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Hillbillies for Obama?

John Schmalzbauer

Posted: 09.15.2008 / 4:50 PM PDT

The most colorful campaign banner of 2008 originated in the Ozarks, not far from Nixa’s Evangelical Epicenter.  Bearing the unlikely message, “Rednecks for Obama,” it had its debut during Barack Obama’s visit to Union, Missouri.  The brainchild of two Democrats from Rolla, it made it all the way to the Democratic National Convention in Denver.

If Nixa-area Democrats had a motto, it might be “Hillbillies for Obama.” While the word “hillbilly” is not ordinarily associated with the left, a new generation of Ozarkers is reclaiming the stereotype for progressive ends.

Like “redneck” and “cracker,” “hillbilly” has often been used as a term of derision.  While the Baltimore journalist H.L. Mencken called fundamentalists the ”gaping primates from the upland valleys,” films like Deliverance have portrayed them as downright scary.

Yet the reality of Ozarks political culture is far different from the stereotype.  In Hill Folks: A History of Arkansas Ozarkers and Their Image, historian Brooks Blevins discusses the presence of socialism and radical populism in early twentieth-century Arkansas.  Focusing on the same period, Jarod Roll describes the unlikely marriage of Pentecostalism and socialism in the eastern Missouri Ozarks.  While such movements were often tinged with racism, they are a reminder of the progressivism that lies dormant in the region.

Like the rest of the Patchwork Nation, the Ozarks Evangelical Epicenters do not all think alike.  The presence of several large colleges and universities, the greater geographic mobility of Americans, and the growth of an Ozarks “creative class” of musicians, artists, and scholars, have helped nurture the emergence of what historian Robert Flanders calls “Cosmopolis in the province.”

Many of these new cosmopolitans are extremely proud of their Ozarks roots, marrying progressive political views with regional pride.  Nobody has done more to construct this new identity than local troubadours, Big Smith: Hillbilly Band.  Dressed in their trademark overalls, they have almost as many graduate degrees as musical instruments.  Voted best band for many years by local residents, they have recently graduated to an international stage, delighting audiences from Austin, Texas to Craponne, France.  The subjects of the critically-acclaimed documentary Homemade Hillbilly Jam, they have become a symbol of the ironic, post-modern Ozarks.

In sharp contrast to the stereotype of the reactionary hillbilly, Big Smith has advanced a hopeful vision of American society that combines social justice with environmental stewardship.  This emerging environmental consciousness can be seen in songs like “Barrel Springs,” which condemns real estate developers for “tearin’ up the hills all around,” and “Quarry Anthem,” a song that celebrates the defeat of a proposed gravel pit.

Consistent with Big Smith’s roots in an Evangelical Epicenter, much of their music is influenced by the gospel singing of their parents and grandparents.  Yet unlike the death-haunted genre of Southern Gospel, these neo-hillbillies sing about the “upside-down kingdom” of the Sermon on the Mount.  While many Gospel classics focus on the journey to heaven, Big Smith stresses the radically egalitarian message of Jesus.  Nowhere is this more apparent than in the chorus to band member Jody Bilyeu’s “Rich Man’s Poor“:

The rich man’s poor–
That poor boy’s wealthy.
The strong man’s weak–
The sick girl’s healthy.
The stranger belongs
The right man’s wrong
When Jesus turns the world around 

In the gospel-tinged “His Eye is on the Baptist,” they parody the denomination of their youth.  Singing “I’m a Southern Baptist, and I’m much better than you,” the sons of Southern Baptists poke gentle fun at the self-righteousness that sometimes creeps into evangelical religion.

Though Big Smith has yet to play a “Rock the Vote” event, they have spoken out on political issues.  During the 2004 election, band member Jody Bilyeu wrote a newspaper column for the Springfield News-Leader articulating a progressive vision of faith and politics.

His co-author was Brett Miller, the son of a Southern Baptist minister, a local musician, and a professor at nearby Southwest Baptist University.  This year Miller is the advisor for Students for Obama, a group that has attracted enthusiastic student support.  Like the progressivism of Big Smith, the success of the Obama campaign at a Baptist school is a testament to the political diversity of the Bible Belt.

Two generations ago, the grandmother of Big Smith attended ”The Hundred Nights Revival of 1933.” As grandson Mark Bilyeu put it in Homemade Hillbilly Jam, so successful was this revival that it spread religion up and down the Bilyeu family tree.

If these ironic neo-hillbillies decide to rock the vote for Barack Obama, it will look and sound like a political revival.  With John McCain ahead in the Missouri polls and less than sixty nights until the election, the Obama campaign could use an infusion of old-time religion.