Country soul : making music and making race in the American South / Charles L. Hughes.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Print version record.

Introduction. There's a redneck in the soul band -- We only had this one thing in common : we liked all types of music : the birth of the country-soul triangle -- I got what I got the hard way : the music and mythology of the Memphis sound -- Selling soul : black music and black power in Memphis -- Take the white music and make it sound black : the Muscle Shoals sound in the 1970s -- Pride and prejudice : race and country music in the era of backlash -- The south's gonna do it again : the racial politics of the new southern music of the 1970s -- Disco and down home blues : country and soul at the end of the 1970s -- Coda. On accidental racists : interracial friendship, historical memory, and the country-soul triangle.

In the sound of the 1960s and 1970s, nothing symbolized the rift between black and white America better than the seemingly divided genres of country and soul. Yet the music emerged from the same songwriters, musicians, and producers in the recording studios of Memphis and Nashville, Tennessee, and Muscle Shoals, Alabama--what Charles L. Hughes calls the "country-soul triangle." In legendary studios like Stax and FAME, integrated groups of musicians like Booker T. and the MGs and the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section produced music that both challenged and reconfirmed racial divisions in the United States. Working with artists from Aretha Franklin to Willie Nelson, these musicians became crucial contributors to the era's popular music and internationally recognized symbols of American racial politics in the turbulent years of civil rights protests, Black Power, and white backlash. Hughes offers a provocative reinterpretation of this key moment in American popular music and challenges the conventional wisdom about the racial politics of southern studios and the music that emerged from them. Drawing on interviews and rarely used archives, Hughes brings to life the daily world of session musicians, producers, and songwriters at the heart of the country and soul scenes. In doing so, he shows how the country-soul triangle gave birth to new ways of thinking about music, race, labor, and the South in this pivotal period.

English.

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