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Vol. 5, No. 4: Winter 1999

  //  winter 1999

This winter we have Dorris Betts on Eudora Welty, John Shelton Reed on race, Shannon Ravenel on Good Ol’ Girls, James C. Cobb on country music, Sarah E. Gardner on women’s Civil War novels, and John Michael Vlach on plantation architecture.

Table of Contents
Essay

Rednecks, White Socks, and Piña Coladas?

Country Music Ain’t What It Used to Be . . . And It Really Never Was

by James C. Cobb
Just the other day, I read a lengthy piece suggesting that the Grand Ole Opry is about to fade away. Fans of “contemporary” country apparently don’t find Little Jimmy Dickens or Porter Waggoner terribly relevant, and the current chartbusters among the younger generation of artists are loathe to forgo the big bucks from lucrative road gigs for the paltry $500 or so that the Opry pays. Such news is certain to set off a new season of wailing and hand-wringing from those who fear the imminent demise of so-called “traditional” country music. »
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