| Country music (also known as country and | | | | Floor Over You, released in 1941, would go on to |
| western music or just country western), is a | | | | sell more than one million copies quite a feat in |
| blend of popular Southern US musical. With its | | | | any form of music even now. Your Cheatin Heart, |
| roots deeply set in folk music, Celtic tunes, blues, | | | | cut by Williams in 1953, is perhaps one of the |
| and gospel music it evolved rapidly in the 1920s. | | | | best-known records of the honky-tonk era. It |
| The term Country Music began to be commonly | | | | was not his only hit though; in his lifetime Williams |
| used in the 1940s and was fully accepted and | | | | went on to record more than one hundred songs. |
| embraced by the mass in the 1970s, while the | | | | While honky-tonks were filled with its fans, |
| use of terms like country and western declined. | | | | theatres were filled with fans of the cowboy |
| However, country music is actually a | | | | songs made popular, again, in Texas and |
| one-size-fits-all category that embraces several | | | | Oklahoma. The often-romanticized and thrilling life |
| different genres of music like the Nashville sound, | | | | of the cowboy; heroic but lonely, drifting, fit in |
| bluegrass, a fast mandolin, banjo and fiddle-based | | | | perfectly with this style of music that took its |
| music popularized by Bill Monroe and by Flatt and | | | | sound from the hills of Tennessee and the bayous |
| Scruggs; Western, which encompasses traditional | | | | of Louisiana. Those days, more often than not at |
| Western cowboy campfire ballads and Hollywood | | | | least one part of the western song would include |
| cowboy music made famous by Roy Rogers, | | | | a lonesome whistle from the flute or other |
| The Sons of the Pioneers, and Gene Autry the | | | | mellow sounding wind instrument. This went on to |
| list can go on forever. | | | | be known as the country western style. |
| Whatever be the style, each is unique in its | | | | Some of those famous for this western style |
| execution, its structural chord and its use of | | | | were Gene Autry, Americas singing cowboy, and |
| rhythms and many songs have been adapted to | | | | Roy Rogers, who later teamed with wife Dale |
| the different country styles and cater to different | | | | Evans to become a famous due of the genre. |
| tastes and palates. One example of one tune | | | | Rogers also had been a part of The Sons of the |
| used by many in different styles is the tune Milk | | | | Pioneers, a band that brought the frontier sound |
| Cow Blues, an early blues tune by Kokomo Arnold | | | | to over 80 westerns between 1935-1948. |
| that has been performed in a wide variety of | | | | Mix n Match of these styles always resulted in |
| country styles by everyone from Aerosmith to | | | | something interesting. Country music morphed |
| Bob Wills to Willie Nelson, George Strait to Ricky | | | | once again in the early 1950s with a sound that |
| Nelson and Elvis Presley. | | | | became known as rockabilly a mix of the |
| In the 80 plus years of country music history, the | | | | southern hills music and the blues. This sound was |
| chords, sound and style has changed dramatically, | | | | made popular by many performers who |
| at least in some respects. In its infant years, it | | | | developed staying power in the country music |
| was the honky-tonk sound from the likes of | | | | industry. They include the Everly Brothers, Jerry |
| Ernest Tubb and Hank Williams that made up the | | | | Lee Lewis, Conway Twitty, Carl Perkins, and, of |
| genre of country music. It was a crowd puller in | | | | course, the king himself Elvis Presley. |
| roadside pubs and meeting houses throughout | | | | This form of country, with its faster paced sound |
| Oklahoma and Texas that were packed every | | | | and constant rhythm, quickly worked its way up |
| Friday and Saturday evening with fans and | | | | the record charts as Americans, too, found |
| curiosity seekers alike, anxious to listen to the | | | | themselves living a lifestyle that was a much |
| fast-rising sounds of steel guitars and drums. | | | | quicker pace than the generation of their parents. |
| Those pubs were popular not just for the latest | | | | Today country music is perhaps at its highest |
| craze in American music, but the repeal of | | | | peak of popularity the road to success paved by |
| prohibition in 1933 also relaxed the minds of many | | | | Cline, Tubbs, Williams, Wells, and others is now |
| when it came to public drinking; now the | | | | treaded upon by mega-stars like Garth Brooks, |
| audiences could enjoy their favorite music and | | | | the team of Brooks and Dunn, Reba McIntire, |
| alcoholic beverages at the same time. | | | | Vince Gill, and dozens of others who are quoted |
| Although Tubb and Williams had their share of | | | | with their thanks and gratitude to the pioneers of |
| popularity with the honky-tonk tune, it was Al | | | | the sound of country music. The Sound of Music |
| Dexter who cut the first label with the words | | | | goes on and on. |
| honky-tonk in 1936. Tubb's single, Walking the | | | | |