Country music: the story of America's roots music

A fiddle picks out a nostalgic melody, a banjo answers in a cascade, and a nasal voice tells a story of a broken heart, dusty roads and simple faith. Somewhere between an Appalachian barn and a Nashville stage, thousands of people tap their feet in unison. This music born of the common people, made of sorrows and pride, is country.

Country is one of the great popular musics of the United States, born at the start of the twentieth century in the rural South. Arising from the meeting between the ballads of British immigrants and African American blues, it tells of ordinary America — that of farms, small towns and great heartaches. To understand it is to listen to the soundtrack of an entire country.

At the roots: Appalachia and blues#

Country sinks its roots into the folk music of Appalachia, those eastern mountains where immigrants from the British Isles — England, Scotland, Ireland — had settled. They had brought with them their ballads and their stringed instruments, the fiddle foremost, passed down from generation to generation in the isolated valleys. It is this old melodic stock that forms the backbone of country.

But country is not only European: it owes a great deal to African American blues and the Black traditions of the South. The banjo itself, become the emblem of the genre, descends from African instruments. From this meeting between white ballad and Black blues was born a mixed music, often forgotten in the official story, yet inscribed at the very heart of the country sound.

Country was born of a fertile misunderstanding: a music of rural whites profoundly shaped by the blues of the Black South.

The first recordings#

Country became an industry in the 1920s, when the record labels set out to record the musicians of the South. The founding episode remains the Bristol Sessions of 1927, in Tennessee: there producer Ralph Peer recorded local artists, in what has sometimes been called the "big bang" of country.

Two names emerged from it and embody the two souls of the genre. Jimmie Rodgers, nicknamed the "father of country," blended yodelling with blues in songs of drifters and railroad men. The Carter Family, for its part, fixed the repertoire of family and spiritual ballads, upright and pious. One sang the road, the other the home: between these two poles, all of country would unfold.

Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry#

Over the century, one city established itself as the capital of country: Nashville, in Tennessee, nicknamed Music City. It is there that studios, record labels and songwriters concentrate, and where the commercial sound of the genre is crafted. To triumph there is the dream of every country artist.

At the heart of this history sits the Grand Ole Opry, a radio show launched as early as 1925 and become an institution. Broadcast every week, welcoming the greatest onto its stage, it made country known throughout America and remains, nearly a century later, the living temple of the genre. To be invited there is to enter legend.

Legends and styles#

Country has continually diversified into subgenres. Honky-tonk, the music of Southern bars, found its hero in Hank Williams, dead at twenty-nine after writing heartbreaking classics. Later, the Californian Bakersfield sound reacted against Nashville's smoothing, while the outlaw country of the 1970s laid claim to freedom and roughness.

Some figures transcend the genre to become American icons: Johnny Cash, the "man in black" with the deep voice, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, heralds of the outlaws, or Dolly Parton, a prodigious songwriter become living legend. Through them, country tirelessly sings the same themes: rural life, the broken heart, faith and attachment to the land.

From the Appalachian barn to packed stadiums, country has become one of the most listened-to musics in America, without losing any of its roots. To discover it is to hear the heart of the American South beat — and to learn English is to be able to grasp the words of these story-songs, understand the wordplay of honky-tonk, and sing along with a whole hall to a broken-hearted chorus.

FAQ#

What is country music? Country is an American popular music born at the start of the twentieth century in the rural South. It blends the folk ballads of British immigrants with African American blues, relies on the guitar, banjo and fiddle, and tells of rural life, the broken heart and faith.

Where does country music come from? It was born from the folk music of Appalachia, brought by immigrants from England, Scotland and Ireland, strongly marked by African American blues. Its first major recordings date to the Bristol Sessions of 1927, in Tennessee.

Why is Nashville the capital of country? Nashville, nicknamed Music City, concentrates the studios, record labels and songwriters of the genre. It is also home to the Grand Ole Opry, a radio show founded in 1925, become the central institution of country.

Who are the great figures of country? Among the pioneers, Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family; among the legends, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings and Dolly Parton. Each marked a style, from honky-tonk to outlaw country.

Photo credits: the images used in this article come from Pexels and Unsplash and are royalty-free.