Country music - from the start
American Country music progressed from Appalachian music which got its roots from folk music, brought by immigrants to the southern Appalachian Mountains of the Southeastern Unites States. They brought with them the instruments of Europe, Africa and the Mediterranean Basin over a period spanning almost 300 years.
As the country expanded westward, the Mississippi River and Louisana became a crossroads for country music, giving rise to another genre, that of Cajun. In the Southwest United States, the Rocky Mountains, American frontier and Rio Grande acted as a similar backdrop for Native American, Mexican and cowboy ballads, then there was ‘hillbilly’, music that developed into Western music. Then Country music came along in the 1920s and so, the term ‘Country & Western’ was born.
The main instrument to feature in old-timey and country music was the fiddle, followed by the banjo, guitar and mandolin. Instruments like the dobro with its own distinctive sound and the ‘slide’ or steel guitar which allowed for ‘bending’ the notes so popular in Country music, would follow. Singing a capella was common for people in the late 1800s and early 1900s, simply to keep themselves occupied. Dolly Parton would say her mother always sang, simply as a way of communicating with them and telling them she loved them.
Country music took its place in American popular music during the early days of music recording and was seen as something of a Southern phenomenon. The man attributed to bursting the recording scene wide open was Vernon Dalhart in 1925. He was an opera singer who sang all the big numbers that were in vogue at the time but then, he recorded and released ‘The Prisoner’s Song’ which resulted in an estimated 20 million copies of the records (old 78’s) being sold. That song today is best known here as ‘I Wish I Had Someone To Love Me’. Another favourite that has stood the test of time is ‘I’m Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes’, written by A P Carter of the famous Carter family who lived in the Apalacian Mountains in Virginia. We will feature the Carter family in more detail in next week’s issue.