Author : Clifford R. Murphy
Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 0252096614
Total Pages : 224 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (52 download)
Book Synopsis Yankee Twang by : Clifford R. Murphy
Download or read book Yankee Twang written by Clifford R. Murphy and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 2014-10-15 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Merging scholarly insight with a professional guitarist's keen sense of the musical life, Yankee Twang delves into the rich tradition of country & western music that is played and loved in the mill towns and cities of the American northeast. Clifford R. Murphy draws on a wealth of ethnographic material, interviews, and encounters with recorded and live music to reveal the central role of country and western in the social lives and musical activity of working-class New Englanders. As Murphy shows, an extraordinary multiculturalism informed by New England's kaleidoscope of ethnic groups created a distinctive country and western music style. But the music also gave--and gives--voice to working-class feeling. Yankee country and western emphasizes the western, reflecting the longing for the mythical cowboy's life of rugged but fulfilling individualism. Indeed, many New Englanders use country and western to comment on economic disenfranchisement and express their resentment of a mass media, government, and Nashville music establishment they believe neither reflects nor understands their life experiences.