fiddle, the German derived dulcimer, the Italian mandolin, the Spanish guitar, and the African banjo[5] were the most common musical instruments. The interactions among musicians from different ethnic groups produced music unique to this region of North America. Appalachian string bands of the early 20th century primarliy consisted of the fiddle, guitar, and banjo.
[[6]] This early country music along with early recorded country music is often referred to as Old-time music. Columbia Records began issuing records with "hillbilly" music (series 15000D "Old Familiar Tunes") as early as 1924.[7] A year earlier on June 14, 1923 Fiddlin' John Carson recorded "Little Log Cabin in the Lane" for .
[8] Vernon Dalhart was the first country singer to have a nationwide hit in May of that same year with "The Wreck of Old '97". [9][10] Other important early recording artists were Riley Puckett, Don Richardson, Fiddlin' John Carson, Ernest Stoneman, Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers and The Skillet Lickers.[11]The steel guitar entered country music as early as 1922, when Jimmie Tarlton met famed Hawaiian guitarist Frank Ferera on the West Coast.
The origins of modern country music can be traced to two seminal influences and a remarkable coincidence. Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family are widely considered to be the founders of country music, and their songs were first captured at a historic recording session in Bristol, Tennessee/Bristol, Virginia on August 1, 1927, where Ralph Peer was the talent scout and sound recordist. It is possible to categorize many country singers as being either from the Jimmie Rodgers strand or the Carter Family strand of country music: Jimmie Rodgers built on the traditional ballads and musical influences of the South, and wrote and sang songs that ordinary people could relate to.
He took the experiences of his own life in the Meridian, Mississippi, area and those of the people he met on the railroad, in bars and on the streets to create his lyrics. He used the musical influences of the traditional ballads and the folk to create his tunes. Since 1953, Meridian's Jimmie Rodgers Memorial Festival has been held annually during May to honor the anniversary of Rodgers' death.
The first festival was on May 26, 1953. Pathos, humour, women, whiskey, murder, death, disease and destitution are all present in his lyrics and these themes have been carried forward and developed by his followers. People like Hank Williams, Sr.
, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, George Jones, Townes van Zandt, Kris Kristofferson, and Johnny Cash have also suffered, and shared their suffering, bringing added dimensions to those themes. It would be fair to say that Jimmie Rodgers sang about life and death from a male perspective, and this viewpoint has dominated some areas of country music. It would also be fair to credit his influence for the development of honky tonk, rockabilly and the Bakersfield sound.
In addition, being a man, he made it possible for Sara and Maybelle to perform without stigma at that time. Sara and Maybelle arranged the songs that A.P.
collected and wrote their own songs. They were the precursors of a line of talented female country singers like Kitty Wells, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Skeeter Davis, Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton and June Carter Cash, the daughter of Maybelle and the wife of Johnny Cash. In his short career (he was only 29 when he died), he dominated the country scene and his songs have been covered by practically every other country artist, male and female.
Indeed, his songs were covered by jazz, pop, and rhythm and blues performers from early in his career. Songs like "Cold, Cold Heart" and "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" have long been pop standards. Williams had two personas: as Hank Williams he was a singer-songwriter and entertainer; as Luke the Drifter , he was a songwriting crusader.
The complexity of his character was reflected in the introspective songs he wrote about heartbreak, happiness and love (such as "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and "Your Cheating Heart"), and the more upbeat numbers about Cajun life ("Jambalaya") or cigar store Indians ("Kaw-Liga"). He took the music to a different level and a wider audience. Country artists have included Williams in their compositions.
Waylon Jennings pondered whether his career matched up with Hank's in "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way" and Hank Williams Jr. recounts the uproarious conditions in his and his father's bands in "A Family Tradition". David Allan Coe boasts in "Longhaired Redneck", "I can sing you every song Hank Williams ever wrote".
and his son Hank Williams III have been innovators within country music as well, Hank Jr. leading towards rock fusion and "outlaw country", and Hank III going much further in reaching out to death metal and psychobilly soul. Under the direction of producers such as Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley, and later Billy Sherrill, the brought country music to a diverse audience and helped revive country as it emerged from a commercially fallow period.
[12] This sound was notable for borrowing from 1950s pop stylings: a prominent and 'smooth' vocal, backed by a string section and vocal chorus. Instrumental soloing was de-emphasised in favor of trademark 'licks'. Leading artists in this genre included Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, and later Tammy Wynette and Charlie Rich.
The "slip note" piano style of session musician Floyd Cramer was an important component of this style. Although country music has great stylistic diversity, some critics say this diversity was strangled by the formulaic approach of the Nashville Sound producers. Others point to the commercial need to re-invent country in the face of the dominance of '50s rock'n'roll and subsequent British Invasion.
Even today the variety of country music is not usually well reflected in commercial radio airplay and the popular perception of country music is fraught with stereotypes of hillbillies and maudlin ballads. Dwight Yoakam helped lead a revival of the Bakersfield Sound in the 1980s and Brad Paisley incorporates it in much of his music today. Within Nashville in the 1980s, Randy Travis, Ricky Skaggs and others brought a return to the traditional values.
Their musicianship, songwriting and producing skills helped to revive the genre momentarily. However, even they, and such long-time greats as Jones, Cash, and Haggard, fell from popularity as the record companies again imposed their formulas and refused to promote established artists. Capitol Records made an almost wholesale clearance of their country artists in the 1960s.
Country music radio stations are the most popular genre of music in the United States of America. Brooks Dunn and Garth Brooks. On the Carter Family side, singers like Iris DeMent and Nanci Griffith have written on more traditional "folk" themes, albeit with a contemporary point of view.
In the mid 1990s country western music was influenced by the popularity of line dancing. This influence was so great that Chet Atkins was quoted as saying "The music has gotten pretty bad, I think. It's all that damn line dancing.
" By the end of the decade, however, at least one line dance choreographer complained that good country line dance music was no longer being released. In the 1990s a new form of country music emerged, called by some alternative country, neotraditional, or "insurgent country". fiddle, the German derived dulcimer, the Italian mandolin, the Spanish guitar, and the African banjo[5] were the most common musical instruments.
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