White Soul: Country Music the Church and Working Americans

White Soul examines the social political and religious foundations of country music as the soul music of white working-class Americans. Country music gives voice to an economically battered subculture of hard-living and hard-working people who find self-expression in the music of honky-tonks and heartaches. It celebrates the wild side of life as a form of populist anarchism and escapist festivity. This unusual medley of sociology theology and country music history is also a compelling critique of the elitism of good taste in the dominant culture. Tex Sample challenges the church to reach out to working-class people who have often been ignored and demeaned by churches held captive to the tastes and lifestyles of the upper middle class.