The Boat Shoe Beat: Down South Jukin’

I’m back in the saddle again to discuss Dixie, Southern culture, movement items, and Southern Rock with Identity Dixie contributor Lancelot Lamar. Instead of surviving the Appalachian hollers or side-stepping alligators in the Everglades, I’ve travelled to the more hospitable and genteel Lowland South.

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BSB: Lancelot Lamar, welcome to the Boat Shoe Beat. Please introduce yourself and tell us a little about yourself.

Lancelot Lamar: Thanks for putting this together and giving a platform for a retrograde. I’ll have you know I’ve dressed in deference to your Tidewater sensibilities: the khakis are crisp, the polo is pima, and the shoes are recently oiled. I may even light up a double corona.

I’m a Gen X father of five, happily married military brat. I’ve earned a living doing many radically different things…fronting a regional touring and recording band for several years, a sous chef in too-fancy restaurants, a few C-suite positions, things I can’t mention, and a lot of time spent in publishing. I’ve had the honor of working with some of the finest and most intimidating minds of the last three generations.

I spent the first half of my life in Texas, Georgia, Virginia, and with a stint in Central America. I honestly never thought of myself as a Southerner until I got stranded in rural Pennsylvania, even then it wasn’t until the aftermath of the Roof incident that I recognized my fury and sadness at what was being done to the South was as intense as it was because it was an affront to my identity. The most symbolically outrageous and traitorous thing was VMI removing Stonewall Jackson’s statue.

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BSB: Thank you, sir. That’s interesting that you bring up being stranded in Pennsylvania. Can you explain how that was one of the catalysts for your identity? I know some Pennsylvanians and they’re not entirely Yankee-Yankee, but they aren’t us, that’s for sure.

Lancelot Lamar: Well, you know the quip, “Pennsylvania is Philadelphia and Pittsburgh separated by Alabama.” It’s mostly true. Outside the counties surrounding a few of the urban areas, it is rural and agricultural. The people are incredibly similar to what you’d find anywhere in the non-urbanized South. They unironically call themselves rednecks, listen to the same music, love to hunt, dress the same, and have an unaffected country twang. You’ll see just as many Stars and Bars on license plate holders and on front porches as you will most anywhere in Dixie. But like rebels the world over who wave the battle flag in protest of their government, it is a convenient symbol of defiance.

If the “Great National Divorce” really does happen, what Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware rednecks will want to create will be different than what a Southerner desires. The rural Yankee-Confederate affectation will go away overnight. It’s not who they are because the identity of generational rural people everywhere is wed to place and history. While it’s still most powerful in the South, it’s in other places too and if you’re not from there, you just feel you’re not among your own. But the panic I and others were feeling, being strangers in a strange land, is not localized. It really is a global existential threat.

The culture of the rootless transient cosmopolitan is winning because they can be at home in any urban and suburban environment and options for their version of home are proliferating like an algae bloom. The 46 million U.S. residents living in rural areas makes up roughly 14 percent of the U.S. population. And a lot of them are non-White. A typical rural county contained less than 10 percent of the population of a typical urban county in 2020. About 23,000 people compared with 245,000. I would encourage the Southern diaspora to return home.

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BSB: It’s incredible to think when the countryside controlled state legislators. That’s something the current Virginia government likes to still crow about – that the ruralites once governed the Commonwealth and what an “evil” that once was. Nevah again!

As for the Roof shooting, I remember some local push back against the immediate attacks on the Confederate flag. I would see good ole boys with rebel flags flying in the back of their pickups. Despite the tragic nature of the shooting, it was good to see that folks still weren’t ready to give up the flag.

The removal of Jackson was sadly inevitable. When institutions lose their identity and genuine sense of purpose, they decline and then fall. The same will happen to VMI as it becomes molded into modern America.

To jump back for a second, how did you find Identity Dixie?

Lancelot Lamar: I hope and pray that the Dixie gene has been passed along to the emerging generation. If the threats are not perceived as being mortal but instead just merely annoying, well then…

I found Identity Dixie by way of Myth of the 20th Century. Musonius was a guest, and I was impressed with his command of history and clarity of thought. In going through the Rebel Yell podcast archive and articles, it was clear that the mission was focused and articulating the crisis better than anything else out there. I think the job of Identity Dixie is to not only reach and rouse the rank and file in the South, but give them the confidence and the sense of urgency to get active in their communities and do practical things to revitalize the South’s will to live.

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BSB: You’ve written about cultural issues with the South, particularly with music, storytelling, film, etc. These are important items to shore up a culture on the rocks. Why is this segment of Southern culture so important?

Lancelot Lamar: Next to trying to have non-pejorative discussions about ideology, I firmly believe this is the most important question of all. It captures everything. Culture isn’t some separate abstracted concept. I’m not being poetic when I say it is a living force. It can be healthy or sick. It can die. Culture is a living story. And we aren’t just spectators, we’re able to participate in it as co-authors, hopefully faithful ones. To me that’s an incredibly exciting challenge…and frankly an obligation. I think that’s why there’s so much interest in Identity Dixie.

And while we experience culture in countless nuanced ways, our peculiar traditions, habits, and sensibilities, it’s mostly through stories, music, and the art of our remembered past where we are able to share an ownership in our ancestors’ pain and triumphs, learn from their mistakes and take pride in their genius and achievements. It’s little different than the pride and ownership you feel for your own family’s history, no matter if it includes rogues or the most ordinary of lives. They were part of something bigger and nudged it along, for ill or good, to what it is right now.

Washington’s mighty efforts to instill a mostly contrived civic nationalism with all its trappings – the holidays, the songs, the pledges and oaths, the flags, the myths – is with the intent to emotionally and spiritually connect you personally so you will be willing to sacrifice to preserve, fight, and die for this civic culture so it continues in a future you won’t see. The South needs to revive a more compelling and authentic cultural option for its sons and daughters, or we’re doomed.

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BSB: I think Southern Rock did a lot (and still does) for Southern identity. What are your thoughts on the genre, and could it conceivably make a comeback? It would be great for our cause.

Lancelot Lamar: The short answer is an emphatic hell yes! Everyone immediately thinks of the patriarchal generation, The Allman Brothers, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Marshall Tucker Band, Molly Hatchet, and ZZ Top who absolutely faithfully represented the South and who were among the very first to do so; their debut album came out in 1971 two years before Lynyrd Skynyrd’s. But let’s not forget that before the golden era of the 70s, Southern blues inspired rock, there were all the guys in the 50s and 60s, Elvis, Johnny Cash, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Bo Diddley, and Jerry Lee Lewis. The critical difference though is that the bands in the 70s were self-consciously and defiantly Southern, Lynyrd Skynyrd in particular. They enjoyed being ambassadors for the South and, to your point, were and still are rallying points of pride. They had the fire and zeal of evangelists.

Going back to what I was saying about feeling a connection to a living culture, I was in a crowd with men openly crying during “Free Bird” on a Skynyrd reunion tour a few years ago. Think of the power there waiting to be tapped. I know there are contemporary bands trying to do the same thing and they need to be supported. But most of what I’ve seen seems forced and just doesn’t quite capture the ethos of what was happening in the 70s. It’s dumbed down “redneck” and I’m not sure it’s helping the cause any more than most of what’s coming out of Nashville for the FM radio country market.

I suppose it’s all at least keeping the pot on simmer. I know there are good acts out there, I’d just like to see them belly up and defend Dixie by directly picking a fight with the anti-culture, they would be heroes. I’m really not sure what to do with Kid Rock. Do we adopt him or send a cease-and-desist letter?

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BSB: Kid Rock is an interesting case. He seems to be one of those Yankee-Confederates you mentioned earlier, maybe he’s a modern-day Copperhead. I don’t know, but I have a favorable opinion of him, although I know he is not us.

I think one of the biggest issues facing the South, and it is totally connected to culture, and perhaps one of the most defining characteristics, is the Southern accent. Any thoughts on how to revive that? And, not in a contrived, artificial way?

Lancelot Lamar: That is a great question. I’ve been fascinated with trying to understand at what point the original colonists became what we would recognize as Southern. Obviously, it was a process, but at some point, there was a generation that became a new people which included the varied and nuanced new accents and regional patois. There’s an Alabama woman on YouTube with an entire channel comparing the different Southern accents. Her welcome video is worth listening to. But when you listen to the accents she’s collecting and compare them to the recordings of Civil War veterans, what strikes you is how familiar these men sound, they could be your grandfather.

So, when did the break from the old world actually happen? When did Dixie become the Dixie we’d recognize? But I digress.

A proud people don’t try to hide their heritage. It takes a real effort to change your accent and consciously try to model it after a midwestern anchorman or an uptalking urbanite in order to sound more acceptable and employable. When the dominant culture mocks the way you speak, it’s hard for a young person leaving for college or a job outside of the South not to be thinking about this. Clarence Thomas is in the news now and so is his story of how he “overcame” his Gullah/Geechee accent to get ahead.

I think this resonates for a lot of young people aspiring to become mainstream American. But again, someone who’s proud of their culture doesn’t do this. I think the black community might hold the answer. They are quite aware how the exaggerated urban black accent, and even how they name their children, is a big part of what keeps them distinct and indigestible as a minority population. As a group, they reinforce this, they call out and shame blacks who culturally appropriate Whites. They tell their kids, “Be proud of who you are.” We should do the same, encourage a defiant swagger. Instead of Baby Mozart, start playing Hank Williams Jr. interviews in the nursery.

I really think being around people who have retained their accent is all it takes, even if you’re older. I have a niece who moved to Georgia from the Mid-Atlantic. She’s been there less than ten years and you’d swear she’s a native. Regarding Kid Rock, he certainly has the swagger and defiance I think is needed!

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BSB: Well said, regarding the accent. I noticed mine dipped when I went to college and then rebounded significantly when I was back around the native culture. Although, my accent is very much a blend of what a friend once called “Tuckahoe” (Old Richmond) and Tidewater.

As far as Southern Nationalism goes, one of the main criticisms of it is that it is too rooted in the past. Essentially, it is hyper-focused just on the Confederacy. I think that is a valid critique and the South must look to the future with a positive message.

What are your thoughts on that element of Southern Nationalism, as well as, where we go in the future?

Lancelot Lamar: Walker Percy said that Southerners have more in common with their ancestors in 1830 than living relatives born in the 1930s. At the risk of sounding arrogant, I think the path forward is easy, at least it’s not complicated. We’re losing our culture because we’ve not offered anything else for the great majority of normie Southerners to rally around.

As we’ve been discussing, a people’s history, their story, is essential to its identity, and the Confederacy is a big piece. But it’s only one item in a list of important things. As heretical as it might sound, the South needs to free itself from the past and shift energy toward the urgent issues people care more about and have the power to control. They haven’t been given the liberty and direction how to move forward as a culturally defined region. So, what happens is the void is filled with toxic Chamber of Commerce economic goals and GOP national agendas.

The South is the only region in the United States that is ascending, economically and with population growth. And that is the very thing that threatens its cultural essence. Not to diminish the significance of this question or sound flippant, but this is fundamentally a marketing problem. High-end marketing and propaganda operate exactly the same. Every knucklehead politician that wins in the South, or Trump, or an ad that made you buy their widget, all know how this works. God knows the Left does. But unlike a thin political platform, what’s missing is capturing the fundamental emotional truth that will inspire commitment. It begins with asking what is the essence that makes the South the South?

This isn’t a romantic or nostalgic exercise. If Southern Nationalists can’t answer the things that will make a person put their life on the line, we will never win. Some of these are obvious: we are Christian, a Christ-haunted region unlike any other place in America. We are independent and local, with a pride in self-sufficiency, a distrust of distant power, and preference for local autonomy. We revere nature. The land itself is thought of and treated with a humility and with a respect because of the rural and agricultural history. We have a tragic history that we will never forget, because like all great histories, it teaches and teases. Ours is tragic because of the promise of how it started and what we know is still possible.

Southern Nationalism has not presented a coherent vision that will appeal to the critical mass needed to make this all work. Right now, we’re only talking to a tiny fraction of engaged dissidents. The “marketing campaign” needs to speak to the head, as well as, the heart of normal people in simple language that presents the Southern essence and why it’s being lost, what the consequence is if it dies, what’s needed to preserve it, and an actionable economic and political path for prosperity and independence.

Look no further than how Brexit and Texit made their cases. I know I’m rolling a hand grenade into the room, but these are the seeds for a much-needed ideological foundation that will absolutely be required if we are going to take winning seriously.

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BSB: I agree wholeheartedly. Thank you for that response. Not to drop some doom-and-gloom, but what happens if we don’t win?

Lancelot Lamar: As bad as the ugly unbroken sprawl from Boston to D.C. is and as bad as the Meso-Americans’ unchallenged reconquering of the West is, what could happen to the South could be much worse because it will be vindictive and executed with extreme prejudice. The various Reconstructions will have been mild inconveniences by comparison. A White Christian family man with a deep drawl is the most threatening and hated thing imaginable to the American-International political and corporate order.

They figured out that outside interests and Big Business is the way to attack him. Once sufficiently weakened, then God only knows how the revenge will play out. Most every state in Dixie has seen some of the biggest companies in the world relocate, Texas in particular. With that, comes workers from the outside who will quickly use their resources to recreate their urban culture. They will get on school boards, run for local offices, venerate D.C., build developments in rural areas, and protest Confederate celebrations. In short, they will dismantle that list of Southern essence piece by piece. The political class is welcoming this. If we can’t organize the good people throughout Dixie and give them the confidence to confront their employer, sheriff, reps, governor, pastors, and, most importantly, their new neighbors with why the South is worth preserving and why they will resist every effort to change it, then in a generation the South will be erased and no less special than any other place.

What’s so frustrating is it doesn’t have to go this way. Yes, a charismatic figure would greatly help this effort, look at what DeSantis is doing…and maybe you should send a note to Kid Rock, but each of us are called to be leaders in our homes, churches, and communities. Identity Dixie could be instrumental in saving the South by bringing our best and brightest together and creating a palatable Southern Manifesto that a family could comfortably discuss at the dinner table.

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BSB: I shudder at the thought, but it’s an ugly one that Southern dissidents should contemplate. Somewhat of a loaded question(s), but what’s your take on the current crop of leaders and/or sub-movements within the broader Dissident Right? What’s working and what needs to be curbed?

Lancelot Lamar: These are big questions! If you’re asking about flag drops and tactics like those of Patriot Front, well, that’s the problem, they’re tactics without strategy, it’s pointless, likely harmful.

Bottom line up front, I see only glimmers of possibility in any one person and I’m only slightly more optimistic with fledgling sub-movements. The durability of these people and groups historically don’t have great track records anywhere in time. The Eric Hoffer quote is a good one, “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”

And they fail for a few predictable reasons. They often begin with a strong personality, but few people are capable of managing themselves and attention let alone managing others and it implodes. Then there are the grifters and opportunists that are not really committed but nevertheless siphon attention and money and damage the larger movement before they move on to more interesting opportunities. Next is the good idea that is organized but is infiltrated because it has the potential to upset the status quo. The Tea Party is a recent example.

But we have to keep fighting and my read-on history shows there are three big things that simply must be in place for the Dissident Right and the subgroups nested beneath it to stand a chance of competing with forces that do have them in place.

First, the Right needs a simple core statement of beliefs, non-negotiables, and shared principles that will allow coalitions of mutual support to form. If the word ideology triggers you, then call it your worldview, your platform, whatever. Just in America, if you made a Venn diagram of the beliefs and goals of the CivNats, WigNats, NatSocs, America First, etc…you’d be surprised how much overlap there is. That overlap needs to be taken seriously because it is going to be what needs to be codified and mutually agreed on to allow a broad multifront Dissident Right. You’re in or you’re out. If you’re out, you’re an existential incompatible threat.

How a region achieving political power applies and enhances these core principles is entirely their own business. I keep coming back to this, but this is what history and common sense shows over and over again.

Next, at the sub-group level, it really is a matter of setting audacious goals and organizing professionally. The informal grassroots brotherhood is not going to cut it. Musonius often mentions how the communist cells operated. 1% Bike Clubs are highly bureaucratic and professionally organized as well. Often cited is how the IRA and Sinn Fein worked together, a militant boogeyman with basically the same guys in suits who were capable of negotiating and speaking to advance policy. I’m not advocating for a terrorist body like the IRA, but the point is they had a highly coordinated and sophisticated strategy.

A strategy is fundamentally a marketing problem of how to penetrate the middle of the curve, the critical mass of a population to side with you. Endlessly appealing only to the 3% of pissed-off dissidents with one-off public events is a fail. But imagine if there was a more respectable public facing body who could approach the mic or issue a statement and say, “These fiery young men have a point. It’s worth talking about this.”

Finally, policing your own. A real movement ruthlessly purges the nuts. A man well worth reading is the late historian George Nash and his book, The Conservative Intellectual Movement in America. Too many of us look at the failure of conservatism and throw out a very rich body of thought and experience that has tremendous importance for what we’re trying to do. We’re needlessly reinventing subpar wheels. It’s like an unchurched 20-year-old creating their own personal creed and not realizing that they’ve drafted a poor version of the Ten Commandments. Good ideas, structure, and hard-learned experience are available to build on and fast track the work that needs to be done right now.

We are in a rare and amazing moment in time when the great mass of people is waking up to the failure of the international order. Dissident and nationalists movements the world over have the answers for them. It’s our game to lose. Action alone will save us but we need to organize properly before the moment passes.

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BSB: Well said, and I can’t disagree with you on the overall status of the Dissident Right and where it needs to go forward. Very tough to manage and organize the various sub-groups, like herding cats. Also, the nuts and weirdos must be purged.

Softball question for you, and we’ll be wrapping this up with just a few more questions. What’s your favorite Southern Rock band? If you can’t pin down just one, what are some bands that are required listening?

Lancelot Lamar: You’ll always have a soft spot for what you first encountered and Ronnie Van Zant’s Skynyrd is firmly in first place. They captured a moment and a spirit that everyone else would end up chasing. ZZ Top before they discovered drum machines with the Eliminator album. They’re first six albums are just so good. Do not under any circumstances listen to the remastered versions, horrible reverb was applied and ruined them, find the album versions. If they’re new to you, listen to the first side of Fandango! and something like Rio Grande Mud. Rounding it out, the Allman Brothers early albums. Like Skynyrd, they truly captured something magical, inspiring, and timeless.

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BSB: I’ve always had a soft spot for .38 Special and The Outlaws don’t get much recognition. Marshall Tucker Band is up there, too.

Toward the end of these interviews, I usually like to end with advice for the young guys out there. Specifically, sound advice for those struggling with modernity, the dating scene, their job, etc.

What could you tell the younger guys out there that are having a hard time with finding fulfillment in their lives?

Lancelot Lamar: For sure there are a lot of other great bands that are rightfully in the Southern Rock Canon.

I’m working on a short piece now about dating and relationships for this very reason: how does anyone, let alone a young man who’s even halfway paying attention, not look to the future and feel rattled, unmoored, and demoralized?

Here’s what I’d tell my 22 year old self:

Take life seriously. Grow up right now. Hanging out is a luxury you can’t afford, not in person, not online.

As soon as possible, understand your unique wiring and personality type, take a Myers Briggs or the Big Five personality test. They are accurate enough. Work toward your natural strengths and don’t force yourself down a path to meet others’ expectations, not parents, not peers, not anyone. To thine ownself be true.

Set a real goal and make a plan for your next five years that includes how you’re getting there. Beyond that it’s pointless, too much can happen. Unless your plan is a specific white collar profession, like an accountant, doctor, lawyer, engineer, do not go to college. If you already have a degree and floundering, learn a trade or skilled service now. I know a 24 year old who out of college worked for a big tree trimming company for 18 months and he’s on his own now and running crews. Another learned chimney sweeping and doing the same.

Don’t waste time. From 18 to 30 your effort should be on developing whatever skills you need to become valuable and an asset to others. For some, this will mean not dating. You have no idea how hard it is to start a business. If that’s where your interests are, get it going before you have a family, they will suffer, your business will suffer, you will suffer. An established man has significantly better dating prospects anyway.

Everyone needs to be part of something bigger than themselves, it will make you sincerely happy. For some truly being active in a church will do it, for others a real community or group that comes together to do something important. Maybe it’s the Movement. But you need to plug into something. Being alone is death.

When it’s time, don’t get confused about what love means in looking for a mate. Feelings are fleeting. People are flawed. A person who is honest, cares about your welfare, and shares the two or three things that you hold dear is marrying material. You and the other person will become different people when you’re married. A relationship is a living thing, it will grow in ways you can’t predict. It’s exciting. Don’t overthink it.

Walk away from the system, its siren song, its empty promises, its problems and propaganda. If you’re honestly struggling right now, listen to “Simple Man” and repeat the following each morning and evening for a week: “God grant me the serenity, to accept the things I cannot change; Courage to change the things I can; And wisdom to know the difference.”

By the way, the thing you can never change is other people. So, stop trying. Go live your life. We’re all going make it.

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BSB: Absolutely and I really hope our younger readers take that to heart. I wish I could go back and talk some sense into my younger self. As for my last question, what would you like to say to our Identity Dixie readers regarding the South’s future and their culture? Thank you very much for your time, too.

Lancelot Lamar: Thank you for the opportunity. I’d suggest you have a turn in the hot seat soon, we have questions, sir.

We’ve covered a lot of ground, but I think the proposition is a simple one: for any Southerner at home or abroad and who sees their history, land, future, and way of life being attacked, ruined, diluted, and erased but is not sure if recovery and a distinctly Southern future is possible, the good news is that it’s not only possible, but a better South is waiting to be born, we all feel it. It is entirely up to you dear reader if that will happen. It’s not impersonal forces of nature we’re up against, but people who have less passion, flawed ideas, and weaker constitutions than we do. Honestly, this should be embarrassingly easy to send them packing.

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Lancelot Lamar is a contributor to Identity Dixie. His articles can be found here.