In a novel that juxtaposes a highly religious man against his music-loving, fiddle-playing wife, the title Devil’s Dream is both an apt reference to Bill Monroe’s well-known country song and an allusion to the religious conflict which Moses Bailey stirs up through most of this great novel.

Despite being married, Moses Bailey and Kate Malone are vastly different people. While Moses is extremely religious and considers country music to be straight from the devil, Kate grew up in a family which loved music and in which playing the fiddle was a way of life. She has not left this part of her behind when entering her marriage. In fact, Kate is familiar with Bill Monroe and with this song, and for her, it brings joy and a dream-like quality to a life that is otherwise austere and controlled.

During this time, Moses was not the only one who believed music to be evil. Hearing the Malone family’s fiddle music would have seemed to many to be a dream come true for the Devil. Moses is clearly afraid of his children being infiltrated by this love of music, because he threatens his son that if he ever learns to play the fiddle, he’ll be kicked out of the house.

In a nutshell, the title The Devil’s Dream is a reference to a song which forms part of a genre that creates much conflict in this novel.

The title of Lee Smith’s novel The Devil’s Dream functions in various ways, including the following:

• It alludes to a famous country music song in a novel in which country music is strongly emphasized.
• It alludes to the opinions of Moses Bailey, a main character, who marries Kate Malone despite the fact that she comes from a music-playing family and Moses considers country music the sound of the devil. At one point for instance, Moses says to a son who is considering learning how to play the fiddle,

“The fiddle is a instrument of the Devil, and iffen you ever take it up you will have to leave home. Fer you won’t be my boy no more, you’ll be the Devil’s boy.”

• It alludes to the attitudes of many people besides Moses who, during the nineteenth century, also considered the fiddle to be “the devil’s box.”
• It alludes to Kate’s continuing love of country music despite her marriage to Moses.
• It alludes to a passage in the novel in which “The Devil’s Dream” is listed as one of the specific songs Kate knows.
• It alludes to the tension between religion and non-religious behavior, a tension that is a major theme of much of the novel.
• It is relevant to a novel in which show business, associated by some people with the devil, is a major focus.
• It alludes to the emphasis on eroticism that becomes more explicit in later sections of the book.  Section four, for instance, opens with these words from a twentieth-century country song:

I've got a way with women,

And an ace or two up my sleeve,

I'm a five-card stud, baby,

I'm all the man you'll ever need.

• It alludes to the opinion of one of the characters (Katie) that country music need not be considered Satanic but might actually serve religious purposes.