Truck-driving country is a subgenre of

country and western music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, old ...

. It is characterized by lyrical content about trucks (i.e. commercial vehicles, not pick-up trucks), truck drivers or truckers, and the

trucking industry Road transport or road transportation is a type of transport using roads. Transport on roads can be roughly grouped into the transportation of goods and transportation of people. In many countries licensing requirements and safety regulations e ...

experience. This includes, for example, references to

truck stop A truck stop, known as a service station in the United Kingdom, and a travel center by major chains in the United States, is a commercial facility which provides refueling, rest (parking), and often ready-made food and other services to motori ...

s, CB radio, trucker jokes, attractive women, romance, heartbreak, loneliness,

stimulant Stimulants (also often referred to as psychostimulants or colloquially as uppers) is an overarching term that covers many drugs including those that increase activity of the central nervous system and the body, drugs that are pleasurable and inv ...

s and

eugeroic Eugeroics (originally "eugrégorique" or "eugregoric"), also known as wakefulness-promoting agents and wakefulness-promoting drugs, are a class of drugs that promote wakefulness and alertness. They are medically indicated for the treatment of cer ...

s, teamsters, roads and highways, billboards, inclement weather, traffic, ICC, DOT, car accidents, washrooms, etc.Stern, Jane ''Trucker, A Portrait of the Last American Cowboy'' (1975) In truck-driving country, references to "truck" include the following truck types: 10 wheeler, straight truck, 18 wheeler, tractor ( bobtail), semi, tractor-trailer, semi tractor trailer, big rig, and some others. Truck-driving country musicians include

Dave Dudley Dave Dudley (born David Darwin Pedruska; May 3, 1928 – December 22, 2003) was an American country music singer best known for his truck-driving country anthems of the 1960s and 1970s and his semi-slurred bass. His signature song was "Six Day ...

Red Sovine Woodrow Wilson "Red" Sovine (July 7, 1917 – April 4, 1980) was an American country music singer and songwriter associated with truck driving songs, particularly those recited as narratives but set to music. His most noted examples are "Giddyu ...

Dick Curless Richard William Curless (March 17, 1932 – May 25, 1995) was an American country music singer. He usually wore a patch over his right eye. Biography Curless was born in Fort Fairfield, Maine, United States, and moved with his family to Ma ...

Red Simpson Joe Cecil "Red" Simpson (March 6, 1934 – January 8, 2016) was an American country music singer and songwriter best known for his trucker -themed country songs. Biography Joe Cecil Simpson was born in 1934 in Higley, Arizona, and was raised ...

, Del Reeves,

the Willis Brothers The Willis Brothers were an American country music ensemble from Oklahoma, consisting of several brothers. Group history Early touring Two of the Willis brothers (James, Charles) and Webb "Robber Baron" Cardwell, played together as teenagers fro ...

Jerry Reed Jerry Reed Hubbard (March 20, 1937 – September 1, 2008) was an American singer, guitarist, composer, and songwriter as well as an actor who appeared in more than a dozen films. His signature songs included " Guitar Man", " U.S. Male", "A Thi ...

C. W. McCall William Dale Fries Jr. (November 15, 1928 – April 1, 2022) was an American advertising executive and spoken word artist who won several Clio Awards for his advertising campaigns. He is best known for his character C. W. McCall, a truck-drivi ...

(1976 big hit " Convoy"), Mac Wiseman, and

Cledus Maggard James Wesley "Jay" Huguely (September 21, 1940 – December 13, 2008) was an American stage actor, singer, advertising executive, and television writer and executive. He enjoyed a brief run of popularity as a novelty recording artist in the 1 ...

. It shares some overlap with road music (e.g.

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album ''Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of ''Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and '' Stardust'' (197 ...

's " On the Road Again",

Roger Miller Roger Dean Miller Sr. (January 2, 1936 – October 25, 1992) was an American singer-songwriter, widely known for his honky-tonk-influenced novelty songs and his chart-topping Country music, country and pop hits "King of the Road (song), Ki ...

's " King of the Road"), which may or may not involve commercial trucks but carries many of the same themes of the traveling worker. It is not to be confused with the frequent use of the personal-use pickup truck in bro-country, where the vehicle is mainly used as a pick-up device.

Overview

It is, at least partly, an oral history of trucking. A range of social and economic factors in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

have strongly influenced the evolution of truck-driving country as a subgenre of country music. These factors include industrial dispute, the demographic shift from

rural In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...

urban area An urban area, built-up area or urban agglomeration is a human settlement with a high population density and infrastructure of built environment. Urban areas are created through urbanization and are categorized by urban morphology as cities, t ...

s, economic recessions, changes in the

railroad Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport that transfers passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails, which are incorporated in tracks. In contrast to road transport, where the vehicles run on a pre ...

s, and the

oil embargo An oil embargo is an economic situation wherein entities engage in an embargo to limit the transport of petroleum to or from an area, in order to exact some desired outcome. One commentator states, " oil embargo is not a common commercial practice; ...

. Their impacts have diversified the folklore of truck songs.Roach, Joyce Gibson "Diesel Smoke & Dangerous Curves: Folklore of the Trucking Industry" ''Hunters and Healers'' (1977) pp. 45–53 Technological developments and changes related to both the music business and the trucking industry, however, have brought about the greatest changes to truck-driving country. Variously, these include the jukebox, 33⅓ rpm vinyl record albums, 8-track tape,

cassette tape The Compact Cassette or Musicassette (MC), also commonly called the tape cassette, cassette tape, audio cassette, or simply tape or cassette, is an analog magnetic tape recording format for audio recording and playback. Invented by Lou Ottens ...

, the

transistor upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink). A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch e ...

to digital revolution, the

Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...

, CB radio, all-night radio broadcasts targeting truckers,

Interstate highway The Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways, commonly known as the Interstate Highway System, is a network of controlled-access highways that forms part of the National Highway System in the United States. Th ...

s, and multiple truck components (sleeper cabs, air suspension,

power steering A power steering is a mechanical device equipped on a motor vehicle that helps drivers steer the vehicle by reducing steering effort needed to turn the steering wheel, making it easier for the vehicle to turn or maneuver at lower speeds. Hydraul ...

, synchronized transmissions,

air conditioning Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C or AC, is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment (sometimes referred to as 'comfort cooling') and in some cases also strictly controlling ...

, air seats, and electronics).American Truck Historical Society, <www.ATHS.org> Collectively, there are more than 500 truck-driving country songs, all of which more or less originate from the oral tradition of truck folklore. Occupations, of course, have traditionally provided the raw material and inspiration for folk music in the United States (e.g. riverboat,

mining Mining is the extraction of valuable minerals or other geological materials from the Earth, usually from an ore body, lode, vein, seam, reef, or placer deposit. The exploitation of these deposits for raw material is based on the economic via ...

Great Lakes The Great Lakes, also called the Great Lakes of North America, are a series of large interconnected freshwater lakes in the mid-east region of North America that connect to the Atlantic Ocean via the Saint Lawrence River. There are five lakes ...

water commerce,

logging Logging is the process of cutting, processing, and moving trees to a location for transport. It may include skidding, on-site processing, and loading of trees or logs onto trucks or skeleton cars. Logging is the beginning of a supply chain ...

, cowboy, railroad, agricultural field work and others), influenced by regional culture as well.Danker, Frederick E. "Trucking Songs: A comparison with Traditional Occupational Song" ''Journal of Country Music'' (Jan 1978) pp78-89 Folk songs adopt, adapt, and incorporate

colloquialism Colloquialism (), also called colloquial language, everyday language or general parlance, is the style (sociolinguistics), linguistic style used for casual (informal) communication. It is the most common functional style of speech, the idiom norm ...

slang Slang is vocabulary (words, phrases, and linguistic usages) of an informal register, common in spoken conversation but avoided in formal writing. It also sometimes refers to the language generally exclusive to the members of particular in-gro ...

, and occupational terms into verbal snapshots. In truck-driving country, such specialized words and terms as truck rodeo, dog house, twin screw, Georgia overdrive, saddle tanks,

jake brake A compression release engine brake, compression brake, or decompression brake, frequently called a Jacobs brake or Jake Brake, is an engine braking mechanism installed on some diesel engines. When activated, it opens exhaust valves to the cylin ...

, binder and others borrowed from the lingo of truckers are commonly utilized.Roach, Joyce Gibson ''Hunters & Healers'' CB vocabulary - which is different from truck driver lingoPorter, Bernard H. "Truck Driver Lingo" ''American Speech'' (Apr 1942) pp102-105 - is used by both truckers and the general public. Some of that vocabulary has evolved into popular culture and subsequently incorporated into truck-driving country (e.g. “hammer down,” “shakey town,” “smokey,” and “pedal to the metal”).Seese, Gwyneth E. (Dandalion) ''Tijuana Bear in a Smoke'um Up Taxi'' 1977

Detail

There has been a certain mystique attached to truck drivers and commercial trucking in general, especially those engaged in long-distance (over-the-road) driving.Schroeder, Fred "A Bellyful of Coffee: The Truck Drivin' Man as Folk Hero" ''Journal of Popular Culture'' (Spring 1969) pp 679–687 The evolution of technology continues to influence trucking music. Just as truck drivers in the 1970s and 1980s no longer had to rely on AM radio or pre-recorded 8-track tapes to listen to the music they wanted to hear, today the portable computer, wireless

Wi-Fi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wave ...

, and

satellite radio Satellite radio is defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU)'s ITU Radio Regulations (RR) as a ''broadcasting-satellite service''. The satellite's signals are broadcast nationwide, across a much wider geographical area than ter ...

allows independent singer-songwriters, such as Dale Watson,

Jim Goad James Thaddeus Goad (born 1961) is an American author and publisher. Goad co-authored and published the zine ''ANSWER Me!'' and ''The Redneck Manifesto''. Personal life Early life Goad grew up in Philadelphia, describing himself as a loner, mi ...

, Sonny George, and

Bill Kirchen William Knight Kirchen (born June 29, 1948) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. He was a member of Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen from 1967 to the mid-1970s and later worked with Nick Lowe. ''Guitar Player'' magazine desc ...

, to produce and distribute their own trucking music.Johnson, Jon "Watson, George, Holiday" ''Country Standard Time'' (Aug/Sept 2000) pp7-9

Overview

Detail

References

See also