Antimodernism and Genre from Country-Rock to Alt.Country, 1968-98
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Antimodernism and Genre from Country-Rock to Alt.Country, 1968-98 Jason Bianchi Kirby San Jose, California B.A. Sociology and Literature, University of California—Santa Cruz, 2002 M.A. American Culture Studies, Bowling Green State University, 2006 A dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Music University of Virginia August 2016 Abstract This dissertation is a cultural history exploring expressions of and responses to antimodernism within country-rock and “alternative country” music, drawing on reception history, intellectual history of underground and mainstream left-wing American political movements, interview discourse with artists, and close readings of songs. In this dissertation I argue that despite styling itself as a type of purer root or “folk” form of contemporary country music, in terms of its ideologies, studio production techniques, fan and critical discourse, and business practices, alt.country is a type of rock music. It embodies some of rock’s core beliefs, particularly rock’s critique of the more bureaucratic and “rationalized” dimensions of postindustrial capitalism, particularly as this relates to the everyday impact of new technologies. I argue that this anti-modernism, emerging here from the American political left, has been different in different eras, from the back-to-the-land movement of the late 1960s, to late- ‘80s/early-‘90s expressions of left populist punk’s longing for “folk” community. In this project I look beyond contemporary scholarly understandings of alt.country as mostly ironic, as ultimately I suggest that this music illustrates what Keir Keightley calls rock’s aesthetic of “seriousness,” more precisely than it does an understanding of country music ideology. In Chapter 1, I discuss Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline, placing this LP of humorously clichéd country tunes in conversation with the late 1960s back-to-the-land movement, ultimately arguing that Dylan’s work here is a sly critique of hippie counterculture. In Chapter 2, I argue that Linda Ronstadt became the rare musician able to “cross over” from the rock to country charts due to the notably blurred genre lines between rock, pop, and country of the mid-1970s, and ultimately the creation of a new musical “mainstream.” In Chapter 3 I suggest that the 1990s band Uncle Tupelo retroactively became a “founder” of alt.country in part because their left- wing populist music did not shy away from exploring the old-fashioned Christian thematic content sometimes historically associated with American populism. And in Chapter 4, I examine the work of alt.country singer-songwriter Lucinda Williams, arguing that her gendered critical reception as an emotional “genius,” coupled with her glamorous anti-modern portrait of loss and longing in her signature album Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, contributes to our contemporary understanding of the American south as a site of continual reimagining and contestation of meaning. Table of Contents Acknowledgements………………………………………………………………………………..v Introduction: Alternative Country Music and Anti-Modernism…………………………………..1 Chapter 1: “Country Pie”: Bob Dylan’s Genre Work in a Back-to-the-Land Moment ……………………………………………………………………………………………………19 Chapter 2: “I Come A Lot Closer Than Olivia Newton-John”: Country-Rock in the 1970s Popular Music Mainstream………………………………………………………………………88 Chapter 3: “They Want Us Kinder and Gentler at their Feet”: Uncle Tupelo’s Revivalist Antimodernism…………………………………………………………………………………149 Chapter 4: “I Think I Lost It”: Lucinda Williams’ Southern Backroads of (Recent) Memory ………………………………………………………………………………………………..…216 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………...……….284 Discography……………………………………………………………………………….........304 Acknowledgments This dissertation would not have been completed without the thoughtful encouragement and mentorship of my primary faculty adviser, Dr. Richard Will. From the initial conceptualization of the project, through the writing process and its eventual conclusion, Richard was a wonderful adviser and human being every step of the way. I thank him so much for his extremely smart and useful feedback on my work, and for having me at his office and home many times over the years for productive and fun conversations about the material comprising this dissertation. I also thank the graduate program in Critical and Comparative Studies in Music at the University of Virginia for supporting me in such a comprehensive fashion over the years. The opportunity to teach meaningful and challenging courses within the department as a means of earning my keep was a fantastic experience, one I will never forget. Furthermore, the graduate seminars I took within UVa Music’s program—and beyond—fostered some of the most exciting intellectual encounters of my life thus far. I got to know my dissertation committee members— Drs. Fred Maus, Scott DeVeaux, and Grace Hale—initially through taking their graduate seminars, and all of these were memorably varied and rich. I thank each of these faculty members not just for their helpful comments on my dissertation manuscript, but also for the many conversations we had in and out of class during my first few years at UVa, conversations which helped give shape to this dissertation. Thank you to the Music department and Music Library staff who worked tirelessly and cheerfully to make my time at UVa much easier: Winston Barham, Kyle Ruempler, Tina Knight, Arlyn Woodall, and Lorrie Jean. I would also like to thank Music graduate colleagues of mine who were particularly helpful and encouraging both in my early days in the program, and as I moved to finish the dissertation: Sarah Culpeper, Peter Tschirhart, Vilde Aaslid, Kirstin Ek, Emily Gale, and Liz Lindau. Friends in Charlottesville, my adopted home town of Richmond, Virginia, and around the world were all wonderful resources as I worked to finish this dissertation, providing me with emotional support and also just a break from work. Thank you in particular to Zach Hilpert for twelve years of friendship. Thanks also to these excellent friends: Dominic DeVito, Shaun Cullen, Kristina Meshelski, Kaveh Ardalan, Mike Borger, Chad Bear, Katie Cook Cheslow, Adam Cheslow, Thad Fortney, Kristin Reed, Sandy Flemming, Bob Bashum, Jenna Isherwood, Jeff Smith, Emilie Gravier, Alex Martin, Basile Rousseau, Vincent Delbos, Ludiwine Sabalot, and the entire volunteer group of Girls Rock! RVA. Thanks also to friends not listed here. My family has been my primary support network and source of inspiration throughout my entire life. Thank you so much to my parents Barbara Bianchi Kirby and David Kirby for always loving me unconditionally, teaching me so many things in life, especially a sense of humor and a unique way of seeing the world. Thanks to them in particular for housing me and supporting me financially during the completion of this dissertation project. Thanks also to my sister Valerie Kirby and brother-in-law Jon Weiner for their encouragement, love, and also occasional hosting at their apartment. Thank you to my aunt Linda Bianchi and uncle Bud Rink for their continued positive presence in my life; thank you to Linda for working with me on the extremely helpful clarity/contrast during the completion of this project. Thank you to my grandmother, Dot Kirby, for very enjoyable and encouraging phone calls over the past few years. Finally, thank you to my husband Arnaud Gravade, who is one of the most interesting, kind, funny, and admirable people I have ever met in my life. Merci beaucoup Arno. 1 Introduction: Alternative Country Music and Anti-Modernism I was in Atlanta when the news came on TV I was washing dishes just to get my meals for free Remember grandpa talking and this he said to me As long as I live it'll never happen again When the poets hopped a ride out west Grandpa got us by just sweeping floors Now everybody's leaving town Sell the house and sell the farm But you just can't ride the boxcars anymore —The Long Ryders, “You Just Can’t Ride the Boxcars Anymore”1 There's a fish in my stomach a thousand years old Can't swim a full circle, the water's too cold Burnt out cars in my fingers, conveyor belts flow Right angles and steam whistles, nothing can grow A big-antlered deer stepping into the road A beautiful woman with her head in the stove The skyscrapers crumble heavy with rats The wind's full of beer cans and whiffle ball bats —The Handsome Family, “Winnebago Skeletons”2 Well I live down in a valley Was the prettiest around Living in an alley in the middle of downtown And I didn't have to move To this big city You know I stayed right in my country home They built it all ‘round me I used to love these hills they flattened For that highway four lanes wide They're making a Manhattan Out of my countryside —Bottle Rockets, “Manhattan Countryside”3 1 The Long Ryders, State of Our Union, Island Records 7 90459-1, 1985, vinyl LP. 2 The Handsome Family, Milk and Scissors, Carrot Top Records 011, 1996, compact disc. 3 Bottle Rockets, Bottle Rockets, East Side Digital 80772, 1993, compact disc. 2 The defining mood of what is now usually described as ‘Americana’—in purely musical terms— is something deep and folksy and slightly creepy, about family and nostalgia and blood and sex and religious faith and death. By itself that would be well nigh unbearable, but there is a matching and extremely deadpan sense of humor, born of fatalism and all the funnier for it… This is down-home music, intimate—sometimes too intimate, or too close to home—and often sung close to the mic. It can be played on loud guitars—often slightly out of tune or at the very least ‘twangy’—or on instruments as ancient as the hills. It is music that needs close attention. It often sounds bare, or rough around the edges.