Country music is based on the style of music of the southern United States or on the music the west. It is also called western.
It is a blend of folk music, Celtic music, blues, gospel music, and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the 1920s.
Each style is unique in its execution, its rhythms, and its chord structures, though many songs have been adapted to the different country styles. One example is the tune "Milk Cow Blues", and early blues tune by Kokomo Arnold that has been performed in a wide variety of country styles by everyone from Aerosmith to Willie Nelson, George Strait to Ricky Nelson and Elvis Presley.
Country music is mainly played on string instruments.
Vernon Dalhart was the first country singer to have a nation-wide hit (May, 1924, with "The Wreck Of Old '97"). Other important early recording artists were Riley Puckett, Don Richardson, Fiddling John Carson, Ernest Stoneman, Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers, and The Skillet Lickers.
Some trace the origins of modern country music 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 an historic recording session in Bristol, Tennessee on August 1, 1927, where Ralph Peer was the talent scout .
It ‘s possible to categorize many country singers as being either from the Jimmie Rodgers strand or the Carter Family strand of country music.
There were and are many great country artists that we all know today. Such as Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Hank Willams, Sr., Garth Brooks, George Strait, Kenney Chesney, Rascall Flatts, Charlie Daniels, Charley Pride, Ray Charles, Loretta Lynn, Willie Nelson, and Alabama.
To hear some country
music, visit these sites:
http://www.cmt.com
http://www.timelife.com/catalog/product.jsp?productId=418 (This is a
site to buy music, but there are good samples of classic country music
here.)
Here is a picture of Willie Nelson:
Here is a picture of Dolly Parton:
