["Bob Wills Is Still the King" on the album Dreaming My Dreams] defies the categories of hard-core and progressive country. Based on record sales it fulfills both genres. The song is sung by Waylon Jennings, whose initial audience had been the fans of hard-core or "straight" country music. Admittedly, Waylon has always defied labels….

Lyrically the song toughly espouses the virtues of Texas life in the nostalgic terms of cowboy self-reliance and chivalry. Further, it invokes an animistic fashion, a past regional hero as the basis for present day self-pride. (p. 192)

In relation to the function of popular culture artists and art forms in shaping an expanded sense of community and cultural contiguity, I should point out that Waylon Jennings, based on the lyrics of many of his songs is a symbolic, normative outlaw. Country and western music is rife with them as fantasy characters providing honorable ways...