April 12, 2004
Sen. Alexander Among Speakers at Free Seminar
Belmont to Offer Class on Country Lyrics as Literature This Fall
Six months after Tennessee's U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander stood on the floor of the U.S. Senate and, in memorializing the late, great, Johnny Cash, asked why so few universities study country music lyrics as literature even though the likes of Johnny Cash "are certainly among the most famous poets in the world," Belmont University is preparing to launch a course on the Poetics of Country Music.
Sen. Alexander will be among the guest speakers at a special "Belmont After Hours" free seminar on the Poetics of Country Music, hosted by Charlotte Pence, Adjunct Instructor of English. Sen. Alexander is chairman of the Congressional Songwriters’ Caucus and a member of the International Anti-Piracy Caucus.
The lecture will introduce an innovative interdisciplinary class Belmont will offer starting with the fall 2004 semester that will explore how modern poetry is similar to country lyrics in form, content and purpose, how the readers and listeners shape the genre and why literary criticism focuses more on poetry than on song lyrics.
The April 24 seminar is free and is part of the "Belmont After Hours" lecture series.
"I am proud that Belmont University is celebrating Tennessee’s excellence by encouraging literary criticism of the literature of some of the best known poets in the world, our songwriters," Alexander said. "At last count, there are several thousand songwriters living in Nashville struggling to write poetry, some of which will be known and remembered everywhere in the world one day."
The seminar, 11:30 a.m. April 24 in the Vince Gill Room in Belmont's Curb Event Center, will probe such famous country lyrics as "there's a tear in my beer" can be considered poetry – and explore the techniques that country songwriters share with poets, and why Cash, Hank Williams and Dolly Parton are among the nation's finest poets.
Songwriters from Nashville's music community will also perform.
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