465 Comments

I can’t add to the existing commendations. They delineated everything i was going to say. I will commiserate with your discovery of the South. In 1970, with a BA in political science, I moved to southwest Georgia, near Pavo and Moultrie, and spent an idyllic decade living in an old tenant house, growing vegetables, raising chickens, keeping bees and getting to milk a Nubian goat.

All my stereotypes were destroyed, and that lesson has stayed with me throughout my life.

If you like country music, you should listen to two ‘70’s Grateful Dead albums, American Beauty and Workingman’s Dead. It was the debut of the Dead switching from their ‘60’s content to their rendition of joy, despair and classic Americana.

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Thank you!

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Beautiful and brilliant!!

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Brilliant!

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Beautiful sentences, great writing-honest and true. You are an intern? TFP knows talent that’s for sure. You are now on my radar and I will gobble up anything you write. Thank you Bari & Co!

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Oct 3, 2023·edited Oct 3, 2023

aww well written Evan, enjoy your music listening journey, definitely being open minded to a variety of genres and artists is the way to go :) Also loved reading about your apparently close relationship with your parents, very heartwarming as a mother of a 20 year old son myself :)

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keep writing, Evan. it's your ticket to connection. I feel I somehow know you. reach out any time, peterscon@8vc.com

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Hello, Evan: So happy you enjoyed your visit to my hometown! Your observation 'To insist on viewing country, or any other art form, through a racial lens is to obscure its history and to miss the beauty in that art form. It is to sap the art of its art.' is spot on. And kudos to you for pointing out that the modern banjo traces its roots back to Afrwho ica; kudos also for understanding the basic music theory of blues and country songs. I marvel as I listen to movie and TV scores from across the world how many of them draw upon both country and blues--to think how music of such humble beginnings took over the world is most satisfying.

If I may, allow me to suggest an artist whose heyday likely predates your birth: Travis Tritt--A Georgia White Good Ole Boy who shamelessly and graciously incorporates rhythm and blues, gospel and mountain music into his performances. And, when called upon, he plays a mean banjo! Best wishes!

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fumble fingers---'traces its roots back to Africa'...

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This paragraph is absolute gold: "But country music isn’t truly white, because nothing in America is entirely white or black or anything else, and nothing that endures—nothing with value—is about race at all. It goes beyond that."

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Very eloquent, thank you. For some reason, I don't particularly like country music, but I love Willie Nelson. Go figure. But as an Old White Guy who loves jazz, I guess that for every Buddy Rich (Doctor: "Are you allergic to anything?" Buddy: "Country music"), there's a Duke Ellington ("There are only two types of music - Good and Bad"). As I age, and with the able assistance of pieces like this one, I find myself gravitating more towards Duke.

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"the sounds of the South", yes, but elsewhere too.

"We came from the West Virginia coal mines

And the Rocky Mountains, and the western skies.

We're from North California and South Alabam',

and little towns all around this land"

- Country Boy Can Survive", Hank Williams Jr.

(Excellent essay, just had to throw that out there!)

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this was one of the best essays I've seen at TFP in awhile. We do have more in common with each other than the divisive anger churning manufactured culture would have us believe

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Coleman Hughes, you’re official,y an elder now! ;-)

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But Coleman was so young! :)

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Captured perfectly: "Even as his accent tells you that his is a different story than Chapman’s, the words remind you that it’s the same."

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It's the best sentence is a very good piece.

What's different today, compared to 70 years ago, is that white artists can freely allow themselves to be influenced by black ones, without embarrassment or apology. Remember, 70 or 80 years ago, they would have had to look over their shoulders at disapproving (or worse) whites who didn't want to hear it. I'm just old enough to remember it, which is what makes the complaints about "systemic racism" or "cultural appropriation" so ridiculous.

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Excellent article by an intellectually mature young man. You keep doing you. If an ancient white dude such as myself can be a huge fan of what some would call non-white music such as Zydeco, Afropop , Soweto Street Music, Soca, Reggae, and other genres, then you can cross over. In my mind, music is music, meant to bring some joy and comfort to us, no matter who or where we are.

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Great story Evan. I look forward to reading more of your work in the future 😊

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