Real Country: Music and Language in Working-Class Culture
“Real Countryis by far the best book on Texas country music and working-class culture since Manuel Peña’sThe Texas-Mexican Conjunto: History of a Working-Class Musicwas published in 1985. As opened to us by Aaron A. Fox, the working-class world of Lockhart, Texas, is complex and richly textured, and country music is its most characteristic and expressive voice. Grounded both in the most sophisticated recent scholarship and in Fox’s longtime involvement as performer and observer,Real Countryextends to the music the full measure of respect it deserves. In so doing, it carries country music scholarship to a new level that will challenge and guide all subsequent commentators.”—David E. Whisnant, author ofRascally Signs in Sacred PlacesandAll That Is Native and Fine