Interestingly, I'm beginning to understand that what we conceive of as "alignment with the Confederacy" is a really really complex issue which has to do the way the South re-sculpted the meaning of the war after the fact. "the North won the war, but the South one the peace". What that quote refers to is the way that the South was sucsessful in remaking its own image after the fact as the 'beautiful downtrodden losers' of an unjust tyranny instead of slave holders who enjoyed the lifestyle of owning slaves.

This was undertaken conciously as they tried to, effectively, re-write history with, for instance, the much trumpeted notion of the grateful slave who was perfectly happy and content within the plantation system. This was, obviously, total horse-shit, and all anybody ever had to do was listen to some field hollers to dispel the notion.

But the zeal with which the enterprise was undertaken, and is success in recasting the South as the last vestige of traditional, pre-industrial agricultural America is STILL WITH US IN COUNTRY MUSIC, which is music that I love sort of for that reason. It has (or had at least up to the 60's) some whiff of authenticity. I think the most interesting thing that can be looked into within country music is WHERE that sense of authenticity comes from. Was there ever really a Country music? Or did the advent of radio, highly corporatized music publishing, and cultural NEED for catharsis and continuity demand that country music be developed.

The ballad form, which had 600 years of dealing with death and betrayal already codified, was close at hand.

This is highly simplified I know but I think it's an interesting avenue of inquiry.