Cultural studies: Righteous Hillbilles video shoot, gender, class, and rock ‘n’ roll

A note to readers: This blog, Subtle Subversion, will begin a new ongoing series with this post called Cultural Studies. Cultural Studies posts will aim to pull insights from unconventional cultural activities typically not associated with the academic term “cultural studies.” I consider these events and activities to be of great importance, oftentimes of much greater importance than anything that receives the narrow blessing of academic and media priests, and will therefore take the time to acknowledge, analyze, and sometimes applaud them.

The Righteous Hillbillies are an axe shredding, ace dealing, ass kicking Southern rock, high-powered country, and boogie blues band that plays with talent and passion. They have built a loyal following throughout the Chicago area, received three standing ovations while opening for The Charlie Daniels Band, and have sent thousands of copies of their song, “Not Alone,” in care packages overseas for American soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. They baptize their work in the blood of Lynyrd Skynyrd, AC/DC, and ZZ Top, while still managing to create an original and independent style. They make rock ‘n’ roll music for people who still believe in rock ‘n’ roll music.

On Saturday April 10th, The Righteous Hillbillies shot their first music video at the Chicago St. Bar and Grill in Joliet, Illinois–their musical hometown. The song is called “She’s Righteous,” and it is a tough, infectiously energetic, and instantly danceable rock tune about a woman who, like many women idealized in country music, lives between categories and barriers, but manages to not only function, but excel, within all of them. She represents the peak of femininity–she is beautiful with long, black hair, wears ruggedly sexy clothing, and maintains a disposition that combines sweet and smart. She can also out-macho the men by drinking them under the table and holding her own in a fight. Class lines, along with gender lines, are blurred because she possesses the necessary material credentials (“tight fittin’, button fly Levi blues,” “cowboy boots,” and a flashy car), but she also dominates the party rituals of the working class and never shows a “stuck up, trumped up attitude.” In a word, she’s “righteous.”

This particular country/rock archetype of the preferred woman is never quite recognized for its postmodern affirmation of the feminist woman. This may be because it comes in a highly sexualized context, and feminists, especially those who are detached from reality, are often afraid to celebrate anything sexual, or because it is expressed by musicians who embody very traditional values. Brooks & Dunn’s“You Can’t Take the Honky Tonk Out of the Girl” is much more well known example of this principle in practice. The honky tonk girl can go anywhere and do anything, but one of her most celebrated characteristics is her ability to arouse men, which prevents feminist pop culture critics from recognizing the sexy brilliance of the “honky tonk”–”she’s righteous” treatment of the ideal woman.

In the video for “She’s Righteous,” model Kelly Viol struts her stunning self around the bar–dominating the dance floor, defeating bikers in arm wrestling competitions, drinking enough to stun a mule, and getting the best of anyone–male of female–who tries to outwit, outfight, or outclass her. She also adopts a crucial politics of style. By dressing a certain way and dancing a certain way to certain music–”She likes Lynyrd Skynyrd, Johnny Cash, AC/DC, Back in Black…”–she expresses important values and orients herself according to those values, rather than those those promulgated by the dominant society. While a level of material conformity to the working class cowgirl code is required, a rebellion against chic consumerism is also expected. It is what Lynyrd Skynyrd means when they sing, on their anthem ”Red, White and Blue,” “We don’t have no plastic LA friends, ain’t on the edge of no popular trends. Never seen the inside of that magazine GQ.” The woman in “She’s Righteous” just happens to be “one of a kind and a whole lot of red, white and blue.” The rejection of mainstream materialism coupled with the application of patriotic imagery functions as a testament of authenticity for both Skynyrd and The Righteous Hillbillies in their respective songs.

It isn’t surprising that The Hillbillies invoke Skynyrd, both musically and lyrically, in “She’s Righteous.” Through the new tune, along with older ones like the bluesy rocker “Black Jack Mama” and the high-energy jam “Mexican Rodeo,” The Righteous Hillbillies voluntarily enlist in an artistic community that is indebted to the bands and artists, like Lynyrd Skynyrd, that helped build it. The song itself does that community proud. Lead guitarist Kevin Wright plays with a controlled and confrontational ferocity that is nearly catastrophic and Brent James sings with the power to push bodies against the wall and the sensitivity to stir the souls that reside within those bodies.

There is parity between the act of communal enrollment of The Righteous Hillbillies and the community creation that takes place at the Chicago St. Bar and Grill in Joliet every time The Righteous Hillbillies play there. At that venue, the fans of the band have become extended family, and in the process have demonstrated the power of art to build bonds that withstand the pull of class, age, and modes of identification. Video shoots, I learned, can be both exciting and boring. Watching the band perform and the actors play out the scenes is fun and interesting, but watching the retakes can get redundant. However, during the shoot the conversation, wonderfully lubricated by booze, was never dull among the diverse group of patrons that included bikers, writers, vagabond visual artists, and an eclectic mix of fascinating, fun, and annoying characters.

 The Chicago St. Pub is a Joliet institution not just because it showcases local and indepedent musical talent on a weekly basis, but also because it allows regulars, strangers, and drinkers to congregate without pretension or materialistic expectation. The Righteous Hillbillies video shoot offered the perfect opportunity to juxtapose a working class bar that has a rock band on stage with glitzy nightclubs where people incessantly posture for status points. One room symbolizes the spiritually vacuous glorification of wealth, consumption, and division that has led to America’s moral decay and the other houses a more authentic form of party ritual in which people, for better or worse, project a nocturnal identity that represents themselves and their own preferences of expression.

John Mellencamp says, “It’s not really rock ‘n’ roll unless somebody is dancing.” The final thing to understand about last Saturday night and most Saturday nights at the Chicago St. Bar and Grill is that people dance. They dance openly and comfortably. They dance well. There is most likely a connection to be made between the dancing and drinking that people do on Saturday nights, and certainly one can be made when The Righteous Hillbillies are in the room.

I can personally testify that if The Righteous Hillbillies encourage a person to do anything, it is drink whiskey and dance. The video for “She’s Righteous” is directed by Matt Gossen, and once it goes viral, everyone will know why.