Yet, with the rise of outlaw country in the late 60s and early 70s there developed a very minor but significant shift in country music discourse on religion. The outlaw status gives artists the license to explore and discuss taboos that upstanding members of society normally shy away from: such as sexual promiscuity, drinking binges, drug use, aimless road trips, political and religious hypocrisy, revelrous rebellion, and so on. And there are some interesting expressions of such music that I will get into below.
To the best of my knowledge, a strain of religious critique developed starting with Cal Smith's 1972 hit single, The Lord Knows I'm Drinking. It is with this song that a public dialogue begins about the hypocrisy of small-town religious church-goers who slip into bars on occasion. More than that, though, this is a rejection of the church as an institution that also upholds an individual connection to God. So, the trick of the critique is to undermine someone's moral criticism by applying their own logic to shut them up and have them mind their own business.
But that critique had been around for quite awhile and it just took time before it was condensed into direct confrontation of public morality concerning religion and society. But, by 1975 Charlie Daniels unleashed the unrepentant single Long-haired Country Boy. He takes on preachers, politicians, and class elitism from a libertarian-rural-drunk-stoner perspective. He just gets "stoned in the morning and drunk in the afternoon," while "a drunkard wants another drink of wine and a politician wants a vote, I don't want much of nothin' at all but I will take another toke." Here's his religion part of the song with refrain:
Preacher man talkin' on the TV,
Puttin' down the rock 'n' roll.
He wants me to send a donation,
'Cuz he's worried about my soul.
He said: "Jesus walked on the water,"
And I know that is true,
But sometimes I think that preacher man
Ought to do a little walkin', too.
But I ain't askin' nobody for nothin',
If I can't get it on my own.
You don't like the way I'm livin',
You just leave this long-haired country boy alone.
Despite his take no prisoners approach, CD ultimately applies the same logic as Cal Smith: leave me alone you hypocrite. However, he hints at something original, that religion is another form of desire/pleasure/addiction. This is a theme further elaborated on by Waylon Jennings's 1976 single, Are You Ready for the Country -- another decisive critique of religious evangelism. Notice how Waylon compares a preacher to a drug dealer in the following lines on the grounds that religion is just one among other addictive highs that people are drawn to:
Talkin' to a preacher, said God was on his side
Talkin' to a pusher, they both were selling highs
Well, I gotta tell the story, boys,
I don't know the reason why
This was a time when Waylon was extremely strung out on cocaine (over a $1,000/day habit according to some) and he had previously criticized Johnny Cash for "selling out to religion" as he sobered up from his own addictions and rediscovered his religious sensibility that he would retain till his death. Even Waylon succumbed to religion as a source for escaping drug abuse and addiction, or to apply his rationale, replacing one high with another.
Steve Earle is another indie/outlaw artist who takes risks in his music in both style and substance. He has two songs that really delve into religion from unique angles. The first is God is God which is really a theological piece of poetry on SE's religious views. But since I'm addressing critique let's take a look at the following lines:
And I believe in God, but God ain't us.
God, in my little understanding, don't care what name I call.
Whether or not I believe doesn't matter at all.
I receive the blessings.
That every day on Earth's another chance to get it right.
Let this little light of mine shine and rage against the night.
It is subtle, but notice that his claim that humans are not God is a indirect swipe at those who speak for God, thus undermining religious authority. Also, there is little need for religious groups and institutions if God does not need people to believe. So what's the technique here: keep God but throw out religion. This is a classical move of religious mystics (and contemporary spiritual but not religious folk) who challenge religious authorities and institutions by claiming that God is everywhere so why reduce him/her to one time, place, or person?
But, it is SE's next song that really pushes the boundary of acceptability from his American country music audience. While country artists have shown a willingness to criticize religion, you do not find a complete rejection of religion/Christianity or an acceptance of another faith in the industry. Well, SE received much criticism for his post-9/11 song, John Walker's Blues, where SE adopts John Walker Lindh's perspective of converting to Islam and fighting alongside the Taliban and al-Qa'ida in Afghanistan after seeking religious education in Pakistan. The piece really steps into the subject's shoes and avoids judgment to facilitate understanding, a difficult task with which any translator grapples. Confronting his audience with the new public enemy is something that takes courage due to the severe risk of losing his audience altogether if rejected. But, that is what many great artists have interpreted their role to be, and SE really stands up for artistic license with such a song.
Speaking of conversion, the soothing sounds of Dan Seals balanced a nature-religion in his 1984 single, God Must Be a Cowboy at Heart, and then pushed his audience's limitations with his single, We Are One, as a lyrical expression of his conversion to the Baha'i Faith, based on religious, racial, and gender harmony that still acknowledges his Christian roots.While not explicit, the "flowers in one garden" metaphor is straight from the Baha'i scriptures.
To top it all off, I was quite surprised to learn about rebel redneck David Allan Coe coming from a Mormon background. In the song Heavenly Father, Holy Mother he waxes poetic about his upbringing, but with a twist where he pines for the good ole' days when Mormons were polygamists that leaves a lingering critique of Brigham Young's reforms. I did a brief fieldwork expedition with a sociology professor while studying at Northern Arizona University in the summer of 2001 and visited a few polygamous Mormon communities along the Arizona/Utah border. Legend has it that DAC actually attempted to gain membership into one of the Mormon sects that still have their own line of living prophets, but was denied. Here's a few lines and the video:
If grandpa was alive right now there ain't no tellin' what he'd have to say
Why he had fifteen wives a living with him all when he finally passed away
And though I've just got two now mama that's enough to keep me satisfied
I haven't had a son yet but the good Lord knows the three of us have tried
Cause the Pennsylvania Dutch that we once spoke has been forgotten
And the Mormon way of life is almost gone.
Well, from singing drunkards, stoners, and coke-heads, to conversions to Mormonism, Islam and the Baha'i Faith, country music is not nearly as monolithic in its take on religion as one would initially suspect. Stay tuned for part two where I discuss how I gained a greater interest in pop culture and religious dissent in graduate school through a cross-cultural comparison of the Sufi poetry of Hafez and the Texas country music of Kevin Fowler.
