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5 Country Music: How Can You Dance to Beethoven? The children know that at dawn they will hear the old hunter’s voice as he begins the day with a joyous song about the goose whose wings rattle like a song when he lands. Soon after, they hear their grandmother singing an ancient song as she carries water and wood into the dwelling for the new day. As the day progresses, the children try tuning the radio that rests in a large cabinet made substantial by dry-cell batteries as bulky as today’s car batteries, with an attached ground wire running to a high aerial. By late evening, they are able to pull AM stations from the southern United States, from Del Rio, Texas, from Waterloo , Iowa, from Omaha, Nebraska. The whole family enjoys the country music of Hank Williams, Jimmie Rodgers, and Kitty Wells. The English words are easy to understand, and the family relates to the everyday events described in the songs. [ When I asked a class of northern students in Thompson, Manitoba, why country music is so popular among Natives, a Cree student replied, “How can you dance to Beethoven?” Of course, country music is popular among non-Natives too, but its pervasiveness in Native society deserves investigation . For this discussion, the term country music is broadly defined to include commercial country music as well as country music with a western flavour (country and western), country music with a rock rhythm (country rock), and the fiddle music and jigging that are closely associated with country. In 1981, I tuned in for one week to an evening music show broadcast on local radio CHTM, and kept track of the types of music offered. The show, designed for a Native audience, consisted of Cree and English announcements of upcoming events such as bingo, hockey tournaments, talent contests ; there was also news on the condition of hospitalized persons, messages to persons on the trapline, and advertisements, the most memorable of 91 which—for me—was the jingle for Kentucky Fried Chicken sung in Cree. I imagined hunters’ jokes about this barnyard chicken with its own song! The music played on the show was largely country. During the week, I heard sixty country songs, three rock-and-roll, one traditional Native, and one popular. The next year, 1982, I asked twenty Native students from across Manitoba to write down their favourite music. Eleven said they preferred country ; four, rock and roll; two, classical; one, gospel; one, bluegrass; and one, folk. To compare, I asked a group of non-Native Manitoba students the same question, and the contrast was striking: country was not even mentioned . Seven preferred popular; two, classical; one, gospel; one, bluegrass; and one, jazz. Every year since 1982, a majority of my Native students have listed country as their favourite music; in 1999, sixteen of my twenty-one students preferred it. But why do Natives express such a strong preference for this type of music? A decade ago, northern Manitoba elders barely understood the English language of the songs. When I asked one elderly hunter if he liked country music, he replied in Cree that if he understood the songs of the white man, he would probably like them, but since he didn’t understand them, he got nothing from them. Even one of my young Cree students mistakenly interpreted a love song to be about sibling affection. Moreover, the roots of country music are in a rural, not a hunting way of life. An early type of country music was based on images of the northern plains, and performed by singing “cowboys.” In Cree, there is no word for cowboy; they would say something like, “the man who rides on horseback.” And no one actively encouraged the Cree to choose country music, as the missionaries encouraged the singing of hymns. But we can find an explanation of the past and continuing popularity of country music in the history of interaction between Cree people and non-Natives. Even before learning the hymns taught by the missionaries, northerners heard non-Native music in the form of the songs and instrumental music from the explorers and traders. It’s likely that some Cree heard the popular broadsides and folk songs of the day sung by the labourers of the fur-trade companies. Even much farther north, near Baffin Island, American whalers brought Hawaiian songs such as “Rolling Down to Old Maui” when they sailed between tropical ports such as Lahaina...

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