Gator McKlusky & Remembering Burt Reynolds

Everyone wanted to be Southern in the 1970s. The rejuvenated interest in Southern music from bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Charlies Daniels, and the Allman Brothers (and the unknown Southern influence in the “Motown” sound) was just one component of a larger pro-Southern, working class, populist movement. Southerners had been made consciously Southern again after over a decade of national attention, and the reaction was a positive affirmation of Southern culture and heritage. Hank Williams, Jr. didn’t want “little old danish rolls” he wanted “ham and grits,” but he also understood that “if you fly in from Boston, you won’t have to wait,” but “if you fly in from Birmingham, you’ll get the last gate.” The South could still be the “specimen,” the insignificant curiosity in the “American War.”

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