Myths loom large in America. They always have. The tale about George Washington cutting down a cherry tree, for instance, was born within the pages of minister Mason Locke Weems’ biography of the first American president, The Life of Washington—but not the original version. It appeared in the fifth edition, some six years after the book was published in 1800. Parson Weems claimed he learned the story from an old friend of the family who wished to remain anonymous; most historians, however, see it as an effort by the pastor to promote a moral virtue. An argument could be made that the book was the 19th-century equivalent of a Hollywood biopic that uses fictional embellishments to promote a larger truth.
Not all myths are as innocuous as that one, however. Historical fact are routinely obscured by lies and the lying liars who spew them, with the chief aim not to impart a lesson but, rather, to push an agenda that can be summarized in three words: us versus them. It’s the three-card monte approach to politics, if you will, employing misdirection to pad one’s power.
“The Difference Between,” the lead single from Crys Matthews’ forthcoming Reclamation album, digs into history real and imagined in the best way possible, matching incisive lyrics to an infectious tune. In the press release, she explains, “When I heard Jason Aldean’s ‘Try That in a Small Town,’ I was so offended—not just as a Black woman, but as a proud Southerner. The audacity to think that there would be a South at all without my people is the kind of willful ignorance that keeps folks like me from feeling safe in Country and Americana spaces. There are consequences to that kind of hateful rhetoric.”
“We’re as country as we want to be, without the hate and the bigotry.” That line from “The Difference Between” resonated with me the instant I heard it, as did this snarling snippet: “You say you want to send them back/Well, I’d like to send you back/back in time/so you can realize those lies you learned weren’t facts.” As she sings, it’s a matter of right vs. wrong, not right vs. left.
The Old Grey Cat 