In 1979, Howard and David Bellamy, a duo from Darby, Florida recording as “The Bellamy Brothers,” released their classic Southern pride anthem “You Ain’t Just Whistlin’ Dixie” as the third single from their Warner Bros./Curb LP The Two and Only (Billboard Discography). The song was a commercial success, rising to #5 on the Billboard Hot Country Singles chart by October 1979 (Billboard Chart) and thus securing itself a permanent place in the country music canon. Almost thirty years later, Ray Stephenson, a young songwriter from south Georgia who would eventually write for Curb Music Publishing in Nashville, released “Farmboy,” the co-written first single from his CD Gravity which features the proclamation, “I was born in Dixie, like it or not; I’m Southern by the grace of God.” The song became an instant signature for Stephenson and served to solidify his “Southern renaissance man” image with his fan base—he recently produced a video of “Farmboy” (his first) and his web site alone records over 67,000 plays of the song (Stephenson).

These songs continue a long country music tradition of songs thematically structured around the theme of the South-as-Dixie; “Dixie On My Mind,” “Dixieland Delight,” “Dixie Road,” “If Heaven Ain’t A Lot Like Dixie,” and “I Sang Dixie As He Died” are only some of the many other examples. The tradition is founded upon a particular interpretation of the symbolism contained in the Confederate battle anthem “Dixie” (Exhibit A), an interpretation that characterizes the South as an idyllic agrarian paradise where old times “are not forgotten.” Dixie citizenship comes through Dixie birth, and that birth confers a birthright—one that demands adherence to the myth and brings with it the responsibility to “take a stand” for Dixie when necessary. And while any of the previously mentioned songs would serve to illustrate the nature of the “Dixie myth” in country music, a comparison of “You Ain’t Just Whistlin’ Dixie” and “Farmboy” reveals something even more—the development of that myth over thirty years of commercial country music. If the original song is the blueprint for the myth, then “You Ain’t Just Whistlin’ Dixie” and “Farmboy” can both be seen as cultural expressions of the same myth, occurring at different points in time. It is convenient to think of Bellamy’s song as emerging from the “classic country” era, and Stephenson’s as coming from the “new country” era. It is the temporal variations on the myth between the different eras that provide a clue to a larger cultural reality; namely, that while the “Dixie myth” continues to occupy the psyches and imaginations of many Southerners as much today as it did in the 1970s or the 1860s, it has become more important by virtue of its own right rather than by virtue of its origins. The myth has become institutionalized, in other words, and therefore exists now for its own sake rather than the original purpose for which it was contrived. This suggests that Southern mythology has superseded its objective relationship to the old Confederacy, and no longer relies on a connection to it for credibility or perpetuation—that is, the myth exists as a fully developed cultural influence independent of actual historical events or associations.

Some would argue that commercial country music is not an appropriate body of work to consider in a cultural analysis, that its conscious and persistent marketing as an authentic folk form is precisely what renders it inauthentic. Yet it seems that the commercial aspect of the music—especially its dissemination by radio, television, and mechanical media—is the very component that gives commercial country music its credibility as a cultural influence. As Cecilia Tichi has observed, “Country music…is really about the country—the U. S. A.—as the nation has been represented in its literature and its visual arts” (Tichi xi). This argument takes that proposition a step further by claiming that country music is really about the Southern region of the country, and the way that region has been represented. Although some scholars may not wish to legitimize the influence of country music on the Southern population, it is not really up to them; commercial country music has been influential on Southern culture because that’s what has been accepted by Southerners as a legitimate cultural expression. Many country songwriters and artists continue to be from the South (although this is less true today than even ten years ago), and Nashville mythology is almost as ubiquitous in the South as Dixie mythology. “Country music is widely enjoyed by people in all walks of North American society and around the world, but its primary audience is the children and grandchildren of the poor rural Southerners that gave commercial country music its birth.” (Peterson 9). No matter the scope of country music’s appeal, it remains the folk-child of Southerners, and continues to reflect the cultural and ideological values of many of them (in spite of its uncomfortable propensity for occasional self-parody and kitsch).

In the comparison between a classic country song and a new country song that both draw on the Dixie myth, an impression emerges of the influence of the myth on both eras of country music, and in turn on many Southerners of those eras. Similarly, there is a clear reciprocal sense of how the values of the different periods find their way into the songs as well. For example, the central logic of all three songs relies on a veneration of the Southern land—a sort of nature-worship fixated on the geographical features of the southeastern United States. The original song “Dixie” establishes this in the first line; “I wish I was in the land of cotton,” implying an agrarian lifestyle by the mere presence of cotton. Bellamy takes up the theme as his first as well, celebrating pine trees, alligators, river banks, and the conflation of pastime with subsistence (illustrated by way of a young boy stealing “his daddy’s fishing line”). Bellamy’s vision connects the land with agriculture in the second verse—by way of “cotton,” predictably—but goes a step further by adding a cow and a baby, inhabitants who are dependent on the agrarian lifestyle for their survival. Bellamy recognizes that this lifestyle is often accompanied by the unromantic scourges of poverty and alcoholism, arguably a direct evolution of the Reconstruction-era policies of the United States government towards the Southern states; even so, “these are a few things [he’s] in love with.” Certainly, Bellamy doesn’t mean that he is love with poverty and alcoholism; rather, it appears that he means that he is in love with the fact that those elements appear in the Dixie myth. They symbolize the connection between the Dixie of the classic country era and the Dixie of the old Confederacy. He makes an unequivocal claim on this relationship in the chorus, describing himself as “a grandson of the Southland,” and directing that his feet be planted “with Robert E. Lee” in the implied event of his death. The agrarian element of the Dixie myth is fully present in Bellamy’s song, invoked by the image of the cattle call, and it is inextricably bound up with the historical fact of the Southern Confederacy.

By the time of Stephenson’s song, however, this association has disappeared. Cotton is still the crop being farmed, but there are no hard times on Stephenson’s farm; hard work is “good for you,” and besides, he has “a big Caterpillar” with which to turn over the cotton field. The veneration of the lifestyle is still present, but the adjunct hardships of living off the land are ignored; this suggests that the song arises from a post-agrarian cultural moment that depends more on the idea of farming than actually participating in any agricultural activities. Whereas Bellamy’s desperate characters are drinking gin (perhaps cooked in a bathtub) and behaving violently, Stephenson’s are drinking (newly fashionable) PBR and fending off boredom by skinny dipping with attractive young girls. Whereas Bellamy’s inhabitants are crying and washing their clothes in creek water, Stephenson’s are all driving trucks and honkytonking in flip flops. Moreover, unlike Bellamy, Stephenson doesn’t feel the need to state his Southern pedigree explicitly; he establishes his bona fides by simply claiming to be a “farmboy” who was “born in Dixie.” This tells the audience all they need to know; they can trust him when he tells them, “I’m who I am, not something I pretend to be.” Stephenson is working in very familiar territory here; he knows his audience, and trusts them to connect all the implicit dots. This is a clear example of the Dixie myth shedding its dependence on an overt association with the old Confederacy and taking on an existence of its own.

This analysis suggests that the Dixie myth is not receding from the Southern imagination, but merely standing up on its own legs and assuming on a new form. Coming from the classic country era, Bellamy’s vision of the myth depended on a physical connection to the soil, traced back to the political entity known as the Confederate States of America. In the new country era, Stephenson only has to invoke some feature of that era to authenticate his version. In keeping with another country music convention, the feature he chooses is a grandfather (compare with Bellamy’s “grandson of the Southland” language) whose own bona fides are established by the assertion that he, too, was “born in Dixie, like it or not; he was also “Southern by the grace of God,” as evidenced by his history of bootlegging and his broken-down moonshine still. Bellamy’s singer gains credibility in virtue of his claim of inheritance, while Stephenson’s gets by simply because he is the farmboy grandson of another farmboy. Both versions attempt to tie back into the past, but they select different historical moments as both the touchstone and the example of what Dixie entails for each of them. For Bellamy, violent alcoholics and dry water wells serve as temporal cultural markers; in Stephenson, the same work is done by Robert Earl Keen and a 1969 Mustang. Dixie has become fully mythologized in the later song, the realistic elements of the earlier one replaced by romanticizations.

It is worthwhile to note that the Dixie contained in all versions of the myth is completely ambivalent about diversity and ignores any consideration of race, although each allude to the subject with varying degrees of subtlety. “The land of cotton” posited by the original song is a polarizing image by itself—brown dirt surrendering white cotton in exchange for the red blood of black bodies. Bellamy seems to indicate a position with his claim to of inheritance to the Confederacy (although he lets the connotations and symbolism of that claim hang in the air unexamined), while Stephenson perhaps makes a stronger statement, characterizing “rap” and “hip-hop” as a waste of time. Still, racial questions are not an essential part of the Dixie myth, which may be a clue to its popularity in the imaginations of many white Southerners.

Interestingly, although the “taking a stand” motif appears a fundamental proposition of the original battle anthem and its associated mythology, this feature fades considerably with the chronological development of the myth. Bellamy’s construction of it features an exhortation to “put me down there where I want to be and plant my feet with Robert E. Lee”—a far less militant sentiment than “In Dixie land I’ll take my stand to live and die in Dixie,” although Bellamy does allude to the probability that he, too, will die in Dixie. This language appropriates the whole of the Lee myth and bends its power to legitimization of Bellamy’s statement. Stephenson follows a similar path when he avers, “I’ll be down a dirt road ‘til the day I die.” It is in keeping with our understanding of the myth’s development that Bellamy takes his stand with General Lee, while Stephenson takes his with his grandfather, who also “lived down a dirt road ‘til the day he died.” This detail reveals that the “taking a stand” of the 19th century—ostensibly, going to war—morphed into “taking a stand” with those who had gone to war in the 20th century, and that by the 21st century it shed all overt militant associations to simply mean that one intended to persist as a resident of the South. It is noteworthy that the agrarian focus of the myth—arguably its non-violent, less controversial aspect—has risen in the imagination of those working within it, while the belligerence and violence of “taking a stand” has been ameliorated. This is probably due as much to the myth’s natural evolution as to the impulse to shy away from fractious themes in popular culture (especially those tending to shed light on racial tensions).

This general framework, while not exhaustive, provides a good starting place from which to understand the importance of the Dixie myth as it has operated in country music from the classic era to the new era. It gives some sense of how the myth has operated within the larger Southern culture—or at least within some significant portion of it. It provides evidence of “tradition as a renewable resource” (Peterson 34), and indicates that psychological commitments in the future may be more attached to an understanding of one’s role in a fictional metanarrative than to historical events. It suggests that the old Confederacy is of far less consequence to modern Southerners than the mythology surrounding the Confederacy, which continues to be relevant to at least some of us. It also indicates a larger trend; namely that Southerners—along with many others—are identifying more closely with pure ideologies as a way to retain some semblance of identity in a modern world buffeted by widespread apathy, ubiquitous nihilism, and profound uncertainty.

Exhibit A. “Dixie”

I wish I was in the land of cotton
Old times there are not forgotten
Look away, look away, look away, Dixieland

In Dixieland where I was born in
Early on one frosty mornin’
Look away, look away, look away, Dixieland

Then I wish I was in Dixie, hurray, hurray
In Dixieland I’ll take my stand to live and die in Dixie
Away, away, away down South in Dixie
Away, away, away down South in Dixie.

Public domain.

Exhibit B. “You Ain’t Just Whistlin’ Dixie”

The pine trees grow so tall in the bright sunshine
A young boy steals his daddy’s fishing line
The alligator lays on the banks of the river bed
And if you didn’t know any better you’d swear he’s dead

Now these are a few things I’m in love with
A small part of the reason I go back
To Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, gorgeous Georgia
Now if you think I’m happy down there you’re on the right track

You ain’t just whistling Dixie
You ain’t just slapping your knee
I’m a grandson of the Southland
An heir to the Confederacy
You ain’t just whistling Dixie
‘Cause the cattle call’s calling me home
So put me down there where I want to be
Plant my feet with Robert E. Lee
Bury my bones under a cypress tree
And never let me roam

The cotton balls gleam and the cows give cream for the baby’s sake
Pa comes in full of gin and he’s mean as a rattlesnake
Another well runs dry and we cry and cuss the garden hose
And mama draws a bucket full of creek water just to wash our cloths

Now these are a few things I’m in love with
A small part of the reason I go back
To Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, gorgeous Georgia
Now if you think I’m happy down there you’re on the right track

You ain’t just whistling Dixie
You ain’t just slapping your knee
I’m a grandson of the Southland
An heir to the Confederacy
You ain’t just whistling Dixie
‘Cause the cattle call’s calling me home
So put me down there where I want to be
Plant my feet with Robert E. Lee
Bury my bones under a cypress tree
And never let me roam.

© 1979 by Howard Bellamy (ASCAP)

Exhibit C. “Farmboy”

I grew up in a town down in south Georgia
Not afraid of hard work ‘cause it’s good for you
Drinking water from the hose in July so I don’t get scorched
I drive a big Caterpillar, turn the cotton field over
Won’t come inside ‘til the chores are all over
If it gets too hot the dogs’ll hide under the porch

I was born in Dixie like it or not
I’m Southern by the grace of God
I’ll be down a dirt road ‘til the day I die
I’m an f-a-r-m-b-o-y

We go honkytonkin’ in our flip flops
You can waste your time on rap or hip-hop
But that Robert Earl Keen, he sure sounds good to me
PBRs and a cooler on ice
Them cornfed girls, they sure look nice
And I’m who I am, not something I pretend to be

‘Cause I was born in Dixie like it or not
I’m Southern by the grace of God
I’ll be down a dirt road ‘til the day I die
I’m an f-a-r-m-b-o-y

Skinny dippin’ with the girls when we get bored
In an inch of the woods we ain’t explored
Watch out for poison ivy or you’re gonna get an awful itch
Kickin’ up the mud, we never got stuck
‘Cause where I’m from we all drive trucks
And I’m raised up right ‘cause mama made me pick my own switch

‘Cause I was born in Dixie like it or not
I’m Southern by the grace of God
I’ll be down a dirt road ‘til the day I die
I’m an f-a-r-m-b-o-y

There’s a busted still under the kudzu vine
And a flat black Mustang ‘69
Grandpa used to run moonshine
Gave it to the judge free so he never did time

He was born in Dixie like it or not
Southern by the grace of God
He lived down a dirt road ‘til the day he died
He was an f-a-r-m-b-o-y.

© 2006 by Bob DiPiero (BMI) and Ray Stephenson (ASCAP)

Works Cited

“Discography – The Bellamy Brothers.” Billboard.com. 12 April 2009. <http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/discography/index.jsp?aid=82997&pid=2266>
Peterson, Richard A. Creating Country Music: Fabricating Authenticity. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1997.
Stephenson, Ray. “Farmboy.” Gravity. Nashville: Independent, 2006.
Stephenson, Ray. “The Ray Stephenson Band on MySpace Music.” 12 April 2009. 12 April 2009. <http://www.raystephenson.com>
The Bellamy Brothers. “You Ain’t Just Whistlin’ Dixie.” The Two and Only. Warner/Curb, 1979.
Tichi, Cecilia. High Lonesome: The American Culture of Country Music. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1994.
“‘You Ain’t Just Whistlin’ Dixie’ Chart Position for October 20, 1979.” Billboard.com. 12 April 2009. <http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/esearch/chart_display.jsp?cfi=357 &cfgn=Singles&cfn=Hot+Country+Songs&ci=3076836&cdi=8997346&cid=10%2F20%2F1979>





---Paper Written by JR Hammond  :)