Is Country Music Quintessentially American?

Abstract

A phrase that arises repeatedly in relation to country music characterizes it as “quintessentially American.” In 2019 this characterization got a fresh boost from Ken Burns, who positioned it prominently in his Country Music documentary series. The words give voice to an established truism, but is there any truth to them? In what sense, if any, is country music quintessentially American music? With this question in mind, I will explore the meanings of country music and quintessential Americanness in the light of country music’s history, its longstanding reputation as a white genre, and recent work that is rewriting the story of country and other American music. Twentiethcentury conventional wisdom held that commercial country, known as “hillbilly” music until after World War II, originated in old English ballads and ScotsIrish fiddle tunes. Throughout the century, however, there were people on the ground who knew a different, more complex story, some through scholarship and others by direct experience. Research by Patrick Huber shows that nearly fifty Black musicians played on early hillbilly records in 1924–32.1 Those musicians knew that country was not simply “white music.” Likewise Lesley Riddle and Rufus ‘Tee Tot’ Payne, two southern Black musicians who shaped country music, respectively, through crucial collaborations with country music’s “first family,” the Carter Family, and by mentoring Hank Williams, the