
Hidden in the Mix: The African American Presence in Country Music
Diane Pecknold
The contributors to Hidden in the Mix examine how country music became "white," how that fictive racialization has been maintained, and how African American artists and fans have used country music to elaborate their own identities. They investigate topics as diverse as the role of race in shaping old-time record catalogues, the transracial West of the hick-hopper Cowboy Troy, and the place of U.S. country music in postcolonial debates about race and resistance. Revealing how music mediates both the ideology and the lived experience of race, Hidden in the Mix challenges the status of country music as "the white man’s blues."
Contributors. Michael Awkward, Erika Brady, Barbara Ching, Adam Gussow, Patrick Huber, Charles Hughes, Jeffrey A. Keith, Kip Lornell, Diane Pecknold, David Sanjek, Tony Thomas, Jerry Wever
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About Diane Pecknold
Reviews for Hidden in the Mix: The African American Presence in Country Music
RJ Smith
The Record, NPR
“Country music is white music. Its performers are white; its repertoire is white; its audience is white. That's the genre's image, anyway. But it's largely a myth, debunked decisively in Hidden in the Mix.”
Noah Berlatsky
Chicago Reader
“A fascinating and long-overdue compendium of essays that shed new light on country music’s complex and diverse history.”
Bill Baars
Library Journal
“Hidden in the Mix . .. steps in to set the record straight, within a dozen essays that tackle varied topics while persistently analyzing the racial history of country music and how it manifests itself, or is ignored, in the present – including in the works of country-music historians.”
Dave Heaton
PopMatters
“While rich in detail and strong in opinions, these scholarly essays are nuanced and balanced. The writing quality is superb too…. Hidden in the Mix is an excellent contribution to country music scholarship.”
B. Lee Coor
Popular Music and Society
"The collection helpfully analyzes the paradox that country music has been stereotypically framed as 'white music,' but a long tradition of black performers and fans exists. It uncovers the historical discourses that over time obscured country music’s multiracial origins and history."
Leigh Edwards
Journal of American Culture
“This is a useful collection with an engaging interdisciplinary balance of focus and imagination…. [T]he book is on the whole accessible, fresh, and contemporary in its tone and synthesis. The non-music specialist as well as the music history insider should find much to appreciate.”
Steven Garabedian
Journal of Southern History
“Hidden in the Mix is a worthwhile book that will appeal to the student of history, culture, music, and the South’s role in shaping American identity.”
Barbara A. Baker
Alabama Review
“[S]imply the best collection of academic essays about popular music I have read in years. … When it comes to proving the centrality of American music to the study of American history, Hidden in the Mix has few recent equals.”
Harvey G. Cohen
Journal of American Studies