American country music, sometimes referred to as the 'white man's blues', has its distant origins in the folk music of the British Isles and to a lesser extent that of continental Europe, Scandinavia in particular. These form the basis of the 'old-timey' or 'hillbilly' music which gradually became typical of the southern Appalachians from the middle of the 18th century. From its gestation in these rugged mountain states it spread south and west into Louisiana and across the Mississippi onto the western plains as the river traders, railroaders, farmhands, sodbusters, soldiers, gold prospectors and cowboys pushed west, absorbing French cajun and native American influences, negro spirituals and work songs as it went, as well as Spanish stylings coming up from Mexico. So it was that the many strands of a distinctive American folk tradition came into being, its gritty, down-to-earth flavour setting it apart somewhat from the more romantic stylings of Old World folk songs, and laying the foundation for what came to be known as country and western, then just country.

In 1927 Ralph Peer, a talent scout, recording engineer and music publisher came to Bristol, Tennessee as part of a tour of southern Appalachia in search of new talent for the Victor Record label. Amongst the many artists who attended the sessions were Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family. When he heard the plaintive, almost elemental quality of the Carters' vocal harmonies he knew he had struck a rich seam, long in the making. The songs they recorded in Bristol that summer and subsequently sold in the hundreds of thousands, while Rodgers' Blue Yodel No.1, also known as T For Texas, sold almost half a million on its own. Not only did country music have its first 'stars', these recordings had laid down the bedrock for all who followed, and country music as an industry was underway.

Despite this breakthough, most country music was still being broadcast from low-wattage radio stations within Appalachia, with the consequence that it remained relatively limited and regional in its appeal. It took a a quack doctor called J.R. Brinkley to popularise it throughout the States, almost as a by-product of his dubious business and political ambitions. When first his medical then his broadcasting license for KFKB radio in Milford, Kansas were revoked in 1930 Brinkley moved to Del Rio, Texas, just across the border from Mexico. From there he resumed broadcasting on XER Radio, initially with a 50kW license, then 150kW and by 1932 1000kW, making it by far the most powerful radio station on the planet. Between adverts for his quack potions Brinkley played the music of up-and-coming country artists including Patsy Montana, Gene Autry and the aforementioned Jimmie Rodgers. The Carter Family virtually became the station's signature sound, and XER spread their fame and the nascent country sound throughout the US.

Beginning in 1925 as the WSM Barn Dance radio show, the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville had by the mid 1930's become country music's showpiece, and Nashville its capital. The show made its national broadcast debut on NBC in 1939, and the live show moved to its present home, the Ryman Auditorium, in 1943. The Opry spawned country's next big star, Roy Acuff, who, by shifting the focus from string bands to a singer-based format gave country an international appeal, and inspired a singer and songwriter who to this day remains country music's most revered artist, the legendary Hank Williams. Hank was the first country songwriter to truly break free from the control music publisher's normally had over an artist's output, the irony in his case being that the song which catapulted him to superstardom was the old show tune Lovesick Blues rather than one of his own compositions, and the publisher in question was Roy Acuff, who set up Nashville's first major studio, Acuff-Rose Music, with the songwriter Fred Rose in 1942.

The 1930's also saw the emergence of Western swing, an eclectic branch of country derived from blues, jazz, polka and several other styles, and pioneered by Bob Wills. Essentially this was an upbeat, fiddle-led Big Band sound in which the players had more freedom to improvise than the highly orchestrated, horn-driven Big Bands of the same era. As Western swing went into decline in the mid-1940's Bill Munroe fashioned a new commercial style later named bluegrass out of hillbilly roots music by giving it a driving tempo, tight vocal harmony and solo instrumental breaks. Munroe's Blue Moon Of Kentucky was one of Elvis's earliest recordings, and his Kentucky Waltz inspired Pee Wee King to write the classic Tennessee Waltz with Redd Stewart in 1947.

As Nashville became the unrivalled centre of country music through the 1950's, a commercial smoothing almost inevitably began to take place creating the so-called 'Nashville Sound', whereby songs had to be short, compact and contain 'hooks' to fit the accepted format of a standardised 'hit'. As mainstream country thus began to lose its soul, an offshoot of Western swing and blues began to take hold, pioneered by artists such as Bill Haley, Carl Perkins, Buddy Holly, Eddie Cochrane and Elvis Presley. This was rockabilly, a style which arguably began with Hank Williams, but by the late 1950's was overrun by it's full-blooded cousin, rock & roll.

With rock & roll exploding onto the scene, mainstream country veered further towards pop stylings and slick production techniques, prompting a backlash in the form of the electric 'Bakersfield Sound' led primarily by Wynn Stewart, Buck Owens and Merle Haggard. This breakaway paved the way for the early 1970's 'outlaw' artists - Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt, Kris Kristofferson to mention just a few - an attempt to revitalise country's tougher roots by paring it back down to the bone. It was also a forerunner of country rock of which Gram Parsons is perhaps the most influential early pioneer by introducing counter-culture to the country tradition.

Today Austin, Texas, a liberal town in a very conservative state, could fairly claim to possess the soul of country if not its heart, since it is here that a vibrant new tradition has grown up and come to maturity. Beginning with the open mike nights at Threadgill's after World War Two, then at the Armadillo World Headquarters through the 1970's, Austin developed as a centre of innovation and non-conformity, fostering an unlikely cross-pollination of liberal and conservative forces, of hippy and redneck. The result is the Austin sound, a disinctly progressive form of 'cosmic' country spearheaded by the aforementioned Wille Nelson. Willie abandoned Nashville for good in 1972, joining a group of nonconformist exiles in Austin, including Michael Martin Murphey, Steve Earle, Jerry Jeff Walker and Ray Wiley Hubbard since when its reputation has continued to grow as the place to be for up-and-coming songwriters, a melting pot of blues, jazz, folk, tejano, zydeco and a multitude of other styles, the mixing of which, in truth, is the lifeblood of country.

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