"Stand tall, turn your three guitars up real loud, and do what you do": The Redneck Liberation Theology of the Drive-By Truckers
The relatively new genre of alternative country music often offers a similar theological perspective to that of its predecessor, traditional country. Both generally respond to the redneck condition-the plight of the rural working classes in the American South-by focussing on the immanent and materia...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Interlibrary Loan: | Interlibrary Loan for the Fachinformationsdienste (Specialized Information Services in Germany) |
| Published: |
[2006]
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| In: |
Journal of religion and popular culture
Year: 2006, Volume: 13, Issue: 1 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | The relatively new genre of alternative country music often offers a similar theological perspective to that of its predecessor, traditional country. Both generally respond to the redneck condition-the plight of the rural working classes in the American South-by focussing on the immanent and material rather than the transcendent and spiritual. This paper will address alternative country's concern for the here-and-now as it occurs in the lyrics of one prominent band, the Drive-By Truckers. I will suggest that the Truckers subscribe to what David Fillingim has called "redneck liberation theology," a belief that the end to human suffering is due in the present world rather than in the promise of a distant heaven. The Drive-By Truckers ultimately find God and the organized church lacking in their ability to bring about human redemption, and, consequently, look to music as a surrogate "religion" that provides necessary, if provisional, spiritual answers. |
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| ISSN: | 1703-289X |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Journal of religion and popular culture
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3138/jrpc.13.1.002 |
