Abstract:This article traces the highs and lows of country singer-songwriter Kris Kristofferson’s early music career when he emerged as the standard bearer for a supposedly new and authentic Nashville sound. Focusing on the late 1960s and early 1970s, this paper examines the critical, commercial, and personal impact of such expectations at a time when Americans from varied walks of life latched on to country music and its performers as founts of honesty and authenticity that sustained often competing images of the South and the nation. It underscores how Kristofferson and his work complicated, challenged, and reinforced certain views on country music, its audience, and its place in the national cultural and political landscape. The title borrows a line from Kristofferson’s semi-autobiographical song, “The Pilgrim, Chapter 33,” in which he wonders “if the going up was worth the coming down.”

中文翻译：

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上升和下降 Kris Kristofferson、真实性和乡村音乐的“新品种”

摘要：本文追溯了乡村歌手兼词曲作者克里斯·克里斯托佛森 (Kris Kristofferson) 早期音乐生涯的起起落落，当时他成为了所谓的全新而真实的纳什维尔声音的旗手。本文着眼于 1960 年代末和 1970 年代初，研究了当美国人各行各业都将乡村音乐及其表演者视为诚实和真实的源泉时，这种期望的批判性、商业和个人影响。南方和国家的竞争形象。它强调了克里斯托弗森和他的作品如何复杂化、挑战和强化了对乡村音乐、其观众及其在国家文化和政治格局中的地位的某些观点。标题借用了克里斯托佛森的半自传歌曲“朝圣者，第 33 章，