White Soul: Country Music, the Church and Working Americans

White Soul examines the social, political, and religious foundations of country music as the soul music of white, working-class Americans. Country music gives voice to an economically battered subculture of hard-living and hard-working people who find self-expression in the music of honky-tonks and heartaches. It celebrates the "wild side of life" as a form of populist anarchism and escapist festivity. This unusual medley of sociology, theology, and country music history is also a compellin...