Merle Haggard's Okie from Muskogee. This item is unavailable.Merle Haggard's Okie from Muskogee

Every now and then, a song will grab the kind of attention that hosts conversations, debates, disputes, and brawls. Merle Haggard's Okie from Muskogee, released in 1969, is a prime example of that important role of popular music. Okie immediately helped to frame an ongoing conversation about region and class, pride and politics, culture and counterculture. But the conversation, useful as it was, drowned out the song itself, along with the other songs on the live albumnamed for Okie and performed in Muskogeethat Haggard has carefully chosen to frame what has turned out to be his most famous song. What are the internal clues for gleaning the intended meaning of Okie? What is the pay-off of the anti-fandom that Okie sparked (and continues to spark) in some quarters? What was Haggard's artistic path to that stage in Oklahoma, and how did he come to shape shape the industry so profoundly at the moment when, as Johnnie and Jack sang a decade earlier, country music's gone to town?

Rachel Rubin is Professor of American Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston, USA where she directs the Center for the Study of Humanities, Culture, and Society. She has authored and edited numerous books on American popular culture including Well Met: Renaissance Faires and the American Counterculture (NYU Press), American Identities: An Introductory Textbook (Blackwell), and American Popular Music: New Approaches to the Twentieth Century (University of Massachusetts Press). She is a regular commentator on public radio and frequently quoted as a popular culture expert in the mainstream media.