2. Music Appreciation: The History of Rock
Chapter 3:
Country and Western

3. Country and Western Music
Derived from folk music brought by British, Scottish and Irish settlers to the Southern US and the mountain regions of the Eastern part of country.
Meant to bring the nostalgia of a time before modern things but by the late 1920’s it was derogatorily referred to as hillbilly music.

4. Country/hillbilly music:
Adult style music containing adult messages
Small group…typically 3-6 members
-easy to record in studio
-easy to perform live
-travel was inexpensive

8. Performance venues…. National Barn Dance- based in Chicago
Grand Ole Opry- based in Nashville
Both followed the format of simple, nostalgic music interspersed with jokes and monologues of country humor.

14. -The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country-music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, which was founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM.
-In the 1930s the show began hiring professionals and expanded to four hours; and WSM, broadcasting by then with 50,000 watts, made the program a Saturday night musical tradition in nearly 30 states.  In 1939, it debuted nationally on NBC Radio. The Opry moved to a permanent home, the Ryman Auditorium, in 1943. 

15. String bands The earliest of country groups (1900-ish)
Consisted of lead vocalist, background vocalists, fiddles, acoustic guitars, banjo and acoustic bass; sometimes a mandolin.
No piano or drums.
By the late 1920’s, this had developed into three distinct but closely related styles: Southern Country, Bluegrass and Southwestern Country Swing.

18. Southern Country
Strongest influence on rock and roll through the music of Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins and Buddy Holly.
Many southern country tunes are based upon standard blues progressions and the performance style also incorporates some of the techniques of blues like sliding between pitches and blue notes.

19. Characteristics of Southern Country music
Simple melodies with narrow ranges
Simple harmonies (tonic, subdominant, dominant)
Simple rhythms
Beat remains constant
Lyrics often dealt with love, jilted lovers or love gone bad.
Solos had little improvisation.
Vocalists had a nasal quality, sliding from pitch to pitch and sometimes used a yodeling technique.
Steel guitar sometimes used.
Use of two-beat bass- tonic on the 1st beat, dominant on the 3rd beat.

20. Prominent musicians in the Southern Country style
Jimmie Rodgers- the “father of country music”
Greatly influenced by the blues music he heard growing up in Mississippi.
Blue Yodel (1927) made him popular with a national hit. Yodeling was a trademark of his music and was influenced by street cries, field hollers, train whistles and imitations of Swiss yodeling.
“T” for Texas….originally titled “Blue Yodel No. 1”
(Cover by Lynyrd Skynyrd)

22. Prominent musicians in the Southern Country style
Hank Williams- born in rural Alabama in a logging community, raised by his mother and spent much time in church and was exposed to weekly Saturday night dances that featured old-time string bands.
Rough and short life and he had hits that included Move It On Over, Lovesick Blues, Your Cheatin’ Heart, Cold, Cold Heart and was a huge hit on the Grand Ole Opry.
Life went downhill due to a dependance on painkillers, alcohol, rough living.
He was a heavy influence on the Memphis country rock style of Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Johnny Cash. This rock style was called rockabilly.

24. Western Swing
Originated in the Texas string bands of the late 1920’s and early 1930’s.
Along with the typical stringed instruments, it also contained drums, piano, steel guitar and in some cases, a horn section (saxophones, clarinet, trumpet, trombone).
This music included folk and country ballads, but also popular blues, jazz and pop tunes. This style was generally more accepting of other musical styles and were not opposed to improvisation.
Major figure in Western Swing was Bob Wills
Swing Blues No

26. Bluegrass Music
Bill Monroe is known as “the father of bluegrass music.” He and His Blue Grass Boys essentially created a new musical genre out of the regional stirrings that also led to the birth of such related genres as Western Swing and honky-tonk. From his founding of the original bluegrass band in the Thirties, he refined his craft during six decades of performing. The tight, rhythmic drive of Monroe’s string bands helped clear a path for rock and roll in the Fifties. That connection became clear when a reworked song of Monroe’s, “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” became part of rock and roll history as the B side of Elvis Presley’s first single for Sun Records in Carl Perkins claimed that the first words Presley spoke to him were, “Do you like Bill Monroe?”

27. https://youtu.be/4syA9aNnNa0
Blue Moon of Kentucky
Cover by Elvis Presley

28. Other Influential Country Music Stars
The Carter Family

29. The Carter Family was a traditional American folk music group that recorded between 1927 and Their music had a profound impact on bluegrass, country, Southern Gospel, pop and rock musicians as well as on the U.S. folk revival of the 1960s. They were the first vocal group to become country music stars. Their recordings of songs such as "Wabash Cannonball", "Can the Circle Be Unbroken", "Wildwood Flower", "Keep On the Sunny Side" and "I'm Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes" made these songs country standards. The latter's tune was used for Roy Acuff's "The Great Speckled Bird", Hank Thompson's "The Wild Side of Life" and Kitty Wells' "It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels", making the song a hit all over again in other incarnations.

30. As important to country music as the family's repertoire of songs was Maybelle's guitar playing. She developed her innovative guitar technique largely in isolation; her style is today widely known as the "Carter scratch" or "Carter style" of picking. While Maybelle did use a flatpick on occasion, her major method of guitar playing was the use of her thumb (with a thumbpick) along with one or two fingers. What her guitar style accomplished was to allow her to play melody lines (on the low strings of the guitar) while still maintaining rhythm using her fingers, brushing across the higher strings.

31. Before the Carter family's recordings, the guitar was rarely used as a lead or solo instrument among white musicians. Maybelle's interweaving of a melodic line on the bass strings with intermittent strums is now a staple of steel string guitar technique

32. Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs
Crossed from bluegrass to country music
"The Ballad of Jed Clampett"- used as the theme for the Beverly Hillbillies television series. The song reached No. 42 on the record charts during the series' debut season of The song hit No. 1 on the country charts in January 1963, and was the only number one hit song of their career. The song is one of only two TV theme songs to ever reach No. 1 on the country charts, the other was Waylon Jennings' "The Good Ol' Boys," the theme from The Dukes of Hazzard

33. The Delmore Brothers

34. The Delmore brothers were born into poverty in Elkmont, Alabama, as the sons of tenant farmers amid a rich tradition of gospel music and Appalachian folk. Their mother wrote and sang gospel songs for their church. The Delmores blended gospel-style harmonies with the quicker guitar work of traditional folk music and the blues to help create the still-emerging genre of country. In addition to the regular six-string acoustic guitar, the duo was one of the few to use the rare tenor guitar, a four-string instrument that had primarily been used previously in vaudeville shows.

35. The Brothers did their first recording session for Columbia in 1931, recording "I've Got the Kansas City Blues" and "Alabama Lullaby," which became their theme song. They signed a contract with Victor's budget label Bluebird in 1933 and became regulars on the Grand Ole Opry. Within three years, they had become the most popular act on the show. 

36. In 1941, their song "When It's Time for the Whippoorwill to Sing" made the Billboard "Hillbilly" top three. Their "Freight Train Boogie" is regarded by some as the first rock and roll record. Their best-known song, "Blues Stay Away From Me" was covered by Johnny Burnette and The Rock and Roll Trio, Gene Vincent and the Blue Caps, The Louvin Brothers, The Browns, Les Paul and Mary Ford, Doc Watson, The Notting Hillbillies and The Everly Brothers.
Over the course of their careers, the Delmores wrote more than one thousand songs. Some of the most popular were "Brown's Ferry Blues," "Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar" and "Fifteen Miles from Birmingham."

37. Uncle Dave Macon
David Harrison Macon—also known as "The Dixie Dewdrop"—was an American old-time banjo player, singer, songwriter, and comedian. Known for his chin whiskers, plug hat, gold teeth, and gates-ajar collar, he gained regional fame as a vaudeville performer in the early 1920s before becoming the first star of the Grand Ole Opry in the latter half of the decade.
Macon's music is considered the ultimate bridge between 19th-century American folk and vaudeville music and the phonograph and radio-based music of the early 20th-century. Music historian Charles Wolfe wrote, "If people call yodelling Jimmie Rodgers 'the father of country music,' then Uncle Dave must certainly be 'the grandfather of country music'." Macon's polished stage presence and lively personality have made him one of the most enduring figures of early country music.

38. Willie Nelson

39. Willie Nelson was born in Abbott, Texas on April 29, 1933.
Nelson's grandfather bought him a guitar when he was six, and taught him a few chords, and with his sister Bobbie, he sang gospel songs in the local church. He wrote his first song at age seven, and when he was nine, played guitar for the local band Bohemian Polka. During the summer, the family picked cotton along with other citizens of Abbott. Nelson disliked picking cotton, so he earned money by singing in dance halls, taverns, and honky tonks from age 13, and continuing through high school. Nelson's musical influences were Hank Williams, Bob Wills, Lefty Frizzell, Ray Price, Ernest Tubb, Hank Snow, Django Reinhardt, Frank Sinatra and Louis Armstrong.

40. Nelson was hired by KVAN in Vancouver, Washington and appeared frequently on a television show. He made his first record in , "No Place For Me", that included Leon Payne's "Lumberjack" on the B-side. The recording failed. Nelson continued working as a radio announcer and singing in Vancouver clubs. He made several appearances in a Colorado nightclub, later moving to Springfield, Missouri.

41. After failing to land a spot on the Ozark Jubilee, he started to work as a dishwasher. Unhappy with his job, he moved back to Texas. After a short time in Waco, he settled in Fort Worth, and quit the music business for a year. He sold bibles and vacuum cleaners door-to-door, and eventually became a sales manager for the Encyclopedia Americana.

42. After his son Billy was born in 1958, the family moved to Houston, Texas. On the way, Nelson stopped by the Esquire Ballroom to sell his original songs to house band singer Larry Butler. Butler refused to purchase the song "Mr. Record Man" for $10, instead giving Nelson a $50 loan to rent an apartment and a six-night job singing in the club. Nelson rented the apartment near Houston in Pasadena, Texas, where he also worked at the radio station as the sign-on disc jockey.

43. During this time, he recorded two singles for Pappy Daily on D Records "Man With the Blues"/"The Storm Has Just Begun" and "What a Way to Live"/"Misery Mansion". Nelson then was hired by guitar instructor Paul Buskirk to work as an instructor in his school. He sold "Family Bible" to Buskirk for $50 and "Night Life" for $150. "Family Bible" turned into a hit for Claude Gray in 1960.

44. Nelson moved to Nashville, Tennessee in 1960, but was unable to find a label to sign him. During this period he often spent time at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, a bar near the Grand Ole Opry frequented by the show's stars and other singers and songwriters. There Nelson met Hank Cochran, a songwriter who worked for the publishing company Pamper Music, owned by Ray Price and Hal Smith. Cochran heard Nelson during a jam session with Buddy Emmons and Jimmy Day.

45. Cochran had just earned a raise of $50 a week, but convinced Smith to pay Nelson the money instead to sign him to Pamper Music. On hearing Nelson sing "Hello Walls" at Tootsie's, Faron Young decided to record it. After Ray Price recorded Nelson's "Night Life", and his previous bassist Johnny Paycheck quit, Nelson joined Price's touring band as a bass player.

46. While playing with Price and the Cherokee Cowboys, his songs became hits for other artists, including "Funny How Time Slips Away" (Billy Walker), "Pretty Paper" (Roy Orbison), and, most famously, "Crazy" by Patsy Cline. Nelson and Cochran also met Cline's husband, Charlie Dick at Tootsie's. Dick liked a song of Nelson's he heard on the bar's jukebox. Nelson played him a demo tape of "Crazy." Later that night Dick played the tape for Cline, who decided to record it. "Crazy" became the biggest jukebox hit of all time.

47. Patsy Cline https://youtu.be/5bUwPdt_ebU and
LeAnn Rimes had the most popular covers
Notable versions include those recorded by 
The Kills, 
Linda Ronstadt (No. 6 US country), 
Julio Iglesias (hit in the Netherlands, UK and NewZealand),  
Dottie West,  
Kidneythieves,   on the Bride of Chucky soundtrack.

48. Shirley Bassey, https://youtu.be/bUo6CS9SyYs Guy Lombardo, 
Chaka Khan,   and 
The Waifs . 
2007, the song was covered by English alternative band Apartment.
Willie Nelson himself has also recorded several versions of the song over the years including a trio version with Elvis Costello and Diana Krall.
In 1980 "Crazy" was part of the soundtrack for the Loretta Lynn biography Coal Miner's Daughter and was sung by Beverly D'Angelo who was portraying Patsy Cline.
Canadian musician Neil Young released a cover of this song on his 2014 album A Letter Home
Slim Richey recorded a version of "Crazy" with Jitterbug Vipers in Austin, Texas in

49. Hayden Panettiere recorded two versions of "Crazy" for Nashville as her character Juliette Barnes (who portrays Patsy Cline in a biopic), one in 2014 heard in the episode "That's Me Without You," and the other in 2015 as a duet with Steven Tyler (playing himself) in the episode "Can't Let Go."
Influential 90s Emo band, Mineral, recorded a version in 1996 for the Band Crazy Vol. 1 compilation from Bzar records. 

50. Later in his life joined with several other stars, including Waylon Jennings, Jessie Colter, and Tompall Glaser to create a genre known as “outlaw music”…combining the elements of country, folk, and jazz music.