![]() We can here perceive a complex presentation of the meanings of the Civil War, in which the death and destruction inflicted on the South are worth mourning but in which the national fractures of the war are also deeply regretted. The song mourns the physical destruction unleashed on the interior of the South by Union forces during the latter stages of the war, conflating the destruction of the southern landscape and the death of its soldiers. While not shying away from the loyalty which many Confederate soldiers seemingly had for commanders like Lee, the band laments the fraternal destruction of the war and offers an appeal for American unity under one flag – that of the Union. This song mourns a dead soldier who had seemingly held an almost messianic devotion to Lee and to the Confederate cause. The spectre of General Lee also hangs over Chatham County Line’s ‘Final Reward’ (from ‘Tightrope,’ Yep Roc Records, 2014). Ultimately, the song is a powerful expression of the meaning of ‘home’ in war and, by the end, the anonymous soldier seems to care much more about being at home, either alive or dead, than about winning the war. The only motivation for fighting which the song offers is that of loyalty to one’s home state – the impact of the wider political and cultural milieu of the 1850s and 60s is not raised. The soldier tells of how the Confederate fatalities were buried all over the South – on whichever battlefield they fell – and voices his wish to be buried at home in Virginia should he be killed. ![]() As the campaign progresses, however, the terrible conditions which confronted the Confederate foot soldiers leave the young man wanting nothing more than simply to go home. Narrated in the first person and delivered in a barnstorming bluegrass style, the song tells of the young soldier’s initial enthusiasm to give the Union a bloody nose. ‘Carry Me Back To Virginia’ by Old Crow Medicine Show (from ‘Carry Me Back,’ ATO Records, 2012) tells the story of a soldier serving in Robert E. The songs have all been released since 2004 and all are by white musicians who hail from the South. These four songs probably fall into the category of ‘alternative country,’ a genre which is difficult to define but which arguably draws on traditional roots music from the south-eastern US, such as bluegrass, folk and rock. ![]() Rather than doing an extensive search for any country songs that might mention the Civil War, I have instead focussed on the four examples within my own record collection which refer to the war, in the hope that these few cases can offer an insight, albeit limited, into the meaning of the Civil War for modern country musicians. If a link could be discerned between the Lost Cause and modern country music, this relationship may tell us something about how the present-day South thinks about the memory of the Civil War and about the defeat of the Confederacy. Parker has described as a white southern re-telling of history that defends and justifies southern secession and antebellum society. If, though, we accept the contention that country music can be some kind of representation of ‘whiteness,’ this raises questions about whether references to the Civil War in country music might be influenced by the tradition of the Confederacy’s ‘Lost Cause.’ The Lost Cause is a trope which David B. This assumption has been challenged, most recently by Diane Pecknold’s examination of the African-American impact on the country genre, which Glen Whitcroft recently reviewed. There is a perception that ‘country music,’ in its various guises, is an overwhelmingly white phenomenon which is, at least to some extent, a product of its well-known links to the American South. Given that country music is arguably the modern-day South’s most famous cultural export, it is possible that references to the Civil War in modern country music could give an insight into this question. As a way of trying to get to grips with this issue, I have been thinking about how much the Civil War’s legacy can still be perceived in the popular culture of the southern United States today. For a while I had been trying to understand how far the South of the 1920s may have remained culturally influenced by the collective memory of the Civil War and the Confederacy. ![]() After grappling for some time with a particular question in my current research, I was struck by the possibility that music might offer a way into the problem.
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