Everyone’s favorite environmentalist, Young People For staffer and my friend Carolynn Johnson is back with some important insight for us on the environment, conservatives, and country music. Here’s Carolynn:
The Environment and Country Music: Friends or Foes?
I said I wanna touch the earth
I wanna break it in my hands
I wanna grow something wild and unruly
I wanna sleep on the hard ground
In the comfort of your arms
On a pillow of bluebonnets
In a blanket made of stars
Cowboy take me away
Fly this girl as high as you can
Into the wild blue
Set me free oh I pray
Closer to heaven above and
Closer to you closer to you
One of my all time favorites is this song “Cowboy Take Me Away” by the Dixie Chicks. The song has so many beautiful images of nature and the environment and I love how this girl really wants to just get dirty and roll around in some flowers. The stars, the bluebonnets, and nature are these amazing aspects of life that she really values. And this is common in a lot of country music songs. There are always lyrics and pictures about how the singer wants to live “where the green grass grows” and the genre exhibits a clear love and interest in the big outdoors.
However, although I’m a fan of country music, I haven’t always been a fan of country music fans. When the Dixie Chicks criticized the President way back before the Iraq War started, the reaction from the fans clearly showed their political tendencies—conservative.
But my question is if country music shows such a respect and love for nature throughout its music and culture, why would its fans support politicians who don’t?
2 responses so far ↓
1 Jamia // May 29, 2007 at 2:22 pm
you go girl. i love old school country that was very political, like loretta lynn’s “The Pill” and “Coal Miners Daughter” and Dolly Parton’s working class tribute “9 to 5″
Johnny Cash had a bunch of political songs too.
The Dixie Chicks are taking country back instead of letting bigots and war mongers run the scene. xo
2 Carlos // Jan 23, 2008 at 3:11 pm
It’s a bit shortsighted and narrow to think that conservatism and conservation are mutually exclusive concepts. Also, just as the Dixie Chicks have a protected right to criticize the President, their ‘fans’ should be afforded equal rights in their criticism of the band.
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