Page:The Evangelical Roots of Rock n’ Roll.pdf/10

Religions 2016, 7, 24 Wilson writes of his “dark spirituality. . . Williams grew up in the Baptist church, inheriting a strong feeling of Calvinist sinfulness reinforced by the temptations he faced in his life as a working-class entertainer” (, p. 79).

Some of this intense yet submerged religious tension stems from the fact that up through the 1950s, country music artists by and large had to publically live by the Carter Family’s concert poster which bluntly declared “This program is morally good”, all the while struggling with the guilt of their often spectacular “sinful” transgressions that belied the sacred songs and traditional morality they sang about daily. While the commercial nature of the country music industry—led by major Northern record labels from its beginnings in the early 1920s—would have stifled country musicians’ ability to write songs expressing their Christ-haunted struggles, the artists themselves would not have wanted to even if they could. As Flannery O’Conner observed firsthand, “the religion of the South is a do-it-yourself religion... It’s full of unconscious pride. . . ” (, p. 1107). Most Southern Christians rationalized that with stronger faith and avoiding temptation, such sinful transgressions could be a thing of the past; why vocalize one’s sinful struggle when greater piety is attainable with more willpower? For example, when a “deejay offered Hank [Williams] a drink after his June 18 (1949) Opry debut: ‘No, I quit’, said Hank. ‘I can’t handle it. I don’t ever expect to take another drop.’ And he truly, truly meant it” (, p. 117). Of course, when the flesh again proved too weak to avoid sin, then the guilt and disappointment only deepened the “fall”. To return to Ted Ownby’s argument (, p. 17), the two stark sides of Southern fundamentalism, the sacred and secular, reinforced and amplified each other’s extremity.

Before analyzing specific country musicians, it is important to note that the musicians examined below are male singers because the culturally conservative country music industry did not allow for individual female stars until after the scope of this study. Mary Bufwack relates of Nashville’s powerful WSM radio station, the sponsor of The Grand Ole Opry, “the station’s conservative philosophy actually kept women in minor roles for years” (, p. 161). Even after World War II, nearly all female singers of any stature had to work “with their husbands or family groups” due to industry gender standards (, p. 218). The first “bona fide female country superstar” was Kitty Wells, whose career began in 1952, and “it would be another ten years or so before women would really begin to stand alone as performers” (, pp. 223–24). Therefore, by the time Rock n’ Roll was emerging nationally in the mid-1950s, country music was still nearly a decade away from individual female stars being mainstream. The Christ-haunted culture of country music is more apparent in the careers of male superstars because most country stars in this period were male.

One example of country music’s Christ-haunted culture comes from aforementioned popular 1950s country-gospel group, the Louvin Brothers. Born in Sand Mountain, Alabama in the 1920s, Charlie and Ira Louvin grew up singing Sacred Harp music in their family’s Baptist church. Despite their album warning listeners that Satan is Real, with songs about not accepting “Satan’s Jeweled Crown”, of “The Drunkard’s Doom” , and promising the saving “River of Jordon” to all who seek it, Ira Louvin was an extremely troubled person. He was an alcoholic married four times; his third wife shot him three times in the back after he tried to strangle her with a telephone cord (, p. 97). When performing drunk, he would occasionally smash his mandolin on stage in anger (, p. 85). Ira died in 1965 when a drunken driver struck his car; at the time of his death, a warrant for Louvin’s arrest had been issued on a DUI charge.

Ira Louvin understood “The Drunkard’s Doom” and the allure of “Satan’s Jeweled Crown” better than most, which allowed him to sing of and yearn for the cleansing “River of Jordan” all the more authentically. Reminiscent of Son House and Charley Patton’s preaching, Ira’s brother and musical partner, Charlie, traces the roots of his brother’s problems to a religious struggle steeped in guilt: “My brother was a biblical scholar; a lot of people say he was called to preach. That’s why he led such a miserable life, because he refused to accept the calling” (, p. 48). Although he spent his professional career singing gospel music, being told by fans that “Louvin Brothers music caused them to live in a Christian home” (, p. 65), he was unable to overcome the contrast between his spurned