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CARTER FAMILY |
Country Music, which is correctly named,
stretch from mountain melodies to cowboy's songs. The influence of jazz, pop
and rock made country music into a wide variety in style and therefore it
became the most popular entertainment music.
At the beginning it was called
'hillbilly' after the poor white farmers who created it. The country music
originated in the southern United States in the 19th century. Due to the
great variety of immigrants the country music was a mixture of traditional
British and European ballads and southern negro blues.
The influence of the instruments came
from Britain the fiddle, Spain the guitar, Italy the mandolin and Africa the
banjo. The vocalists sang about the happiness and disasters of life such as
romance, happiness, disappointment in love, loneliness and prison. They got
together and played at weddings, barn dances and country fairs.
In 1920 people started to realize the
commercial side of it. They started to record the earliest stars. Jimmie Rogers
(1897-1933) sold 20 million records of his yodelling blues and it was only a
short career. The Carter Family recorded 300 million. 'Wildwood flower' and 'My
Clinch Mountain home' to named but just two.
The great depression also affected
the production of country music records. They switch over to radio and started
the programme 'Grand Ole Opry'. It was broad-casted form Nashville, Tennessee
in 1925 and it is still today.
In the 1930 country music hit the big
screen when Hollywood engaged Tex Ritter (1905-1974), the singing cowboy.
Followed by Gene Autry (1907-) and Roy Rogers (1912-1974) who all became world
famous and so did the country music.
New styles slowly developed in the
market. In Kentucky, Bill Monroe (1911-) and his band were using string band
music and it developed into bluegrass.
Ernest Tubb (1914-1984) developed the
popular honky-tonk sound with steel and electric guitars, to begin with purely
to be heard above the drunken hullabaloo in Texas bars. The songs were all
about wild living.
Hank Williams (1923-1953) took up the
honky-tonk sound and developed it into an unforgettable country music. 'Long
gone lonesome blues', 'Your cheating heart' and 'Why don't you love me' to name
just a few. He formed his first band, The Drifting Cowboys, at the age of 14
and wrote about 125 songs in his short life.
In Memphis started the rockabilly - a
mixture of country, rhythm and blues and swing - with Elvis Presley (1935-77),
Carl Perkins (1932-), Jerry Lee Lewis (1935-) and Johnny Cash.
The Queen of country Music, Kitty
Welsh, sang about domestic problems.
In the '60s there came a new sound
introduced by producer and guitarist Chet Atkins (1924-) and it was called the
Nashville Sound. It was smooth and easy to listen to which brought in a bigger
audience. You remember songs 'Like Walking After Midnight', 'Heartache' and 'Sweet
dreams of you'.
Patsy Cline (1932-63), was Nashville's
leading lady and main male artist Jim Reeves (1924-64). Unfortunately both died
in separate plane crashes and the world lost two of their greatest singers.
In the 1970s another Nashville sounds
emerge called the middle-of-the-road by Willie Nelson (1933-) and Waylon
Jennings (1937-) which provoked a Texas rebellion and they were labelled
'Outlaws'.
In the '70s many country music
performers mixed with popular music. Singer-song-writer Gram Parson (1946-73)
was responsible for developing country-rock. Performers such as Linda Ronstadt
(1946-), Tanya Tucker (1958-), and Hank Williams, jr (1949-), Emmylou Harris
(1946-), and Rosanne Cash (1955-) along with Ricky Scaggs (1954-) and George
Strait (1952-) went on to restore Country Music to its original roots.
Glen Campbell (1936-), Kenny Rogers (
1938-), Don Williams (1939-), and Dolly Parton (1946-) are more likely
country-pop artists.
In the '80s the 'New Country' label
started, referring to traditional music of singers like Randy Travis (1956-)
Dwight Yoakam (1956-) and Canadian rockabillie star K.D Long (1962-).
The '90s Garth Brookes (1962-),
honky-tonk singer Alan Jackson (1960-), Clint Black (1962-). Reba McEntire
(1955-) and Mary-Chapin Carpenter (1958-) became household names.
Three ladies Sean Coluin, Mary-Chapin
Carpenter and Roseanne Cash were voted Top Female Vocalists by the CMA in 1992
and 1993. Roseanne Cash is the daughter of Johnny Cash.
Loretta Lynne, one of the country's
most accomplished performer. Born in Butcher Hollow in Kentucky on 14 April
1935. She married at the age of 13; had four kids at the age of 18; taught
herself how to play the guitar; had her first hit at the age of 27 'Success'
and was a grandmother at the age of 29. How is that for a record? Her
autobiography was named 'Coal Miner's daught' which was filmed in 1980 with the
actress Sissy Spacek. Loretta had the great honour in 1988 being received into
The Country Music Hall of Fame. Her younger sister Crystal Gayle (1951-) is
also a popular country music singer.
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