Country Music For People Who Hate Country Music Part 4: Songs That Didn’t Have To Go This Hard But Did

We gave a little attention to the genre’s political origins back in the bluegrass section. Now we’re going to dive into that with more focus. The biggest subgenre you will find here is Fuck The Police, but it also dips into Be Better To Each Other and Fuck The Nazis (Woody Guthrie is back). The tone of righteous anger and defiance is a key theme here, but this segment also shines where the songs get just plain old tired–being angry is exhausting. Ultimately this is a segment with songs about contemporary issues. Some of these are pretty close to the heart for me. This section is going to be a surprising one for those whose exposure to country largely stems from its conservative reputation.

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Outrage for the Execution of Willie McGee by Goodnight Texas

            This song is based on a real court case that is notorious now for being a miscarriage of justice committed under Jim Crow. Willie McGee was a black man convicted, with little evidence, by an all-white jury, of allegedly raping a white woman in 1945. He was executed via electric chair in 1951. The evidence presented was likely not enough to produce a conviction under fair circumstances, and the sentence was far beyond what any white man had or would have been sentenced to at that time. This song was released in 2018, but even 67 years later, its still worth being mad about.

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Poison Trees by Devil Makes Three

With a title that references the doctrine in US law that prevents illegally obtained evidence from being admissible in a criminal trial, Poison Trees is more about a general state of affairs than a single specific injustice. It challenges the listener over these things in a somewhat sardonic tone that gives it its distinction. This one is on my LSAT study playlist.

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Johnny Law by William Elliot Whitmore

I really thought this was a much older song when I heard it, but it appears to be an original. Released in 2009, it wouldn’t sound at all out of place in a collection of songs that originated in the forties. Taunting the police during a traffic stop is probably a bad idea, but it does make for a satisfying song. 

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1968 by Turnpike Troubadours

This one is wistful rather than angry—Turnpike Troubadours are good for that tone. It makes some historical references, and I considered breaking them down here, but I think its better to let this one speak to itself. It remembers a moment in time, both a specific historic event and the broader movement around it. I feel like you’ll understand what it’s a song about, at least within a couple of listens. Turnpike Troubadours manages to bring an impressive amount of nostalgia into this song, considering I’m pretty sure none of them were alive yet in 1968.

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Living On The Sand by Coulter Wall

If I were to boil it down to the barest essentials, Living on the Sand is Desperado but addressing a man who is 30 years younger. That doesn’t really do it justice though. It exquisitely captures the feeling of frustration in a young man who has been left directionless. There’s a masculine ideal, a very much empty one, that this song is speaking to. Like 1968, it captures a moment, but this is a moment much closer at hand to most of us.

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Biggest Thing Man Has Ever Done by Woody Guthrie

This is another World War Two era classic. Woody Guthrie presents a weirdly charming history of the world up until then. He then tells Hitler to go to hell. Like I said, a classic.

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We Shall Be Free by Garth Brooks—kind of

I’m finishing this segment with a triumphantly hopeful one. With a strong gospel influence, this is a stand up and wave the lighter kind of song. I promise it still fits in this segment. There’s a lot of darkness in this segment. There has to be, to cover the reality. But, it’s a mistake not to bring hope into it as well. That, too, is reality.

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There’s a line in here that I didn’t understand until many years after I first heard it that blows me away now that I know the context. Brooks has a mention in here about being “free to love anyone we choose.” That is what is sounds like—support for the gay community. It’s a quick line, almost unnoticeable today, not exactly standout. Guys, this song came out in 1992. He said this in 1992. And people were MAD. This line was enormously controversial. It was still in the song, in 1992. That kills me. Sometimes people are Okay.

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I have a lot of nostalgia for a lot of Garth Brooks songs, and this list wouldn’t have been complete without him. Unfortunately, it can be hard to find publicly available recordings of him, because he is a zealous defender of his copyrights. I had to limit his involvement because of that. Unfortunately, I could only give you this song as a cover.

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Next Week: Story Time! Songs that form a complete narrative, which is one of the other things country does really well.