truth. Things have […]
Breathing in “Black Lung” & Hazel Dickens
Anna Valcour I first heard “Black Lung” by Hazel Dickens in a graduate seminar taught by Dr. Taylor Ackley and was overwhelmed by her haunting, raw, lonesome sound – or as Hazel put it, “hard-core…it’s all feeling and emotion.” And she’s right. But then, I learned her story, and it gripped me even further. […]
Cold War Europe: Country Music
James E. Akenson NATO seems to be a bit shaky these days in the age of the second Trump administration. There are plenty of wars going on in places like Ukraine. I don’t want to be Biblical here…got to be inclusive… and I don’t know the equivalent statements in other world religions or philosophies…..but there […]