Friday, March 03, 2006

hag / swing

nice village voice piece by eric weisbard on the topic of merle haggard as avatar of swing.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Hmmmm ..... that is a nice piece. I wasn't aware Hag's folks were from OK. "Grapes of Wrath" does come to mind when I'm listening to his stuff.

Also didn't know there was such a big Bakersfield connection there.

I don't agree with Michael Denning's definition of swing as - "a collective aesthetic reflecting New Deal democracy, aligned with a broader left populism, dubbed the Cultural Front" - and I wonder if Hag would have resisted this in the same way Dylan resisted the old leftist "fuddy duddys" who tried to hijack him into serving their purposes.

I'd rather go with Wiesbard's definition "existentialist Bakersfield honky-tonk" when talkin' about Hag. I like that one.

paulo bola - far east bakersfield CA (aka funkytown tx.)

7:45 AM  
Blogger stashdauber said...

yeah, historically / socially, i'd figure that hag would claim bob wills before woody guthrie.

8:18 AM  

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