Since moving to South Carolina I’ve grown quite fond of country music. It’s sort of compulsory in this part of the world, even for an Englishman in exile. Part of the reason that I’m a willing convert to country music is the extent to which much of it is very Chestertonian. Yes, as counter-intuitive as it might seem, country music and Chesterton go together like a horse and carriage, or, more to the point, like three acres and a cow. Put simply, the best country music is thoroughly distributist or subsidiarist. As such, I thought I’d post the occasional link to a Chestertonian country song. I’m beginning with a great favourite of mine, “South Carolina Low Country” by Josh Turner. It’s an anthem for the state in which Turner was born, reminiscent in spirit to Belloc’s love for Sussex displayed in The Four Men and some of his poetry. It also resonates with the desire for political subsidiarity in the form of the devolution of power away from the Federal Government towards local government, and particularly the desired reemergence of states’ rights. As Washington DC becomes increasingly secular funadmentalist in its ideology and more determined to thrust that ideology upon unwilling states, its surely time for the states to flex their political muscles.
As a footnote for those who are rusty on their American history, Wade Hampton and the Swamp Boss, referred to in the lyrics, are South Carolinian heroes of the War Between the States and the War of Independence respectively.
Here’s the link:
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