When Hippies and Rednecks Joined Forces

By

I can’t tell you how much 
these guys scared Nashville. Texans didn’t know who was boss.

Texas Monthly has a must-read oral history of the creation of a new type of country music in Austin in the ’70s.

Musicians like Steve Earle, Jerry Jeff, and, of course, Willie Nelson describe in their own words the moment when they smashed hippies and rednecks together and made magic.

(Via Longreads.)

Lauren O'Neal is an MFA student at San Francisco State University. Her writing has appeared in publications like Slate, The New Inquiry, and The Hairpin. You can follow her on Twitter at @laureneoneal. More from this author →