Event Details

Please join us for the second Humanities Faculty Colloquium of this academic year on Thursday, October 24 for a talk by Professor of Music -Victoria Malawey. The presentation will be held in the ArtCom 102 room of the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center, Lunch, generously funded by the Provost's Office, is available at 11:45; talks begin promptly at noon. No RSVP needed. All faculty and staff are welcome.

“Same Boots, New Crowd, Same Tune, New Town”: Brothers Osborne’s Recontextualization of Willie Nelson’s “On the Road Again” in Post-2020 America
While Brothers Osborne’s 2022 “Midnight Rider’s Prayer” retains the melody, lyrics, and phrase structure of the original choruses of Willie Nelson’s 1980 “On the Road Again,” the American country duo reharmonize the material and write new verses, creating a decidedly darker version that reflects their subject position as touring musicians in a post-2020 United States and eschews the celebratory adventure Nelson portrays in his original recording. Nelson’s original exemplifies male-dominated, white outlaw country, occupying a dominant subject position that affords him the privilege of being able to move about the country freely without fear or worry, with the open road as a metaphor for unbridled optimism of a bygone era. In contrast, Brothers Osborne juxtapose the chorus’s striking reharmonization with newly written lyrics in the verses engaging the punishing nature of today’s country music industry, where musicians have to tour and sell merchandise to support themselves, as opposed to subsisting off of record sales, as in Nelson’s heyday. Ultimately, “Midnight Rider’s Prayer” conveys sadness, nostalgia, and grief for an imagined, more joyful past, as they reframe the role of what it means to be an outsider.