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Description
"During World War II, GIs began saying “mercy buckets” as an intentional, joking mispronunciation of the French “merci beaucoup.”1 In the 2011 song “Mercy Buckets,” the southern rock and alt-country band Drive-By Truckers rewrite the phrase’s origin by treating it as an idiom of the American South. As might be expected, however, DBT do not reinforce stereotypical notions of the ignorant southern redneck. Instead, songwriter and lead singer Patterson Hood takes the phrase seriously, explaining just what it would mean if bringing someone “buckets of mercy” were a recognized part of southern culture. . . . In this article, I investigate a strand of southern storytelling that pretends the truth of an acknowledged lie."
Publication Date
6-5-2023
Relational Format
journal article
Disciplines
American Studies | Food Studies | Photography | Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies
Recommended Citation
Oler, Andy, "Mercy Buckets: Country Music, Southern Fiction, and the Limits of Rewriting the South" (2023). Study the South. 28.
https://egrove.olemiss.edu/studythesouth/28
Accessibility Status
Searchable text
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American Studies Commons, Food Studies Commons, Photography Commons, Race, Ethnicity and Post-Colonial Studies Commons