NC: Reidsville officials give Matt 'Hillbilly' Boswell the boot after homobigoted performance

[ccharles000]

Folks, Reidsville is no hotbed of LGBT equality, but this small town ( less than 15K) had heard enough of Matt Boswell and the Hillbilly Blues Band, who were hired to entertain people at the town's fall festival. The Hillbillies were sorely mistaken about level of Reidsville's homophobic camaraderie during a rendition of Merle Haggard's "Are the Good Times Really Over for Good?" (QNotes):

Boswell sang, "Well you'll never take my guns, and I'll pray anywhere that I please./My daddy always told me, if you were able, and didn't work then you don't eat./All you Wall Street bankers, as far as I'm concerned, you can all go to Hell./And you can't get married, you stupid gays and queers, so why don't you go somewhere else?"

A viewer later emailed the station asking that anti-gay lyrics be stripped from future broadcasts. Reidsville City Manager Kelly Almond told Q-Notes the language used by Boswell was "tasteless."

"It was absolutely unacceptable and certainly unacceptable at a city-owned venue and city-sponsored event," he said.

Almond also said the employees in charge of booking public events have been "instructed not to book Boswell again," with similar thoughts echoed in an email to WGSR 47: "I can assure everyone involved that, if this language was used, this person, or anyone representing him, will not play another city event. Market Square, and indeed all city venues, are places meant to bring people together, not divide them. We certainly support tasteful, patriotic acts. We also have to respect everyone's Free Speech rights. However, we don't have to pay for it or include it in a city sponsored event, and we will not."

You see, Boswell, just because Reidsville hasn't progressed enough to include sexual orientation or gender-identity in its non-discrimination policy for city employees yet doesn't mean you have a venue to foment hate. You're now banned from performing in that small NC town.

http://www.pamshouseblend.com/diary/13648/nc-reidsville-officials-give-matt-hillbilly-boswell-the-boot-after-homobigoted-performance

[CTLawGuy]

1. this is why I don't listen to country "music"

good for Reidsville!

[Tanuki]

2. Bravo for the voices of reaon in Reidsville,

but I don't understand your remark that this is why you don't listen to country music, quotation marks or not. Are you seriously implying that country music is fraught with homophobic lyrics, or are you just taking a cheap shot?

[geek tragedy]

4. I hope the person doesn't listen to hip-hop.

Or metal.

[geek tragedy]

3. Homophobic garbage pollutes every form of music, just about.

Rap, metal, what have you.

Well, maybe not showtunes.

:hide:

[paulsby]

9. there are examples of bigotry in every kind of music

if you don't like country music, fine. but don't imply that it's all a bunch of homophobic crap,just because SOME artists are

there are plenty of rock and rap artists who are homophobic.

doesn't mean one discounts the whole genre.

[CTLawGuy]

11. not defending hip hop or metal, but would the Dixie Chicks have been

treated as harshly as they were for saying that they were ashamed of Bush, if they were metal or hip hop artists?

[paulsby]

12. i don't know

the whole hoo ha was because they did it on foreign soil, as well.

regardless, i care about the music, not the politics.

i really don't give a flying #$(#$( what the politics of a musician are. i judge an artist by their art.

is country music on the whole more conservative than hip hop or metal?

definitely more conservative than hip hop, not so sure about metal.

and there is TONS of misogyny and homophobia in metal and hip hop. way more, imo, than in country.

[CTLawGuy]

13. well I know Eminem, in terms of hip hop,

had an anti-Bush song that came out before the election of 2004, Mosh. I don't remember any massive boycotts. He also had an earlier song in 2002, where, in the video he is electrocuting Dick Cheney in the guise of "trying to fix his heart problem". Still no mass burnings of eminem CDs by fans.

I know the Dixie Chicks lost a ton of their fan base. According to the Wikipedia article, 76% of their fans in a Georgia country station poll taken in 2003 would take their CDs back, ie return their CDs, if they could. This is an interesting quote from that same article. "In a September 2003 interview, band member Martie Maguire told the German magazine Der Spiegel: 'We don't feel a part of the country scene any longer, it can't be our home anymore.' She noted a lack of support from country stars, and being shunned at the 2003 ACM awards. 'Instead, we won three Grammys against much stronger competition. So we now consider ourselves part of the big rock 'n' roll family.' Some fans were dismayed, but the group made no clear response." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dixie_chicks

The Dixie Chicks' experience shows that country is dominated by right wingers. And the music itself isn't very good. I'm not a fan of southern drawls, cowboy hats and slide guitars anyway.

[paulsby]

14. like i said

i do not CARE about the politics of artists. i care about their art.

i DO care about homophobia and misogyny

i would FAR prefer to listen to an artist who is a right winger, but who does not use homophobia and misogyny, than a left wing rapper who uses either or both.

get my point?

politics are a far different thing than lyrics that promote homophobia and misogyny

like i said, i have ZERO doubt that country artists are, on average, more conservative than hip hop artists, and probably moreso than metal artists.

so what?

my music and film money doesn't come with a political litmus test.

but when it comes to homophobia and misogyny it does. fwiw, eminem is phenomenally talented, regardless of his politics.

[CTLawGuy]

15. that's fine

I don't listen to music that is part of the RW culture in this country, so we have different criteria.

[mmonk]

16. Bingo.

There was a concerted effort in the country music industry to put the Dixie Chicks out of business. It went way beyond criticism to an attempt to end their careers. I have had nothing to do with the genre since. I know there are some good decent Democrats that are country music artists, but that concerted action shut the door for me.

[Vickers]

5. FTR, Merle Haggard's song doesn't have any of those shit lyrics. n/t

[Toasterlad]

6. I Was Going to Ask About That

The article didn't make it clear if the lyrics were part of the original song or where the clown's own invention. For a mainstream (albeit redneck) recording star, those lyrics would have seemed more than a little over the line.

[guitar man]

7. Hell, I would have given him the boot

just for stinking up the joint, he really sucks...x(

[ccharles000]

8. kick

[bertman]

10. GREAT!!! I didn't know Reidsville had it in them, but this is good news. Makes me even

prouder to be a Tar Heel.