Country music's debt to African American music has long been recognized. Black musicians have helped to shape the styles of many of the most important performers in the country canon. The partnership between Lesley Riddle and A. P. Carter produced much of the Carter Family's repertoire; the street musician Tee Tot Payne taught a young Hank Williams Sr.; the guitar playing of Arnold Schultz influenced western Kentuckians, including Bill Monroe and Ike Everly. Yet attention to how these and other African Americans enriched the music played by whites has obscured the achievements of black country-music performers and the enjoyment of black listeners.

The contributors to Hidden in the Mix examine how country music became "white," how that fictive racialization has been maintained, and how African American artists and fans have used country music to elaborate their own identities. They investigate topics as diverse as the role of race in shaping old-time record catalogues, the transracial West of the hick-hopper Cowboy Troy, and the place of U.S. country music in postcolonial debates about race and resistance. Revealing how music mediates both the ideology and the lived experience of race, Hidden in the Mix challenges the status of country music as "the white man's blues."

Contributors. Michael Awkward, Erika Brady, Barbara Ching, Adam Gussow, Patrick Huber, Charles Hughes, Jeffrey A. Keith, Kip Lornell, Diane Pecknold, David Sanjek, Tony Thomas, Jerry Wever

Revealing how music mediates both the ideology and the lived experience of race, Hidden in the Mix challenges the status of country music as "the white man's blues."

About the Author

Diane Pecknold is Associate Professor of Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Louisville. She is the author of The Selling Sound: The Rise of the Country Music Industry, also published by Duke University Press, and editor (with Kristine M. McCusker) of A Boy Named Sue: Gender and Country Music.

Reviews
"Hidden in the Mix is a comprehensive and worthy addition to the canon of popular music history. It breaks new ground and digs deep. By looking at both historical traditions (the banjo, early blues-hillbilly music) and contemporary cultural phenomena (hick-hop and country pop), as well as African American artists past and present (Bill Livers, Ray Charles, Cowboy Troy), the book greatly expands our knowledge of this intriguing subject."-Holly George-Warren, author of Public Cowboy No. 1: The Life and Times of Gene Autry
"Diane Pecknold's collection is profoundly important in implication and a long-awaited intervention in the country-music literature."-Aaron A. Fox, author of Real Country: Music and Language in Working-Class Culture
"Diane Pecknold rounds up some of the better music writers in academia in order to put a light on country's many black roots and the country's unease with said roots. It's not perfect, but what's good here makes the collection indispensable." -- RJ Smith * The Record, NPR *
"Country music is white music. Its performers are white; its repertoire is white; its audience is white. That's the genre's image, anyway. But it's largely a myth, debunked decisively in Hidden in the Mix." -- Noah Berlatsky * Chicago Reader *
"A fascinating and long-overdue compendium of essays that shed new light on country music's complex and diverse history." -- Bill Baars * Library Journal *
"Hidden in the Mix . .. steps in to set the record straight, within a dozen essays that tackle varied topics while persistently analyzing the racial history of country music and how it manifests itself, or is ignored, in the present - including in the works of country-music historians." -- Dave Heaton * PopMatters *
"While rich in detail and strong in opinions, these scholarly essays are nuanced and balanced. The writing quality is superb too.... Hidden in the Mix is an excellent contribution to country music scholarship." -- B. Lee Coor * Popular Music and Society *
"The collection helpfully analyzes the paradox that country music has been stereotypically framed as 'white music,' but a long tradition of black performers and fans exists. It uncovers the historical discourses that over time obscured country music's multiracial origins and history." -- Leigh Edwards * Journal of American Culture *
"This is a useful collection with an engaging interdisciplinary balance of focus and imagination.... [T]he book is on the whole accessible, fresh, and contemporary in its tone and synthesis. The non-music specialist as well as the music history insider should find much to appreciate." -- Steven Garabedian * Journal of Southern History *
"Hidden in the Mix is a worthwhile book that will appeal to the student of history, culture, music, and the South's role in shaping American identity." -- Barbara A. Baker * Alabama Review *
"[S]imply the best collection of academic essays about popular music I have read in years. ... When it comes to proving the centrality of American music to the study of American history, Hidden in the Mix has few recent equals." -- Harvey G. Cohen * Journal of American Studies *



Book Information
ISBN 9780822351634
Author Diane Pecknold
Format Paperback
Page Count 392
Imprint Duke University Press
Publisher Duke University Press
Weight(grams) 522g