Workin' Man Blues : Country Music in California.

Gerald W. Haslam
Bok · Engelsk · 2012 · Electronic books.

Omfang	1 online resource (393 pages)
Utgave	1st ed.
Opplysninger	Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Dedication Page -- Table of Contents -- Preface -- A Musical Interlude: Bakersfield, 1994 -- 1: Country Music-Roots and Stems -- 2: The Crockett Family -- 3: 1920s -- 4: Gene Autry -- 5: 1930s -- 6: Bob Wills -- A Musical Interlude: Penngrove,1994 -- 7: 1940s -- 8: Spade Cooley -- 9: 1950s -- 10: Rose and the Maddox Brothers -- 11: 1960s -- 12: Buck Owens -- A Musical Interlude: Los Angeles,1995 -- 13: 1970s -- 14: Merle Haggard -- 15: 1980s -- 16: Dwight Yoakam -- 17: 1990s -- A Musical Interlude: Bakersfield,1995 -- Bibliographic Essay -- Selected Bibliography -- Song Index -- Subject Index.. - California has been fertile ground for country music since the 1920s, nurturing a multitude of talents from Gene Autry to Glen Campbell, Rose Maddox to Barbara Mandrell, Buck Owens to Merle Haggard. In this affectionate homage to California's place in country music's history, Gerald Haslam surveys the Golden State's contributions to what is today the most popular music in America. At the same time he illuminates the lives of the white, working-class men and women who migrated to California from the Dust Bowl, the Hoovervilles, and all the other locales where they had been turned out, shut down, or otherwise told to move on. Haslam's roots go back to Oildale, in California's central valley, where he first discovered the passion for country music that infuses Workin' Man Blues. As he traces the Hollywood singing cowboys, Bakersfield honky-tonks, western-swing dance halls, "hillbilly" radio shows, and crossover styles from blues and folk music that also have California roots, he shows how country music offered a kind of cultural comfort to its listeners, whether they were oil field roustabouts or hash slingers. Haslam analyzes the effects on country music of population shifts, wartime prosperity, the changes in gender roles, music industry economics, and television. He also challenges the assumption that Nashville has always been country music's hometown and Grand Ole Opry its principal venue. The soul of traditional country remains romantically rural, southern, and white, he says, but it is also the anthem of the underdog, which may explain why California plays so vital a part in its heritage: California is where people reinvent themselves, just as country music has reinvented itself since the first Dust Bowl migrants arrived, bringing their songs and heartaches with them.
Emner	Country music -- California -- History and criticism. Popular music -- California -- History and criticism.
Sjanger	Electronic books.
Dewey	781.642/09794
ISBN	9780520922624
ISBN(galt)	9780520275058