An Unlikely Prophet: Agrarianism in the Music of Jackson Browne

 

The flourishing of art is necessary for the preservation of any people or tradition. Over-reliance upon didactic or dialectical methods of communication is trademark of rationalism’s withering grip. Artistic expression, whether in architecture, on the canvas, in prose or verse, in works of literature, or in music, possesses the ability to conjure or reinforce the values and traditions of a land and people by instilling an aesthetic directly into the soul; bypassing rational appeal.

Constituted as a historic people the South has always had her poets, authors, and musicians. In the creative explosion of the 1960s and 70s the South was not to be left behind. Musicians such as Ronnie Van Zant and Charlie Daniels used their craft to reinforce the love of folk and place which were characteristic of their own experiences growing up in the South.

While Daniels, Van Zant, and others were Southern front and center, openly singing about Dixie and “the hills of Carolina” there is one artist from their time period who, although not a Southerner himself, I seek to make the case for being interpreted as a prophet of agrarianism. This artist is Jackson Browne.

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