“The Great Divide”: Country Music and Liberal Politics

Luke Combs’ new bluegrass collaboration with Billy Strings is something new for the country artist. Not only is it different from his past releases in terms of sound but also in terms of message.

Unlike many, it has often been the case that country musicians are expected to shy away from the political limelight. For a fanbase that is often viewed (not totally unfairly) as majority Republican, a country artist putting their liberal views out there can be potentially career-ending. Taylor Swift, for instance, shocked many in the US when she said in the 2018 midterms that she was voting Democrat and asked them to consider doing the same. It is worth pointing out that she also had plenty of people supporting her actions at the same time.

Luke Combs’ new single “The Great Divide” is different to anything he has done before. The star, who is fast becoming one of the most successful country artists of the last 20 years, if not ever, challenges his normal subject matter of small town life, love, heartbreak, and growing up; the message instead leaving him a little out of his comfort zone. The new single is certainly something unique in terms of his normal genre, being more bluegrass than the kind of chart-topping country that Combs is usually known for. In a recent Instagram post introducing the song, he made it clear that ‘It isn’t meant to be political or try and tell you what you should think or believe’, adding ‘that’s not my job’; yet the song undoubtedly does feel that way.

Combs can certainly be forgiven for treading carefully when it comes to releasing a song that could be misconstrued as political. The Chicks (formally the Dixie Chicks) learnt the hard way that bringing politics and country music together can be near fatal for a career in mainstream country music; many fans disowned them when they said they were ‘ashamed’ that George W. Bush was from Texas because of his actions regarding the war in Iraq. It would also not be unfair to say that the more outwardly liberal stars like Kacey Musgraves have taken a step back from the lights of Nashville for a more pop-oriented fame; in many ways Musgrave is a wonderful example of an artist who seems to be all the more comfortable because of it.

We also saw after the murder of George Floyd, some country artists miss the mark completely. The band Lady A (previously Lady Antebellum) changed their name because of the Civil War reference. The group then proceeded to sue a black artist, who had been using the name long before the band chose to change their name, because she asked them to pay a $5 million fee to use the name. For a genre of music that has historically, and sadly more recently, seen the Confederate flag used freely there is clearly a need, by country music institutions and artists, to consider the kind of hurt that symbols can do, along with the worldviews attached to them.

This is not to say that politics and country music have not been able to get on together before. Figures like Dolly Parton and Reba McEntire, who apart from gaining huge LGBTQ followings, have both authored songs that are more than a little political. A near Marxist theory led anthem “9 to 5” in the case of Parton, and McEntire with “She Thinks his Name Was John”: a song about a woman who is dying of HIV/AIDS after contracting it from a one night stand, challenging the stereotype, that still prevails today among some, that the infection is one that only affects members of the LGBTQ community.
More recently we have seen country artists trying to tackle a range of political topics. Tyler Childers, for instance, has released a song about the opioid crisis (“Nose on the Grindstone”) and one more recently that looks at the BlackLivesMatter protests. His song “Long Violent History” talks about how hard it is for white people, like Childers, to put themselves in the shoes of people of colour and how the movement we see today is part of a long term fight for equality.

In the last couple of days alone we have seen two examples of different extremes. First, current country chart-topper Morgan Wallen was (rightly) condemned and removed from hundreds of country radio stations as a video appeared online showing him using the n-word. The next day, one half of the sibling band Brothers Osborne, TJ Osborne, came out as gay to overwhelming support from fans and fellow musicians online; becoming the first openly gay singer to be signed to a major country music record label.

While Combs’ collaboration with Billy Strings is in no way as radical as either the examples by Dolly or Reba, it does feel like it is part of a consensus that is brewing in the US at the moment. As part of his campaign for the Presidency, Joe Biden made a huge case of trying to bring people together and push for unity. Combs clearly is attempting to put across a similar message, we see that throughout the entire song he refers to the challenge the US faces is one that is faced by the whole country.

The lyrics suggest that both Combs and Strings are quietly hopeful for the future as Combs tells us that, despite the divided nature of America, ‘I like to think that too much damage ain’t been done’. Arguably the music is much more successful than the song's lyrics, it does a brilliant job at making the case for indie-bluegrass (or “new-grass”); a genre that has grown exponentially in the past ten years or so, thanks to artists like Sarah Jarosz, Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Mandolin Orange, and Chris Thile and his band Punch Brothers.

Combs’ choice of collaborator is a really interesting one. Billy Strings is without a doubt, along with Molly Tuttle and others, the future of bluegrass music but he is also a person that does not shy away from his liberal worldview. Just one look down his Instagram account will show that the tie-dye clad multi-instrumentalist is not afraid of following the Willie Nelson school of Mary Jane; one post even showing Strings lighting up a homemade bong that is partially made out of a pumpkin with the caption ‘Pumpkin spice and everything nice’.

It is clear that Luke Combs has been able to avoid the attacks from Republican fans, like other country artists that have “gone political”; a lot of this is down to the fact that he is calling for unity at a time when that isn’t actually something particularly radical. What’s more he has done it through the medium of a good modern bluegrass song. Like many of Combs songs, “The Great Divide” features lyrics that aren’t sloppily written. The music itself is catchy; with Billy Strings’ guitar playing adding a flare to the song that is so often missing from the everyday “three chords and the truth” that comes out of Nashville today. The joining of these two stars of their respective genres feels as natural as their harmonies in the chorus of “The Great Divide”. It is a political song but in the least offensive way possible to country musics' overwhelmingly conservative fanbase.

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