The song is a symbol of the sorry state of status-quo affirming country music, writes David Cantwell.
of the Billboard Hot 100, the top three spots were all filled by country songs: “Try That in a Small Town” by Jason Aldean, “Last Night” by Morgan Wallen, and “Fast Car” by Luke Combs. The week of August 22, another country song, Oliver Anthony’s “Rich Men North of Richmond,” shot from uncharted straight toAs both a music critic and lifelong country fan, I’d love to celebrate this historic country music summer. But the truth is these songs trouble me far more than they inspire or delight me.
The one good thing I can say about “Rich Men North of Richmond” is that it foregrounds class. “I’ve been sellin' my soul, workin' all day,” Anthony begins in an untutored shout. “Overtime hours for bullshit pay.” Country music once specialized in working people’s lives: Dolly Parton’s “In the Good Old Days ,” Merle Haggard’s “Working Man Blues,” Johnny Paycheck’s “Take this Job and Shove It,” and countless more.
After all, slamming “the obese [who are] milkin' welfare,” as Oliver does, reaches all the way back toof the Reagan era, complete with their ugly racial implications. But if you’re angry about low pay and the high-cost of living, and then point a finger at welfare recipients, you’ve been fooled by a distraction, turning the oppressed against one another instead of fighting together what holds them both down.
Predictably, “Rich Men” isn’t getting played on mainstream country radio. Anthony isn’t part of the Nashville system and his song’s momentary popularity seems more about listeners wanting to own the libs, if only digitally, than it does in any uptick in resonator-guitar fans. Aldean, by contrast, gets played on the radio a ton, and yet, his “Try That in a Small Town” seems to have benefited from similar motives.
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