Three Chords and the Truth
Why I love country music
Fulton Sheen (probably) once said:
There are not one hundred people in the United States who hate Country Music, but there are millions who hate what they wrongly perceive Country Music to be.
(Actually, now that I think about it, he may have been talking about the Catholic Church, not country music. I’m keeping it though.)
Hey, everybody. You’re reading The Collect, the newsletter that brings you whatever it is that’s on my mind each week. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s bad, and most of the time it’s weird. Thanks for being here!
Being from Texas, I grew up listening to country music almost exclusively, but I’ve learned that that’s not actually as universal an experience as I once believed it to be. In fact, some people don’t actually know what country music is — or, they think they do, but they’re actually wrong.
The title of today’s newsletter comes from legendary songwriter Harlan Howard, who wrote multiple number one hits (“I Fall to Pieces,” anybody?) and famously described a great country song as “Three Chords and the Truth.” His intention, at least as I see it, was to emphasize that country music composition is defined less by the music, and more by the message.
Now, don’t get me wrong — music still matters, especially instrumentation. But what sets country music apart from other genres, truly, is the content of the lyrics; the storytelling and the values that are being communicated through the medium of the song. A lot of great country music consists of extraordinarily simple music played while the singer essentially just tells a story. Exhibits A, B, and C.
A common criticism of country music is that it can all be categorized into songs about beer, trucks, or women (oftentimes all three), and that’s true to a large extent, but I think most people miss the point. Country music — like great classic literature — is about communicating the Truth, with a capital T. Country music aims to convey some piece of human experience, some aspect of the Reality that we all partake in. To that end, country music composers adopt subjects that people are familiar with in order to present deeper principles that are, as any writer knows, very difficult to put into words.
That song about beer? That’s a song about rest, about our human need for leisure. The song about a truck? That’s about cultural identity, and the labor that’s built that identity. The song about a woman? That’s about love, and our unending desire for it — and often, the pain we experience after it’s been lost.
Now, unfortunately, this principle has been lost by some artists and many record labels in the last two decades or so, and we’ve seen the rise of a subgenre of country music that some call “Country Pop” and others call “Bro Country” (I tend towards the latter term, myself). This sort of ‘country music’ (and I wince to call it that) is built on up-beat musical motifs and catchy choruses, and doubles down on the purely material themes of parties, beer, women, and more parties.
Bro Country, frankly, gives country music a bad name. It takes what is meant to be a vehicle for real shared human experience and puts it at the service of the corporate machine, rather than putting the corporate machine at the service of real shared human experience.
And country artists have even spoken up about it! Both Kenny Chesney and Brad Paisley (two contemporary country music greats) have bewailed the lack of creativity from Bro Country writers. Maddie and Tae, one of my favorite country music duos, even wrote a song about it.
In short, what people often think of when they think of country music, simply isn’t what country music is supposed to be.
Of course, country music isn’t the only thing that can be given a bad name by just a few bad apples.
Literature is a good example. Everyone who in high school has to read The Lord of the Flies is left scarred by their new understanding of what it means for a work to be a “Classic.” Then, when offered a copy of The Divine Comedy, they turn it down while experiencing flashbacks of awkward freshmen English classes.
Or Religion. Sometimes, horrible people take advantage of innocent people, and they claim to do it in the name of God; and in so doing, they give God a bad name.
In these situations, I think it’s always important to peel back the layers and look at the core of the thing. Is country music inherently materialistic? No, though some country songs have been written that way. Does that ruin all of the country songs that are about so much more? Well, I’ll let you decide.
All this to say, after taking a bit of a break from a lot of my normal tunes for Lent, I am back in the saddle on country music, and loving every minute of the ride.
Want to join me? Check out my playlist on Spotify.
Thanks for reading The Collect! If you like what I write, consider subscribing for free (or at a paid tier, which will help mitigate my impostor syndrome):
If you would rather give a one-time donation to support my coffee habit, use this button:
Finally, if you have anything to add or question me on, feel free to leave a comment, tag me in a Note, or send me a DM.
Until next time!
I dunno, man: most country music post-2000 is pretty terrible, and people like Kenny Chesney are almost directly to blame.
For a second when I saw Baby Blue come up I was thinking of a different song, but I liked this one as well; I don't know country music overmuch, except for Carrie Underwood and that one song with the Louisville Slugger (points for my home city!), and Jolene. I think those count as country?
Lord of the Flies, yikes. Read that one time. That poor kid with the glasses. You don't do that to kids with glasses. I am one; I took that personally.