"What Will Become of the Hard Working Man?"

That question, which could also be a statement, is the title of a track from Marty Stuart's latest release, "Ghost Train: The Studio B Sessions."  Recorded at RCA's famed Studio B, this album is the latest in a long line of quality, down-to-earth country music at its roots that Marty Stuart has become famous for.  I reviewed this album in a previous post, but I wanted to focus specifically on this track for today's piece.  


I was driving home after working at my day job (the one that pays the bills and helps fund this new love that I have for the Americana genre), when I popped this CD in the player and had a listen.  It's funny how you can listen to a new disc and analyze it with all its newness, yet when you hear it again after a long break, only then do you realize how profound a couple of the tracks can be.  "What Will Become of the Hard Working Man?" is such a track.


As I've mentioned before, and highlighted in the "Art of Social Relevance" piece, country music (and by extension Americana) has enjoyed a long, lengthy history of capturing the social fabric of the lower and middle classes around the world.  Certain songs become part of the social conscience, no matter how large a commercial success that particular song may be.  In this case, "What Will Become of the Hard Working Man?" will not appear on any mainstream charts, but it could appear on the Americana chart.  Wherever it may or may not end up this song, like Ronnie Dunn's "Cost of Livin'" strikes at the very core of society as it exists today.  Where Dunn's "Cost of Livin'"  shares a story of a job applicant near the end of his rope, "What Will Become of the Hard Working Man?" is a scathing indictment of the powers that be that allowed such a catastrophic recession to happen in the first place.  It's a scathing indictment of those that have and will contract jobs to other nations while watching their fellow countrymen and women starve -- all in the name of profits.  It's a scathing indictment of all the executives that begged Washington for money and once they got their bailout, made damn sure they lined their own pockets with buyouts and bonuses first before they took care of their staff ... only by then most of the money was gone.  Gone to the said buyouts and bonuses.  


Marty Stuart has a long and storied history in the music business.  I believe this particular song is his crowning achievement, far more important and far bigger than his charted commercial success.  He has successfully captured this moment in time and framed it for future generations to listen and understand how desperate the situation was and is for people and families in 2011.  It also captures one stark fact: while the song asks the point-blank question, "What Will Become of the Hard Working Man?", there are no answers forthcoming.  Which is exactly where we are today.