The Sacred and
Profane represents a basic narrative, a myth, and a reality common in all
cultures. The Sacred and Profane particularly manifests itself in the
Evangelical Protestant Christian culture of the U.S. South. Country Music
developed with deep roots in the U.S. South. The metaphorically and literally
important 1927 Bristol Sessions, the Big Bang of Country Music,
reflected the Sacred and Profane dichotomy in the music and the personae of The
Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, The Father of Country Music. This
discussion extends the Sacred and Profane discussion to contemporary Country
Music songs since the 1957 development of The Nashville Sound. Into the
third decade of the twenty-first century artists from Keith Urban, Jelly Roll,
and Megan Moroney to Luke Combs and Morgan Wallen reference the tensions
between the Sacred and the Profane. The discussion links authenticity,
existentialism, historical memory, and the Sacred and Profane from their
seemingly separate origins to form a myth with a very real presence and
substance in Country Music.
