Don't Get Above Your Raisin'
Bill C. Malone

English, Clothbound/Gebunden mit Schutzumschlag, 16x24.5 cm; 'Country Music and the Southern Working Class' Country musicians have often been people from undistiguished blue-collar backgrounds who have tried to make their way as entertainers in a society that has little respect for the working class. From this ambivalent position, they have voiced the sometimes contradictory values and longings of their culture while also attempting to fulfill the romantic expectations of outsiders. 'For every Garth Brooks,' Malone says, 'there are a thousand country musicians who perform in local bars, taverns, and American Legion halls and who have never been able to 'give up their day jobs.' These are musicians whose middleclass dreams are tempered by working-class realities.' A powerful and honest expression of the hopes, longings, frailties, and failings of ordinary people, country music increasingly resonates with listeners beyond its core constituency as they struggle with a compley and uncertain world.