Chet Atkins
Christmas With the Louvin Brothers
(University of Chicago Press)
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But why? That’s the question Vanderbilt sociologist Richard Peterson sets out to answer in his new book, Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity. He posits that ingenious marketing, in response to trends in both the entertainment business and national politics, streamlined a wide range of traditions into the music that we now choose to represent our idealized rural past. And two reissues of country Christmas classics, Christmas With the Louvin Brothers and Christmas With Chet Atkins, arrive just in time to put his theory to the test.
Back in the 20s, when Jimmie Rodgers, the singing brakeman, began recording, the music was known variously as “old-time,” “traditional,” “cowboy,” or just plain “hillbilly”; Hank Williams started out as a “folk” singer. But in 1952, when perhaps the best-known folksinger of the day, Pete Seeger, was called up in the McCarthy hearings, the industry adopted the blanket term country, and by the time Williams died the following year, it had been firmly established in the public consciousness. And what tied together the cowboy, the hillbilly, and the southern gentleman was a carefully crafted reputation for authenticity.
The original release of Christmas With the Louvin Brothers included only traditional songs, a decision that played up the hard-core side of the band’s sound and established a more old-timey holiday spirit. Not that any old-time string band would have played these tunes the way the Louvins did, with electric piano and smooth background vocals. The reissue mars the facade further with the inclusion of two rockin’ original holiday songs that were originally released as a separate single.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): album covers.
