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your mind” and touting the virtues of “The Pill,”
an ode to a woman’s right to her own body that be-
came a best seller despite being banned by many
top radio stations. Country is not just about break-
ing hearts; it can be about opening them too.
If the themes of country have been more inclu-
sive than many realize, the makeup of those who per-
form it has been far too narrow. To put it mildly, ra-
cial and ethnic diversity has been the rare exception
in country rather than the rule. Blues and African-
American gospel was an essential tributary for the
genre as a whole, and there were early black musi-
cians who played important roles. But pioneers like
DeFord Bailey and stars like Charley Pride have long
been a rarity in a field dominated by white men. The
irony is thick: one of the greatest country songs in
history, “Will the Circle Be Unbroken?,” began as an
African-American spiritual.
There have been moments when it appeared the
doors were opening wider. In the early 1960s, Ray
Charles had a huge hit with his album Modern Sounds
in Country and Western Music, which featured cov-
ers of country classics such as Hank Williams’ “Hey
Good Lookin’,” the Everly Brothers’ “Bye Bye Love”
and Don Gibson’s “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” As
Willie Nelson put it, the pianist better known for
rhythm and blues “did more for country music than
any one artist has ever done.” Charles himself offered
the longest of views. “You take country music, you
take black music,” he said, and “you got the same
goddamn thing exactly.”
More than half a century later, the rise of Lil
Nas X and Blanco Brown offers a hopeful sign that
in a world where all lines are blurring, broad audi-
ence acceptance of artists of color may be the next
big front in country.
Perhaps country will also remedy the lack of
commercial avenues for female artists. Despite
legends like Lynn and Dolly Parton, you would be
hard-pressed to find any decade where more than
two or three female artists would be ranked by Bill-
board in the year-end top 10 artist rankings. The
success of artists like Kacey Musgraves, who has
built a major career and won multiple Grammy
Awards by finding a way to connect to the fans
without the filter of mainstream radio, points the
way to a more equitable future.
things Will alWays be changing in country
music. That’s as it should be. We can embrace tradi-
tion, and we can embrace the more current sounds
of the day—this is, after all, what our musical fore-
bears did so brilliantly. At its heart, country is the
music of inclusion and universality, and there must
be an open door—and open ears and hearts—for art-
ists who don’t look like Jimmie Rodgers or Hank Wil-
liams. Country is songs with stories for everyone, our
life experience played out in 3½ minutes. Complexity
is country’s friend, not its enemy, and more people
need to realize that.
That includes matters of politics. Ever since the
Dixie Chicks set off a fierce backlash in 2003 on
the eve of the Iraq War when they said they were
“ashamed” that George W. Bush was from Texas,
artists have been, perhaps understandably, skittish
about directly addressing politics in their music. To
be true to its roots, though, musicians, like any other
citizens, need to be forever open to speaking truth
when the time seems right.
In this, as in many things, Johnny Cash shows us
the way. In 1970, Richard Nixon invited Cash to per-
form at the White House. Ambivalent about the war
in Vietnam, Cash nevertheless accepted the Presi-
dent’s offer. Then he learned that Nixon wanted him
to sing “Welfare Cadillac,” a song that made fun of
the poor. Cash refused and performed his “What Is
Truth,” a meditation on the reasonableness of those
questioning war and social conventions. Among the
lyrics: “The old world’s wakin’ to a new born day”—
which, to Cash, to country music broadly, and to the
nation itself, is indeed an ancient and recurring truth.
Meacham, a Pulitzer Prize–winning historian, and
McGraw, a Grammy-winning musician, are the
authors of Songs of America: Patriotism, Protest
and the Music That Made a Nation
RAY
CHARLES
The legendary
pianist had a
huge hit with
his 1962 album
Modern Sounds
in Country and
Western Music
KACEY
MUSGRAVES
The winner of
the 2019 Album
of the Year
Grammy Award,
Musgraves has
built a following
without the aid of
mainstream radio
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