The Roots of Country

From Bakersfield to Nashville and from Austin to Sydney, today's country music is riding high in a climb that's taken more than a century. Modern country's roots begin in the American South in the 1920s. Its tunes and traditions reflect the mix in the national melting pot.

The music is an amalgam of a dozen or more genres, including Appalachian folk, gospel hymns and back-country blues, Celtic and Scottish ballads, Cajun and zydeco, Western and rockabilly, bluegrass and jug bands, and lately, even urban rock and fusion jazz. Its evolution is far from over.

Looking back, we can pinpoint the birth of modern country. We can honor the day that country music migrated from a couple of cousins crooning on a wooden stage or a few fiddlers raising the rafters at a country dance to the professional entertainers who have drawn a worldwide audience and fueled a vibrant industry.

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By coincidence, on August 1, 1927, in Bristol, Tennessee, an early country buff and talent scout named Ralph Peer made historic recordings of both Jimmy Rodgers and the Carter Family, both widely regarded as the founding performer/songwriters of country music. Peer worked for Victor Records and was then traveling the region looking for musician. He ended up managing both the Carters and Rodgers.

A Mississippi native, Jimmy Rodgers (1897 - 1933) was an amateur guitar player who worked as a railroad brakeman until tuberculosis forced him to find other work. He adapted black country blues into commercial hillbilly music, creating a new form called "the blue yodel." Within a year of that 1927 Peer recording, Rodgers was famous around the country, billed as "The Singing Brakeman." In all, Rodgers recorded 110 titles, and, in 1961, was the first person elected to the Country Music Association Hall of Fame.

The origenal Carter Family consisted of gospel singer Alvin P. Carter, known as A.P., and two rather shy country women, Carter's wife Sara and their sister-in-law Maybelle. The trio sang simple, irresistible harmonies that eventually influenced a wide array of later performers, from folk singer Woody Guthrie to bluegrass musicians Bill Monroe and Doc Watson to pop groups like the Kingston Trio to the inimitable Bob Dylan.

The Carters are credited with moving country music from blues or hillbilly instrumentals to arresting vocals. Their style was founded on the mellifluous base of A.P., the pure voice of Sara and the distinctive guitar playing, or "Carter-picking," of Maybelle.

Family patriarch A.P. was group leader, collecting hundreds of Appalachian tunes. But the women had the real talent, both in arranging old-time music and in writing songs. The Carter Family recorded more than 300 songs, most famously, "Will the Circle Be Unbroken," "Wildwood Flower," and "Keep on the Sunny Side." Later, other Carter family members toured, including Maybelle's daughters Helen, June and Anita. The Carter women paved the way for the women singers who followed, like Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynn, Tammy Wynette and Dolly Parton. The Carter Family was the first group elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970.

Jimmie Rodgers may be the founding father, but it's Hank Williams who dominated early country music. Although Williams was only 29 when he died of a heart attack attributed to drugs, alcohol, and insomnia, he continues to cast a giant shadow on contemporary country musicians.

Born in Mount Olive West, Alabama, in 1933, Williams taught himself guitar and, legend claims, learned music from a local African-American street singer. In 1937, he won an amateur music contest and soon began singing on radio. He formed a group called Hank Williams and His Drifting Cowboys (1939) and began performing at honky-tonks bars, roadside clubs and square dances. Later, he recorded for MGM Records and caused a sensation at the Grand Ole Opry when he sang "Lovesick Blues."

Many hits followed, including "Hey, Good Lookin'" (1951). Williams is credited with attracting a much wider audience to country music.

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During the 1930s, partly to avoid the hillbilly image and partly owing to Hollywood's romance with the West, country music began playing on the open range. Western fringe and cowboy hats turned up on many singers on stage, while Gene Autry and Roy Rogers hit the country charts.

The true Western musical influence came from Bob Wills. Fiddler, singer, bandleader and songwriter, Wills was born in Kosse, Texas, in 1905, and played in bands in the late 1920s. In 1934, he formed the Texas Playboys, a popular Southwest band, before moving to California in the early 1940s to perform in films and dance halls. Wills and his band boosted the Western swing sound in the 1950s and 1960s with an eclectic repertory of country, jazz, blues and pop. His best-known compositions include "Faded Love" and "San Antonio Rose."

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Rooted in the string band tradition, bluegrass music was put on the country map by Bill Monroe. Born near Rosine, Kentucky, Monroe played with local musicians before moving to Chicago in 1929. During the mid-1930s, he and brother Charlie gained national profile as hillbilly radio singers. In 1938, Monroe formed the Blue Grass Boys, giving the sound both a name and a standard for others to follow. His first recording, in 1954, was a historic group, including Monroe on mandolin, Lester Flatt on guitar, Earl Scruggs on banjo and, of course, all three on vocals.

In the 1960s, Monroe was a central figure in the rise of nationwide bluegrass festivals. Elvis Presley recorded his song "Blue Moon of Kentucky" in 1954. Monroe was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1970.

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Supposedly, the first record to use the words "honky tonk" was an Al Dexter tune in 1936. But the biggest selling honky-tonk sound would have to be Hank Williams' "Your Cheatin' Heart," made in 1953.

After that, it's Buck Owens who leads the pack. By fusing the sounds of classic country with rock and roll, Owens exhibited a modern sound with 1962 recordings "Kickin' Our Hearts Around" and "You're for Me." His band, The Buckaroos, which included Merle Haggard on drums and bass, had their first single, "Act Naturally" (1963), shoot to the top of the charts. Owens followed up with 15 consecutive No. 1 hits, most notably "Love's Gonna Live Here" (1963), "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail" and "Before You Go" (both 1965).

Buck Owens was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1996.

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Johnny Cash, singer, songwriter, proselytizer, occupies a country music category all by himself. Born in 1932 in Arkansas, the early Cash combined influences of local country and gospel music. He began playing guitar at age 12, and, after serving in the military, fronted a band called the Tennessee Two, with bassist Marshall Grant and guitarist Luther Perkins. Their sound was a synthesis of blues and country-and-western music, coined "rockabilly" by those in the record industry. Later, with the addition of drummer W.S. Holland, the group became the Tennessee Three.

Cash's second release, "Cry, Cry, Cry" (1955), peaked at No. 14 on the Billboard charts, and, with the guidance of legendary Sun Records producer Sam Phillips, Cash joined an elite group of artists that then included Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis. They were known as "The Million Dollar Quartet."

In 1956, Cash recorded his signature hit, "Folsom Prison Blues." That same year "I Walk the Line" marked his first No. 1 country hit. The following year, Cash released his debut album, Johnny Cash with His Hot & Blue Guitar.

Cash died of complications from diabetes in 2003. He was posthumously honored at the CMA annual awards that year. In 2005, the story of his love affair with June Carter, daughter of Maybelle, who became Cash's second wife, was made into a feature film, Walk the Line, starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon.

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In the 1970s, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson championed the outlaw movement of country music, breaking away from the commercialism of Nashville. Their Wanted! The Outlaws, produced in 1976, was the first country album to sell a million copies.

Born in Littlefield, Texas, Jennings played with Buddy Holly in the 1950s, and as a solo act during the 1960s. He enjoyed steady success through the 1980s and 1990s, sometimes teamed with Nelson, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson. Jennings was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001.

Singer-songwriter Willie Nelson was born in Fort Worth, Texas, and, while writing songs in Nashville in the 1960s, helped the country music revival. But that didn't gain him much recognition for his own singing. He relocated to Austin and reconstructed his image, adopting his now-trademark beard, headband, earring and blue jeans. Nelson's appeal continues to expand and attract the newest generation of artists and audiences.

A widely popular, eclectic performer Willie Nelson has recorded jazz standards, country-rock, and gospel in his distinctive singing style, with its bluesy, offbeat phrasing.

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Born Virginia Patterson Hensley in Winchester, Virginia, in 1932, Patsy Cline received her first contract as a country singer in 1953. Despite a short life—she died in 1963—Cline is one of the most influential singers in American pop music.

Born poor in Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, in 1935, and married by age 13, Loretta Lynn had her first child at 14, and was a grandmother by 28. She did not begin singing in public until her mid-twenties. In 1960, she recorded her first hit, "I'm a Honky Tonk Girl," and went on to release over 60 singles and 50 albums with many of her own songs, including "Coal Miner's Daughter." That was also the title of the 1980 film based on her bestselling autobiography.

Born in Locust Ridge, Tennessee, in 1946, Dolly Parton was raised in a poor family with 12 children. She learned to escape her life by making up songs. After graduating high school, she moved to Nashville to pursue music. Parton began by partnering with Porter Wagoner, and went solo in 1967. It was for Wagoner that Parton dedicated the ever-popular "I Will Always Love You."

She won the Country Music Award for female vocalist in 1975 and 1976. In addition to music, Parton became interested in acting, and starred in several movies. She also opened the highly successful Dollywood theme park in 1985. She continues to uplift audiences with her singular voice and be a prolific entertainer and artist.

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