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Country Music Down East: Pickin' in the Pine Tree State
| Article
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11851 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
1 / 1994 |
3,878 Words |
| Author
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George H. Lewis
George H. Lewis is professor of sociology at the University of
the Pacific. He has a longstanding interest in popular culture
and has written extensively on the topic. |
In 1990, Phil Warren (Warren Fournier) of South Hiram, Maine, released a single. The song tells how, as he drives along the Texas coast, the singer stops to pick up a female hitchhiker, who looks quizzically at his cowboy clothes and Maine license plate. Relishing her confusion, he introduces himself as the "blue denim cowboy from Maine." Warren, who in 1992 won the Slim Clark yodeling contest, is but one of many country singers from Maine, which has a rich heritage of such music. As the Thomaston-based band Timbreline sings: All the country music
Ain't in Nashville, Tennessee
Maybe they should fly Northeast
To listen and to see
Our fancy guitar pickers
Hear some three-part harmony
'Cause all the country music
Ain't in Nashville, Tennessee.
Country music has always been popular in Maine, from contra-dance fiddlers and lumber-camp singers to today's professional singers. As in other areas of the United States, a strong regional style--developed in Maine from the state's unique mix of Anglo and French Acadian traditions--merged with the evolving national country-music sound of Nashville. From this musical platform, several Maine artists have sprung to national attention.
Although seldom associated with country music, Maine has a long and distinguished history of contributions to the genre. Paul Metivier, writing as Paul Roberts, penned "There's a Star-Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere" while living in Skowhegan, Maine, in the early 1940s. This song became one of the most popular country songs of its time, much in the same way that Lee Greenwood's "God Bless the USA" became a giant country-pop song in the late 1980s and early '90s. In fact, Warren's 1991 recording of "Star-Spangled Banner" was played on Armed Forces Network radio stations serving Operation Desert Storm. Roberts has published over a hundred songs and has been recognized as a songwriter by Nashville's Hall of Fame.
Performers like Jimmie Rodgers ("Portland, Maine, is just the same as sunny Tennessee") and
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