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Amy Harris\/Invision\/AP<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
William Nash<\/a>, Middlebury<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n Jason Aldean\u2019s song \u201cTry That In A Small Town<\/a>\u201d extols small towns as bastions of conservative values standing up against a litany of violent big-city bogeymen. The song, and the backlash against it<\/a>, threatens to strengthen popular conceptions about the inherent conservatism of country music<\/a>.<\/p>\n As an American Studies professor<\/a> who teaches courses on country music, I am interested in the genre\u2019s competing \u201cliberal\u201d lineage<\/a>. For example, I have written about country musicians\u2019 compassionate responses to the opioid crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n Another group of songs casts light on abortion rights, a newly pressing issue in the wake of 2022\u2019s Dobbs v. Jackson Women\u2019s Health Organization<\/a> Supreme Court decision overturning the constitutional right to abortion. Rather than resort to angry polemics or pronouncements about morality, however, these country \u2013 and, more broadly, Americana \u2013 songs create intimate portraits of the women and men engaged in the painful realities of daily life. This helps maintain compassion and empathy in discussions of reproductive freedom.<\/p>\n Perhaps the most striking of the new \u201cabortion songs\u201d comes from acoustic guitar wizard Molly Tuttle<\/a>, a bluegrass musician and rising star in the American roots music scene. With \u201cGoodbye Mary<\/a>,\u201d a track from her new album, \u201cCity of Gold<\/a>,\u201d Tuttle creates an intimate portrait of a woman\u2019s struggle for bodily autonomy<\/a> that captures the potential terrors of a post-Roe America.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.femalista.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/GRE-AD1.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\nStories in post-Roe America<\/h2>\n