Keep Your MAGA Hands Off My Music

Tom T. Hall, country music legend

After reading some of the less savoury comments under a recent post, it became clear to me just how many MAGA cultists seem to believe that country music “belongs” to them, and them alone.

This old lefty ain’t conceding the music I was raised-on to any Christo-fascists.

They’re welcome to their Toby Keiths and Jason Aldeans, young pups whose public personas are just cosplay in search of the dickweed dollar.

American folk, Old Time, country, country blues, western swing – you name it – has always been performed by folks from across the political spectrum.

Country music spoke to the trials, pain, and troubles of decent working people who were still smart enough to recognize and call-out hypocrites (who were often preachers and politicians).

The stock in trade of most country music was empathy for the heartbroken and downtrodden, and it was still widely understood that corporations and rich people are almost always the enemy of simple folks.

Back in the day, even when a performer DID hold conservative political views, 9 times out of 10 that meant conservative with a small “c” – not the rabid, spittle-flecked hatred seen everywhere today.

The propagandizing of the American poor and working classes took-off under Reagan in 1980, and received a rocket boost from the Australian-born, utterly reptilian Rupert Murdoch with his founding of Fox “News” in the 90’s.

I’m going to start regularly sharing the words of some old legends of country music, to put some of the MAGA lies and propaganda to bed.

*****

Tom T. Hall

Born 1936 in Tick Ridge, Carter County, Kentucky to a guitar-playing preacher, Hall tragically committed suicide in 2021 aged 85.

Wrote songs for Bobby Bare, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Loretta Lynn, and Waylon Jennings, among many others.

Nicknamed “The Storyteller”, Hall recorded a slew of hits during a long career including “(Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine” and “The Year Clayton Delaney Died”.

Like most rural people of his generation, Hall believed that patriotism demanded support for US wars, including Vietnam.

After Vietnam and the Civil Rights movement, Hall’s views evolved, becoming much more liberal in tone.

In an interview with Jason Gross, Hall looked back on his life and times:

“Well, I’m obviously kind of a liberal. Most of the folks around here are Republican. I’ve always been a liberal. My father never preached against jewelry. He never preached against tobacco. He never preached against short skirts or haircuts. None of that stuff is in the Bible.

“He never preached against polish on nails or nothing. They just think it makes them look better. With that attitude, he was a real rebel because about 90% of all the sermons you heard back then were about haircuts, smoking tobacco, wearing short skirts. That’s what they spent half the time preaching about. I just grew up with that.

“Politics with me is sort of like football. In the beginning, it’s a dangerous and vicious and mean game. Not for cowards.”

“…everybody is on such a great mission to be sane. Sanity is over-rated. You don’t want to be too sane, you know what I mean? I have always thought the best life would be a manageable mad thing. If you could somehow, you know, be weird and wonderful and strange and still kind of not get in anybody’s way, hurt anybody’s feelings, or cause anybody any economic disadvantage. But if you could get through life like that, that’s your best shot. Don’t try to be too sane. And if you could get there, then you could be honest. That’s the first virtue. Humility is a good virtue.”

An ability to evolve and change one’s moral compass seems to have run in the family.

Tom T. Hall‘s third great-grandfather on his father’s side, the aptly named John Justice, was a large slaveholder in the mountains of Western Virginia.

In his last will and testament written in 1850, John Justice freed all of the slaves he had held, and divided his land among them in an attempt to ensure they had at least some chance at a livelihood.

Many lines of Tom T. Hall‘s family appear to belong the mixed-ethnic mountain people sometimes called “Melungeons” which I have come to call “Old Mix Americans“.