scaruffi In 1910 ethnomusicologist John Lomax published “Cowboy Songs and Other Frontier Ballads” (that followed by two years the first known collection of cowboy songs), and in 1916 Cecil Sharp began publishing hundreds of folk songs from the Appalachian mountains (or, better, the Cumberland Mountains, at the border between Kentucky and Tennessee), two events that sparked interest for the white musical heritage, although the world had to wait until 1922 before someone, Texan fiddler Eck Robertson, cut the first record of “old-time music”. These collections created the myth of the Appalachians as remote sanctuaries of simple, noble life, whose inhabitants, the “mountaneers”, isolated from the evils of the world embodied the true American spirit. Many of those regions were not settled until 1835, and then they were settled by very poor immigrants, thus creating a landscape of rather backwards communities, still attached to their traditions but also preoccupied with the daily struggle for survival. In 1922, a radio station based in Georgia (WSM) was the first to broadcast folk songs to its audience. A little later, a radio station from Fort Worth, in Texas (WBAP), launched the first “barn dance” show. In june 1923, 55-year old Georgia’s fiddler John Carson recorded (in Atlanta) two “hillbilly” (i.e., southern rural) songs, an event that is often considered the official founding of “country” music (although Texas fiddler Eck Roberton had already recorded the year before). The recording industry started dividing popular music into two categories: race music (that was only black) and hillbilly music (that was only white). The term “hillbilly” was actually introduced by “Uncle” Dave Macon’s Hill Billie Blues (1924). In 1924, Chicago’s radio station WLS (originally “World’s Largest Store”) began broadcasting a barn dance that could be heard throughout the Midwest. With When The Work’s All Done This Fall (1925), Texas-bred Carl Sprague became the first major musician to record cowboy songs (the first “singing cowboy” of country music). And, finally, in 1925, Nashville’s first radio station (WSM) began broadcasting a barn dance that would eventually change name to “Grand Ole Opry”. Country music was steaming ahead. Labels flocked to the South to record singing cowboys, and singing cowboys were exhibited in the big cities of the North. Among the most literate songwriters were Texas-born Goebel Reeves, who penned The Drifter (1929), Blue Undertaker’s Blues (1930), Hobo’s Lullaby (1934) and The Cowboy’s Prayer (1934), i.e. a mixture of hobo and cowboy songs, and Tennessee-born Harry McClintock, the author of the hobo ballads Big Rock Candy Mountain (1928) and Hallelujah Bum Again (1926). Country music was a federation of styles, rather than a monolithic style. Its origins were lost in the early decades of colonization, when the folk dances (Scottish reels, Irish jigs, and square dances, the poor man’s version of the French “cotillion” and “quadrille”) and the British ballad got transplanted into the new world and got contaminated by the religious hymns of church and camp meetings. The musical styles were reminiscent of their British ancestors.kids bedroom furniture The lyrics, on the other hand, were completely different. The Americans disliked the subject of love, to which they preferred pratical issues such as real-world experiences (ranching, logging, mining, railroads) and real-world tragedies (bank robberies, natural disasters, murders, train accidents).fat burning furnace review The instrumentation included the banjo, introduced by the African slaves via the minstrel shows, the Scottish “fiddle” (the poor man’s violin, simplified so that the fiddler could also sing) and the Spanish guitar (an instrument that became popular in the South only around 1910).Starcraft 2 guide Ironically, as more and more blacks abandoned the banjo and adopted the guitar, the banjo ended up being identified with white music, while the guitar ended up being identified as black music.DJ Controller For example, Hobart Smith learned to play from black bluesman Blind Lemon Jefferson, but went on to play the banjo while Jefferson played the guitar. The role of these instruments was more rhythmic than melodic, because most performances were solo, without percussion. Some regions added their own specialties (such as the accordion in Louisiana), but mostly white music was based on stringed instruments.DJ Equipment When not performed solo, it was performed by string bands, particularly after the 1920s, when the first recordings allowed musicians to actually make a living out of their “old-time music”. The string bands of the 1920s included Charlie Poole’s North Carolina Ramblers, that augmented the repertory of old-time music with songs from minstrel and vaudeville shows, Ernest Stoneman’s Dixie Mountaineers, and finally (but the real trend-setters for string bands) the hillbilly supergroup Skillet Lickers, formed in 1926 and featuring Riley Puckett on guitar, Gideon Tanner and Clayton McMichen on fiddles (and all of them on vocals), the first ones to record Red River Valley (1927).scholarships for moms The “hillbilly” format (led by the guitar and a bit more “cosmopolitan”) was more popular in the plains, while the “mountain” format of the Appalachians (dominated by fiddle and banjo) remained relatively sheltered from urban and African-American influences.free stuff Solo artists, or “ramblers”, became popular after World War I, but often had to move to New York to make recordings. Some of them specialized in “event” songs, songs that chronicled contemporary events, such as Henry Whitter’s The Wreck Of The Old 97 (1923), that may have been the first “railroad song” (but actually used the melody of the traditional The Ship That Never Returned), later recorded by New York’s singer Vernon Dalhart (1924) for the national audience (perhaps the first hit of country music), Andrew Jenkins’ Death Of Floyd Collins, also first recorded by Dalhart (1926), about a mining accident, and Bob Miller’s Eleven Cent Cotton and Forty Cent Meat (1928), Dry Votin’ (1929), and especially Twentyone Years (1930), perhaps the first “prison song”.Groom Speeches Miller was, by far, the most prolific, writing thousands of hillbilly songs. Hillbilly musicians also dealt with the opposite genre, the novelty song: Wendell Hall’s ukulele novelty It Ain’t Gonna Rain No Mo (1923), Carson Robison’s whistling novelty Nola (1926), Frank Luther’s comic sketch Barnacle Bill The Sailor (1928).Best Man Speeches Very few of these singers were of country origins: Vernon Dalhart, Carson Robison and Bob Miller were New York singers who became famous singing hillbilly songs (and sometimes composing them, as in the case of Robison and Miller). The real country musicians had been known mainly for their instrumental bravura.healthy living A national fiddle contest had been organized in Georgia already in 1917 (by the Old Time Fiddlers Organization). Two musicians important in the transition from the quiet and linear “mountain” style and the fast and syncopated “bluegrass” style were banjoists Charlie Poole of the North Carolina Ramblers (Don’t Let Your Deal Go Down, 1925; White House Blues, 1926, better known as Cannonball Blues), and “Uncle” Dave Macon, the main “collector” of old-time music and one of the best-sold artists during the Roaring Twenties (Keep My Skillet Good And Greasy, 1924; Chewing Gum, 1924; Sail Away Ladies, 1927).good health If these two already used the banjo as much more than a mere rhythmic device, Dock Boggs was perhaps the first white banjoist to play the instrument like a blues guitar (in 1927 he recorded six plantation blues numbers and Sugar Baby, that was rockabilly ante-litteram).wrinkle cream Sam McGee was one of the first to play the guitar like a bluesman, starting with Railroad Blues (1928). Georgia’s blind guitarist Riley Puckett, the author of My Carolina Home (1927), played a key role in transforming the guitar from percussion instrument to accompanying instrument.press release distribution Un until the late 1920s, hillbilly artists were considered comedians as much as musicians. Many of them had a repertory of both songs and skits. The Skillet Lickers were probably instrumental in creating the charisma of the country musician, as opposed to the image of the hillbilly clown.wholesale silver jewellery The Hawaian steel guitar, invented by Joseph Kekuku around 1885 in Honolulu, was a late addition to the line-up of string bands. The incidental music to Richard Walton Tully’s play Bird of Paradise (1912) popularized the ukulele and the steel guitar in the USA, as did the Hawaiian pavillion at the “Panama Pacific Exhibition” of San Francisco in 1915.diy repair On The Beach At Waikiki (1915), composed by Henry Kailimai and Sonny Cunha, started a nation-wide craze. In 1916 all the record labels started selling records of Hawaiian music, including Sonny Cunha’s Everybody Hula (1916), Richard Whiting’s Along the Way to Waikiki (1917), Hawaiian Butterfly (1917), composed by Billy Baskette and Joseph Santly, and Walter Blaufuss’ My Isle of Golden Dreams (1919).solar power systems Hawaiian steel-guitar virtuoso Frank Ferera toured internationally. He had debuted on record with Stephen Foster’s My Old Kentucky Home (1915).USPS change of address The craze subsided in the 1920s, but the steel guitar (first recorded by a hillbilly musician in 1927) would become more and more popular in the repertory of country music. The first stars of the hillbilly genre were the members of the Virginia-based Carter Family, basically a vocal trio (Sara on lead vocals and autohapr, Alvin on bass vocals, and Maybelle on alto vocals and on guitar) that started out in 1926 and first recorded in 1927.Business Intelligence Software Unlike their peers, who emphasized the instrumental sound, the Carter Family focused on songs. Collectively, they wrote over 300 songs, including classics such as Will You Miss Me When I’m Gone (1928), Keep On The Sunny Side (1928), a cover of Theodore Morse’s 1906 song, Foggy Mountain Top (1929), My Clinch Mountain Home (1929), Worried Man Blues (1930), Can The Circle Be Unbroken (1935), No Depression (1936), and especially Wildwood Flower (1928), a traditional first published in 1860 that Maybelle turned into a guitar masterwork.free iphone Their vocal style was the quintessence of the “close-harmony” style of country music. Later, Maybelle (who plucked the melody on the bass strings) formed her own quartet with her three daughters (among whom June wrote Ring Of Fire and Helen wrote Poor Old Heartsick Me).baby gift baskets In 1924 with his first recording, Rock All Our Babies To Sleep, blind Georgia’s guitarist Riley Puckett (already a radio star) introduced the “yodeling” style of singing (originally from the Swiss and Austrian Alps) into country music, the style adopted in 1927 by the first star of country music, Mississippi’s Jimmie Rodgers, who wed it to the Hawaian slide guitar and, de facto, invented the white equivalent of the blues with T For Texas (1927), Waiting For A Train (1928), In The Jailhouse Now (1928), Mule Skinner Blues (1930).cash advance Ironically (but also tellingly), Jimmie Rodgers became the first star of this very white phenomenon by being the most influenced by the very black music of the blues.pyxism The year he died (1933) was a watershed year for country music. Rodgers was influential in creating the myth of the Far West, which had already been fueled by the cowboy songs of Carl Sprague and Goebel Reeves. Thus “country” music became “country & western” music.auto glass mn Originally, country music was mainly from the Southeastern states (Virginia, Tennesse, Kentucky and neighboring states). But now the audience was becoming fascinated with the Southwestern states (Texas and neihboring states).Diamond Engagement Rings The romantic allure of the mountain dweller was slowly being replaced by the romantic allure of the roaming cowboy. Another country musician who, like Rodgers, harked back to the blues, was Louisiana’s singer-songwriter Jimmie Davis whose songbook was no less impressive:Houston Personal Injury Lawyer Pistol Packin’ Papa (1929), Organ Grinder’s Blues (1929), Pussy Blues (1929), Nobody’s Darling But Mine (1935), It Makes No Difference Now (1938), You Are My Sunshine (1939).louis vuitton handbags In the meantime, two new styles were emerging: honky-tonk and western-swing. And two instruments debuted in those years that would become the staple of rock bands: Adolph Rickenbacker invented (1931) the electric guitar and Laurens Hammond invented (1933) the Hammond organ.chanel handbags The steel guitar was electrified shortly afterwards, and enthusiastically embraced by country musicians (another sign that the trend was away from the mountain purists).Tax Attorney pointing It was Texas singer-songwriter Gene Autry’s Silver Hairde Daddy Of Mine (1931) a big hit that launched the “honky-tonk” style of country music.Internet Income Debuting in the film Tumbling Tumbleweeds (1935), Autry (who in real life was not a cowboy at all) was also the first of the “singing cowboys” of Hollywood (before Roy Rogers, Tex Ritter, Johnny Bond, Jimmy Wakely) that contributed to move country music (originally an eastern phenomenon) to the “far west”, at least in the popular imagination.logo polo shirts He also recorded Mother Jones (1931), a labor song, besides a long list of western-flavored songs, such as Mexicali Rose (1936). Roy Rogers and songwriters Bob Nolan and Tim Spencer formed the genre’s supergroup, the Sons Of Pioneers, who composed some of the genre’s classics, starting with Bob Nolan’s Tumblin’ Tumbleweeds (1927).Fitted Wardrobes Clyde “Red” Foley was the star of Chicago, popularizing country music in the big city with Old Shep (1935) and Chattanooga Shoeshine Boy (1950). By now “hillbilly” was no longer a positive attribute, but rather a derogatory one, and thus “country & western” came to connote all white southern music.Hair Transplant The performers wore country attires and mimicked the slang of cowboys. The fascination with the West spread to the big cities of the North thanks to fake hillbilly songs written by professional Tin Pan Alley songwriters, such as Bill Hill’s The Last Roundup (1933), actually a catchy tune in the Broadway style, but nonetheless influential in creating the vogue of the Far West.prostate treatment This enabled Tex Ritter, who had never been cowboy but simply a rodeo attraction, to become a star in New York, thanks to his Texan accent, and then (1936) in Hollywood (Rock’n'Rye Rag, 1948).green marketing Both honky-tonk and western-swing were, de facto, by-products of the shift of country music towards the western states (i.e. Texas). In 1932 vocalist Milton Brown and fiddler Bob Wills cut the first records of a kind of country music influenced by jazz that was later dubbed “western swing” (by Foreman Phillips in 1944).reverse phone lookup Basically, the country & western music of rural towns merged with the swing of the big bands of urban jazz.hovercraft for sale The two pioneers then split. Brown’s combo, the Musical Brownies, featuring fiddler Cecil Brower (who introduced Joe Venuti’s style to country music), jazz pianist Fred Calhoun, Bob Dunn on one of the first amplified steel guitars and a rhythm section influenced by ragtime, ruled in Texas, while Wills’ Texas Playboys, based in Oklahoma and featuring a country string section and a jazz horn section, and now fronted by Tommy Duncan, debuted on record in 1935 (with Osage Stomp, reminiscent of Will Shade’s Memphis Jug Band) and went on to produce Steel Guitar Rag (1936), New San Antonio Rose (1940), their greatest hit, recorded with an 18-piece band, perhaps the first nation-wide hits of country music.golf swing Time Changes Everything (1940), Smoke on the Water (1944), New Spanish Two Step (1946).Car Share From 1936 Chicago’s fiddler and accordionist Frank “Pee Wee” King, who wrote Bonaparte’s Retreat, Tennessee Waltz and Slow Poke (1950), led the most popular of the western swing bands, the Golden West Cowboys.how to get your ex boyfriend back After the war, Spade Cooley (in Los Angeles) introduced a variant of western swing that de-emphasized the brass and reeds while returning to the more traditional sound of pop orchestras.Portable Stage Western Swing marked the transition from the archaic string-bands to the dancehall orchestras. These bands were responsible for the introduction into country music of instruments such as drums, horns and electric guitar.fat burning furnace Texas singer Al Dexter had hits in both the honky-tonk style, such as Honky Tonk Blues (1934), and the western-swing style, such as Pistol Packin’ Mama (1942), boasting a revolutionary arrangement of accordion, trumpet and steel guitar.unlock blackberry torch San Diego’s pianist Merrill Moore did the same after World War II, achieving a synthesis in songs such as House Of Blue Lights (1953) that heralded rock’n'roll.unlock blackberry 9800 The other major genre to surface during the 1930s was bluegrass music, but this one originated in the traditional southeastern areas (“bluegrass country” being the nickname of Kentucky).Bali Holiday Packages Several vocalist-instrumentalist couples had appeared (particularly brothers) that played a more spirited music devoted to domestic themes.Presidente Prudente Alabama’s guitar-based Delmore Brothers (Alton was the main composer and lead vocalist) were instrumental in popularizing the “brothers style” thanks to their tenure with the “Grand Ole Opry” between 1932 and 1938.sales training They were also important for bridging the world of white music and the world of black music.the diet solution Their songs were bluesy, and they often interpreted gospel songs. Their greatest hits were in fact blues numbers, from Brown’s Ferry Blues (1933) to Blues Stay Away from Me (1949).Debt Help In 1944 they added the bluesy harmonica of Wayne Raney, and in 1946 they added electric guitar and drums. That is when they recorded their series of breathless boogies, one step away from rock’n'roll: Hillbilly Boogie (1945), Freight Train Boogie (1946), Mobile Boogie (1948), Pan American Boogie (1950).preowned golf clubs Other famous numbers were Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar, Midnight Special, Beautiful Brown Eyes (1951).loans bad credit Another “brother act” was that of the Blue Sky Boys, formed by Bill and Earl Bolick (respectively, mandolin and guitar), perhaps the most faithful to the “mountain” tradition in their versions of Sunny Side Of Life (1935), Down On The Banks of the Ohio (1936), Story of the Knoxville Girl (1937), Are You From Dixie (1939), Turn Your Radio On (1940).Quickest Way to Lose Weight The bluegrass style, that originated in the 1920s from both Kentucky and Bristol, on the Virginia-Tennessee border, was a by-product of the “brother style”, except that it was fast, virtuoso and sometimes instrumental-only “mountain music” (the country equivalent of the dixieland in jazz).campervan insurance It derived from the string bands of the 1920s, with a banjo, fiddle, and mandolin leading the melody, backed by guitar and string bass. The notable addition to the arsenal of the string bands was the Italian mandolin, that became popular in the South with bluegrass music.teaching jobs in kent The vocals were not as important as in the “brothers style”, although often featured a high-pitched tenor voice. Bluegrass music relied a mixture of techniques: mountain music’s three-finger banjo picking, country & western’s fiddle, the rhythmic guitar of the ramblers, the tenor-driven choir of religious hymns with bass-register counterpoint.stress relief Kentucky-based mandolinist Bill Monroe, who had started a duo in 1934 with his guitarist brother Charlie, popularized the “bluegrass” style with Kentucky Waltz (1945), Blue Moon Of Kentucky (1945) and Footprints in the Snow (1945), performed by his new band, the Blue Grass Boys, that eventually came to include virtuoso musicians such as Earl Scruggs on banjo, Chubby Wise on fiddle, Howard Watts on bass, and Lester Flatt on guitar, which were in turn replaced in the Sixties by a new generation of virtuosi (fiddler Richard Greene, guitarist Peter Rowan, banjoist Bill Keith).better sleep Monroe’s spectacular mandolin style was documented on instrumental pieces such as Rawhide (1951) and Roanoke (1954). At the peak, Monroe’s band was so focused on improvisation and technical skills that it sounded like a jazz group performing country music. Flatt and Scruggs formed their own act in 1948, that, thanks to pieces such as Foggy Mountain Breakdown (1949), Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms (1950), Pike County Breakdown (1952), Flint Hill Special (1952), and eventually the hit The Ballad of Jed Clampett (1962), competed with both Bill Monroe.Donington Park Flatt and Scruggs were also instrumental in introducing the dobro guitar (since 1955, played by Buck Graves), a variant of the Hawaian steel guitar, into country music. Bluegrass acts of the 1950s included the Osborne Brothers (Sonny on banjo and Bobbie on mandolin), perhaps the most innovative of the new generation, as displayed in Ruby (1956);Loans For Bad Credit and the Stanley Brothers (Carter being the lead vocalist), much more focused on the vocal harmonies than on the instrumental counterpoint and solos, from the “high lonesome” style of A Vision of Mother to love songs such as How Mountain Girls Can Love (1959) to religious themes such as Gathering Flowers for the Master’s Bouquet and Albert Brumley’s Rank Strangers (1960).car hire gatwick Bluegrass would remain the branch of country music most obsessed with dazzling technical proficiency, whether vocal or instrumental.fat burning furnace Tennesse native Roy Acuff became the first star of Nashville thanks to two tunes already recorded by the Carter Family: The Great Speckled Bird (1936), based on the melody of I’m Thinking Tonight Of My Blue Eyes, and Wabash Cannonball (1936), one of the most celebrated “railroad songs”. The Precious Jewel (1940), based on The Hills of Roane County, Wreck On The Highway (1942), one of the earliest car songs, Frank “Pee Wee” King’s Tennessee Waltz (1947), were sung in an old-fashioned, mournful mountain style, and accompanied mainly with the dobro (James Clell Summey until 1938 and Beecher “Pete” Kirby after 1938). Country broadcasting had been dominated by string bands:Meditation Acuff’s emotional solo performances changed the very perception of what country music ought to be. He was instrumental in turning country music into a business, and a huge nationwide business. The music publishing company he founded in 1942 with songwriter Fred Rose (credited with many songs that he actually only revised and published, including Hank Williams’ Kaw-liga and Take These Chains From My Heart) became a gold mine.Country music (or country and Western) is a blend of traditional and popular musical forms traditionally found in the Southern United States and the Canadian Maritimes that evolved rapidly in the 1920s.Country music has produced two of the top selling solo artists of all time.Binaural Elvis Presley, who was known early on as “the Hillbilly Cat” and was a regular on the radio program Louisiana Hayride, went on to become a defining figure in the emergence of rock and roll. Contemporary musician Garth Brooks, with 128 million albums sold, is the top-domestic-selling solo U.S. artist in U.S. history. While album sales of most musical genres have declined since about 2005, country music experienced one of its best years in 2000, when, during the first six months, U.S. sales of country albums increased by 17.7 percent to 36 million. Moreover, country music listening nationwide has remained steady for almost a decade, reaching 77.3 million adults every week, according to the radio-ratings agency Arbitron, Inc. The term country music gained popularity in the 1940s when the earlier term hillbilly music came to be seen as denigrating. Country music was widely embraced in the 1970s, while country and Western has declined in use since that time, except in the United Kingdom and Ireland, where it is still commonly used. However, in the Southwestern United States a different mix of ethnic groups created the music that became the Western music of the term country and Western. The term country music is used today to describe many styles and subgenres. Immigrants to the Maritime Provinces and Southern Appalachian Mountains of North America brought the music and instruments of the Old World along with them for nearly 300 years. They brought some of their most important valuables with them, and to most of them this was an instrument: “Early Scottish settlers enjoyed the fiddle because it could be played to sound sad and mournful or bright and bouncy”nThe Irish fiddle, the German derived dulcimer, the Italian mandolin, the Spanish guitar, and the West African banjo were the most common musical instruments. The interactions among musicians from different ethnic groups produced music unique to this region of North America. Appalachian string bands of the early twentieth century primarily consisted of the fiddle, guitar, and banjo. This early country music along with early recorded country music is often referred to as old-time music. According to Bill Malone in Country Music U.S.A, country music was “introduced to the world as a southern phenomenon.”[9] In the South, folk music was a combination of cultural strains, combining musical traditions of a variety of ethnic groups in the region.fat burning furnace review For example, some instrumental pieces from Anglo-Celtic immigrants were the basis of folk songs and ballads that form what is now known as old time music, from which country music descended. It is commonly thought that British and Irish folk music influenced the development of old time music.Bistro MD British and Irish arrivals to the Southern U.S. included immigrants from Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and England.corporate entertainment Often, when many people think or hear country music, they think of it as a creation of European-Americans. However, a great deal of style—and of course, the banjo, a major instrument in most early American folk songs—came from African Americans.18th birthday ideas One of the reasons country music was created by African-Americans, as well as European-Americans, is because blacks and whites in rural communities in the south often worked and played together, just as recollected by DeFord Bailey in the PBS documentary, DeFord Bailey: A Legend Lost.tourbillon watches Throughout the 19th century, several immigrant groups from Europe, most notably from Ireland, Germany, Spain, and Italy moved to Texas.outdoor table tennis table These groups interacted with Mexican and Native American, and U.S. communities that were already established in Texas. As a result of this cohabitation and extended contact, Texas has developed unique cultural traits that are rooted in the culture of all of its founding communities.fish oil Local performers from Atlanta and Fort Worth were being played on radio stations in 1922. Along with local performers, barn-dance programs became popular among radio stations as well.loans bad credit Some record companies in Georgia turned away early artists such as Fiddlin’ John Carson; while others realized that his music would fit perfectly with the lifestyle of the countries agricultural employees. The first commercial recording of what was considered country music was “Sallie Gooden” by fiddlist A.C. (Eck) Robertson in 1922 for Victor Records.table tennis Columbia Records began issuing records with “hillbilly” music (series 15000D “Old Familiar Tunes”) as early as 1924. A year earlier on June 14, 1923, Fiddlin’ John Carson recorded “Little Log Cabin in the Lane” for Okeh Records.cars forum Vernon Dalhart was the first country singer to have a nationwide hit in May 1924 with “Wreck of the Old ’97″.The flip side of the record was “Lonesome Road Blues,” which also became very popular.Funny t-shirts In April 1924, “Aunt” Samantha Bumgarner and Eva Davis became the first female musicians to record and release country songs. Many “hillbilly” musicians, such as Cliff Carlisle, recorded blues songs throughout the decade[20] and into the 30s.bedroom furniture Other important early recording artists were Riley Puckett, Don Richardson, Fiddlin’ John Carson, Al Hopkins, Ernest V. Stoneman, Charlie Poole and the North Carolina Ramblers and The Skillet Lickers.The steel guitar entered country music as early as 1922, when Jimmie Tarlton met famed Hawaiian guitarist Frank Ferera on the West Coast.Group Halloween Costumes Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family are widely considered to be important early country musicians. Their songs were first captured at a historic recording session in Bristol on August 1, 1927, where Ralph Peer was the talent scout and sound recordist.seo company Rodgers fused hillbilly country, gospel, jazz, blues, pop, cowboy, and folk; and many of his best songs were his compositions, including “Blue Yodel”, which sold over a million records and established Rodgers as the premier singer of early country music.CD replication Beginning in 1927, and for the next 17 years the Carters recorded some 300 old-time ballads, traditional tunes, country songs and Gospel hymns, all representative of America’s southeastern folklore and heritage.portable staging One effect of the Great Depression was to reduce the number of records that could be sold. Radio, and broadcasting, became a popular source of entertainment, and “barn dance” shows featuring country music were started all over the South, as far north as Chicago, and as far west as California.nature sounds The most important was the Grand Ole Opry, aired starting in 1925 by WSM-AM in Nashville to the present day. Some of the early stars on the Opry were Uncle Dave Macon, Roy Acuff and African American harmonica player DeFord Bailey.coats of arms WSM’s 50,000 watt signal (1934) could often be heard across the country, This era of country music also began that which is called the “golden age.” The Grand Ole Opry is most famous for popularizing this form of country music, as mountain sounds blended with new instrumentation such as the pedal steel guitar.family coat of arms Artists such as George Jones, Porter Wagoner, and Loretta Lynn epitomized the golden age of country and many of these songs still resonate today in their simplicity. Many musicians performed and recorded songs in any number of styles.golden wedding anniversary gifts Moon Mullican, for example, played Western swing, but also recorded songs that can be called rockabilly. Bill Haley sang cowboy songs, and was at one time a cowboy yodeler.christening gift ideas Haley became most famous as an early player of rock n roll, adding Jimmie Rodgers-stylings to his environment, thus creating a sound that was very much his own. Between 1947 and 1949, country crooner Eddy Arnold placed eight songs in the top 10.christening presents During the 1930s and 1940s, cowboy songs, or Western music, which had been recorded since the 1920s, were popularized by films made in Hollywood.used car prices Some of the popular singing cowboys from the era were Gene Autry, the Sons of the Pioneers and Roy Rogers. And it wasn’t only cowboys; cowgirls contributed to the sound in various family groups.longboard deck Patsy Montana opened the door for female artists with her history making song “I Want To Be a Cowboy’s Sweetheart”. This would begin a movement toward opportunities for women to have successful solo careers.Godaddy Coupon Code Bob Wills was another country musician from the Lower Great Plains who had become very popular as the leader of a “hot string band,” and who also appeared in Hollywood Westerns.PLR Articles His mix of country and jazz, which started out as dance hall music, would become known as Western swing. Spade Cooley and Tex Williams also had very popular bands and appeared in films.mma training At its height, Western swing rivaled the popularity of other big band jazz. Drums were scorned by early country musicians as being “too loud” and “not pure,” but by 1935 Western swing big band leader Bob Wills had added drums to the Texas Playboys.discount tents for sale In the mid 1940s, the Grand Ole Opry did not want the Playboys’ drummer to appear on stage. Although drums were commonly used by rockabilly groups by 1955, the less-conservative-than-the-Grand Ole Opry Louisiana Hayride kept its infrequently used drummer back stage as late as 1956.cheap car insurance By the early 1960s, however, it was rare that a country band didn’t have a drummer. Bob Wills was one of the first country musicians known to have added an electric guitar to his band, in 1938.project management A decade later (1948) Arthur Smith achieved top 10 US country chart success with his MGM Records recording of “Guitar Boogie”, which crossed over to the US pop chart, introducing many people to the potential of the electric guitar.stickers For several decades Nashville session players preferred the warm tones of the Gibson and Gretsch archtop electrics, but a “hot” Fender style, utilizing guitars which became available beginning in the early 1950s, eventually prevailed as the signature guitar sound of country.deal of the day Country musicians began recording boogie in 1939, shortly after it had been played at Carnegie Hall, when Johnny Barfield recorded “Boogie Woogie.” The trickle of what was initially called hillbilly boogie, or okie boogie (later to be renamed country boogie), became a flood beginning in late 1945.25th wedding anniversary gifts One notable release from this period was the Delmore Brothers’ “Freight Train Boogie,” considered to be part of the combined evolution of country music and blues towards rockabilly. In 1948, Arthur “Guitar Boogie” Smith achieved top ten US country chart success with his MGM Records recordings of “Guitar Boogie” and “Banjo Boogie,” with the former crossing over to the US pop charts.coat of arms Other country boogie artists included Merrill Moore and Tennessee Ernie Ford. The hillbilly boogie period lasted into the 1950s and remains one of many subgenres of country into the 21st century.daily deals By the end of World War II, “mountaineer” string band music known as bluegrass had emerged when Bill Monroe joined with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs, led by Roy Acuff at the Grand Ole Opry. Gospel music, too, remained a popular component of country music.silver wedding anniversary gifts Red Foley, the biggest country star following World War II, had one of the first million-selling gospel hits (“Peace In The Valley”) and also sang boogie, blues and rockabilly.cna certification In the post-war period, country music was called “folk” in the trades, and “hillbilly” within the industry. In 1944, The Billboard replaced the term “hillbilly” with “folk songs and blues,” and switched to “country” or “country and Western” in 1949.medical assistant training Another type of stripped down and raw music with a variety of moods and a basic ensemble of guitar, bass, dobro or steel guitar (and later) drums became popular, especially among poor white southerners. It became known as honky tonk and had its roots in Texas.free website templates Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys personified this music which has been described as “a little bit of this, and a little bit of that, a little bit of black and a little bit of white…just loud enough to keep you from thinking too much and to go right on ordering the whiskey.Local Realtors” East Texan Al Dexter had a hit with “Honky Tonk Blues,” and seven years later “Pistol Packin’ Mama”. These “honky tonk” songs associated barrooms, were performed by the likes of Ernest Tubb, Ted Daffan, Floyd Tillman, and the Maddox Brothers and Rose, Lefty Frizzell and Hank Williams, would later be called “traditional” country.T1 line Williams’ influence in particular would prove to be enormous, inspiring many of the pioneers of rock and roll, such as Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis, while providing a framework for emerging honky tonk talents like George Jones.purity rings Webb Pierce was the top-charting country artist of the 1950s, with 13 of his singles spending 113 weeks at number one.weight benches He charted 48 singles during the decade; 31 reached the top ten and 26 reached the top four. Rockabilly was most popular with country fans in the 1950s, and 1956 could be called the year of rockabilly in country music.buy Twitter followers Rockabilly was a mixture of rock-and-roll and hillbilly music. During this period Elvis Presley converted over to country music.offerte viaggi He played a huge role in the music industry during this time. The number two, three and four songs on Billboard’s charts for that year were Elvis Presley, “Heartbreak Hotel”; Johnny Cash, “I Walk the Line”; and Carl Perkins, “Blue Suede Shoes”. Cash and Presley placed songs in the top 5 in 1958 with No. 3 “Guess Things Happen That Way/Come In, Stranger” by Cash, and No. 5 by Presley “Don’t/I Beg Of You.Free iPhone 4“[44] Presley acknowledged the influence of rhythm and blues artists and his style, saying “The colored folk been singin’ and playin’ it just the way I’m doin’ it now, man for more years than I know.” But he also said, “My stuff is just hopped-up country.article submission” Within a few years, many rockabilly musicians returned to a more mainstream style or had defined their own unique style. Country music gained national television exposure through Ozark Jubilee on ABC-TV and radio from 1955–1960 from Springfield, Missouri.learn forex The program showcased top stars including several rockabilly artists, some from the Ozarks. As Webb Pierce put it in 1956, “Once upon a time, it was almost impossible to sell country music in a place like New York City.new baby gifts Nowadays, television takes us everywhere, and country music records and sheet music sell as well in large cities as anywhere else.” The late 1950s saw the emergence of the Lubbock sound, but by the end of the decade, backlash as well as traditional artists such as Ray Price, Marty Robbins, and Johnny Horton began to shift the industry away from the rock n’ roll influences of the mid-50s.women seeking men Beginning in the mid 1950s, and reaching its peak during the early 1960s, the Nashville Sound turned country music into a multimillion-dollar industry centered in Nashville, Tennessee.car insurance Under the direction of producers such as Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley, and later Billy Sherrill, the sound brought country music to a diverse audience and helped revive country as it emerged from a commercially fallow period.hair loss treatment This subgenre was notable for borrowing from 1950s pop stylings: a prominent and “smooth” vocal, backed by a string section and vocal chorus.gas fire pit Instrumental soloing was de-emphasized in favor of trademark “licks”.best acne treatment Leading artists in this genre included Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves and Eddy Arnold. The “slip note” piano style of session musician Floyd Cramer was an important component of this style. Nashville’s pop song structure became more pronounced and it morphed into what was called countrypolitan.seo Countrypolitan was aimed straight at mainstream markets and it sold well throughout the later 1960s into the early 1970s.ricostruzione unghie Top artists included Tammy Wynette and Charlie Rich 1962, Ray Charles surprised the pop world by turning his attention to country and western music, topping the charts and rating number three for the year on Billboard’s pop chart[47] with the “I Can’t Stop Loving You” single, and recording the landmark album Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music.turf supplies Another genre of country music grew out of hardcore honky tonk with elements of Western swing and originated 112 miles (180 km) north-northwest of Los Angeles in Bakersfield, California. Influenced by one-time West Coast residents Bob Wills and Lefty Frizzell, by 1966 it was known as the Bakersfield sound.stamped concrete fort worth It relied on electric instruments and amplification, in particular the Telecaster electric guitar, more than other subgenres of country of the era, and can be described as having a sharp, hard, driving, no-frills, edgy flavor. Leading practitioners of this style were Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, Tommy Collins, Dwight Yoakam and Wynn Stewart, each of whom had his own style.stained concrete fort worth The late 1960s in American music produced a unique blend as a result of traditionalist backlash within separate genres. In the aftermath of the British Invasion, many desired a return to the “old values” of rock n’ roll.teeth grinding mouth guard At the same time there was a lack of enthusiasm in the country sector for Nashville-produced music. What resulted was a crossbred genre known as country rock.Kent Wedding Photographer Gram Parsons influenced rock musicians from The Rolling Stones to The Byrds in the late 1960s Early innovators in this new style of music in the 60s and 70s included rock n’ roll icon band The Byrds and its spin-off The Flying Burrito Brothers (both featuring Gram Parsons), guitarist Clarence White, Michael Nesmith (Monkees and First National Band), the Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Commander Cody, The Allman Brothers, The Marshall Tucker Band, Poco, Buffalo Springfield, and The Eagles among many.video converter The Rolling Stones also got into the act with songs like “Honky Tonk Women” and “Dead Flowers”. Described by Allmusic as the “father of country-rock”, Gram Parsons’ work in the early ’70s was acclaimed for its purity and for his appreciation for aspects of traditional country music.contractor marketing Though his career was cut tragically short by his 1973 death, his legacy was carried on by his mentee and duet partner Emmylou Harris; Harris would release her debut solo in 1975, an amalgamation of country, rock and roll, folk, blues and pop.ricostruzione unghie Subsequent to the initial blending of the two polar opposite genres, other offspring soon resulted, including Southern rock, heartland rock and in more recent years, alternative country. In the decades that followed, artists such as Juice Newton, Alabama, Hank Williams, Jr., Gary Allan, Shania Twain, Brooks & Dunn, Faith Hill, Garth Brooks, Dwight Yoakam, Steve Earle, Dolly Parton, Rosanne Cash and Linda Ronstadt moved country further towards rock influence.stuffing envelopes Derived from the traditional and honky tonk sounds of the late 1950s and 1960s, including Ray Price (whose band, the “Cherokee Cowboys”, included Willie Nelson and Roger Miller) and mixed with the anger of an alienated subculture of the nation during the period, outlaw country revolutionized the genre of country music.how to cure panic attacks “After I left Nashville (the early 70s), I wanted to relax and play the music that I wanted to play, and just stay around Texas, maybe Oklahoma. Waylon and I had that outlaw image going, and when it caught on at colleges and we started selling records, we were O.K.tinnitus treatment The whole outlaw thing, it had nothing to do with the music, it was something that got written in an article, and the young people said, ‘Well, that’s pretty cool.’ And started listening.” (Willie Nelson)The term outlaw country is traditionally associated with Hank Williams, Jr, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, David Allan Coe, Billy Joe Shaver, Gary Stewart, Townes Van Zandt and with a few female vocalists such as Jessi Colter and Sammi Smith.backlinks It was encapsulated in the 1976 album Wanted! The Outlaws. A related subgenre is Red Dirt.small business ideas Country pop or soft pop, with roots in both the countrypolitan sound and in soft rock, is a subgenre that first emerged in the 1970s. Although the term first referred to country music songs and artists that crossed over to top 40 radio, country pop acts are now more likely to cross over to adult contemporary music.how to deal with panic attacks It started with pop music singers like Michael Nesmith, The Bellamy Brothers, Glen Campbell, John Denver, Olivia Newton-John, Marie Osmond, B. J. Thomas and Anne Murray having hits on the country charts. Campbell’s “Rhinestone Cowboy” was one of the biggest crossover hits in country music history.how to get rid of a yeast infection In 1974, Newton-John, an Australian pop singer, won the “Best Female Country Vocal Performance” as well as the Country Music Association’s most coveted award for females, “Female Vocalist of the Year”.rain sounds In the same year, a group of artists, troubled by this trend, formed the short-lived Association of Country Entertainers. The debate raged into 1975, and reached its apex at that year’s Country Music Association Awards when reigning Entertainer of the Year Charlie Rich (who himself had a series of crossover hits) presented the award to his successor, John Denver.affordable seo services As he read Denver’s name, Rich set fire to the envelope with a cigarette lighter. The action was taken as a protest against the increasing pop style in country music.link building service During the mid-1970s, Dolly Parton, a highly successful mainstream country artist since the late ’60s, mounted a high profile campaign to crossover to pop music, culminating in her 1977 hit “Here You Come Again”, which topped the U.S. country singles chart, and also reached No. 3 on the pop singles charts.hard money lenders Parton’s male counterpart, Kenny Rogers came from the opposite direction, aiming his music at the country charts, after a successful career in pop, rock and folk music, achieving success the same year with “Lucille”, which topped the country charts and reached No. 5 on the U.S. pop singles charts.contact lenses Parton and Rogers would both continue to have success on both country and pop charts simultaneously, well into the 1980s. Artists like Crystal Gayle, Ronnie Milsap and Barbara Mandrell would also find success on the pop charts with their records as well.sell my car In 1975, author Paul Hemphill stated in the Saturday Evening Post, “Country music isn’t really country anymore; it is a hybrid of nearly every form of popular music in America.tatuaggi” During the early 1980s, country artists continued to see their records perform well on the pop charts. Willie Nelson and Juice Newton each had two songs in the top 5 of the Billboard Hot 100 in the early eighties: Nelson charted “Always On My Mind” (No. 5, 1982) and “To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before” (No. 5, 1984), and Newton achieved success with “Queen of Hearts” (No. 2, 1981) and “Angel of the Morning” (No. 4, 1981).succession planning Four country songs topped the Billboard Hot 100 in the 1980s: “Lady” by Kenny Rogers, from the late fall of 1980; “9 to 5″ by Dolly Parton, “I Love a Rainy Night” by Eddie Rabbitt (these two back-to-back at the top in early 1981); and “Islands in the Stream”, a duet by Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers in 1983, a pop-country crossover hit written by Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees.cast iron wok Newton’s “Queen of Hearts” almost reached No. 1, but was kept out of the spot by the pop ballad juggernaut “Endless Love” by Diana Ross and Lionel Richie. Although there were few crossover hits in the latter half of the 1980s, one song — Roy Orbison’s “You Got It”, from 1989 — made the top 10 of both the Billboard Hot Country Singles” and Hot 100 charts.tinnitus treatment In 1980, a style of “neocountry disco music” was popularized by the film Urban Cowboy, which also included more traditional songs such as “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” by the Charlie Daniels Band.[58] A related subgenre is Texas country music.wedding photographer Berkshire Sales in record stores rocketed to $250 million in 1981; by 1984, 900 radio stations began programming country or neocountry pop full time. As with most sudden trends, however, by 1984 sales had dropped below 1979 figures.wedding photographer Hampshire Truck driving country music is a genre of country music and is a fusion of honky tonk, country-rock and Bakersfield Sound.muscle building It has the tempo of country-rock and the emotion of honky-tonk, and its lyrics focus on a truck driver’s lifestyle. Truck driving country songs often deal with trucks and love.Walking Shoes[60] Well-known artists who sing truck driving country include Dave Dudley, Red Sovine, Dick Curless, Red Simpson, Colonel Robert Morris, and Waylon Speed.1 christian books Dudley is known as the father of truck driving country. During the mid-1980s, a group of new artists began to emerge who rejected the more polished country-pop sound that had been prominent on radio and the charts, in favor of more, traditional, “back-to-basics” production.christian book store Led by Randy Travis, whose 1986 debut album Storms of Life, sold four million copies and was Billboard’s year-end top country album of 1987, many of the artists during the latter half of the ’80s drew on traditional honky tonk, bluegrass, folk and western swing.colon cleanse Artists who typified this sound included Travis Tritt, Ricky Skaggs, Kathy Mattea, George Strait and The Judd With his debut on the national country music scene in 1989, singer and songwriter Clint Black would usher in a new sound that would define much of country music for the 1990s and beyond.loan In the 1990s, country music became a worldwide phenomenon thanks to Billy Ray Cyrus and Garth Brooks.backlink checker Latter enjoyed one of the most successful careers in popular music history, breaking records for both sales and concert attendance throughout the decade.kids furniture The RIAA has certified his recordings at a combined (128× platinum), denoting roughly 113 million U.S. shipments. In the mid 1990s, country western music was influenced by the popularity of line dancing.iPhone deals This influence was so great that Chet Atkins was quoted as saying “The music has gotten pretty bad, I think.text message marketing It’s all that damn line dancing.By the end of the decade, however, at least one line dance choreographer complained that good country line dance music was no longer being released.public car auctions In the 1990s, alternative country came to refer to a diverse group of musicians and singers operating outside the traditions and industry of mainstream country music. In general, they eschewed the high production values and pop outlook of the Nashville-dominated industry, to produce music with a lo-fi sound, frequently infused with a strong punk and alternative aesthetic, bending the traditional rules of country music.Pop Up Trailers Lyrics were often bleak, gothic or socially aware. Other initiators include Old 97′s, Lyle Lovett, Steve Earle, Uncle Tupelo, Son Volt, Ryan Adams, My Morning Jacket, Blitzen Trapper, Or, The Whale and Drive-By Truckers.Jobs Bridgend Several rock and pop stars have ventured into country music. In 2000, Richard Marx made a brief cross-over with his Days In Avalon album, which features five country songs and several singers and musicians.motion detector alarm Alison Krauss sang background vocals to Marx’s single “Straight From My Heart.” Also, Bon Jovi had a hit single, “Who Says You Can’t Go Home”, with Jennifer Nettles of Sugarland.dubai SEO Other rock stars who featured a country song on their albums were Don Henley and Poison. One infrequent, but consistent theme in modern country music is that of proud, stubborn individualism.custom band merchandise “Country Boy Can Survive” and “Copperhead Road”are two of the more serious songs along those lines; while “Some Girls Do” and “Redneck Woman” are more light-hearted variations on the theme. In 2005, country singer Carrie Underwood rose to fame as the winner of the fourth season of American Idol and became a multi-platinum selling recording artist and a multiple Grammy Award winner.Labradoodle She is the first female country artist to have all of her singles from all 3 of her albums all peak at number one. Underwood also made history by becoming the seventh woman to win Entertainer Of The Year for the Academy of Country Music Awards, and the first woman in history to win Entertainer of the Year for the Academy of Country Music Awards twice, as well as twice consecutively.comforter sets Underwood’s debut album, “Some Hearts”, was not only the fastest-selling debut album by any country artist in history, but was ranked by Billboard.com as the #1 Country Album of the 2000-2009 decade. In 2008, Taylor Swift rose as a major country-pop artist, with her single “Love Story” becoming the first country song to reach No. 1 one on the Nielsen BDS CHR/Top 40 chart.Free iPhone Swift’s next single, “You Belong with Me”, also reached No. 1, making Swift the only country artist to have two No. 1 singles atop the chart. Both “Love Story” and “You Belong with Me” became the best-selling country song of all time, with “Love Story” in the first position with a domestic total of 4.4 million digital copies sold, and “You Belong with Me” in the second with 3.4 million sales, respectively.coffee pods (Both songs were, notably, heavily criticized among country music fans who noted that the songs had little country influence and were only considered country songs because of the rest of her body of work is mostly country music.) In the same year, Hootie & the Blowfish vocalist Darius Rucker released his second solo album and country music debut, Learn to Live. The first three singles from that album all debuted at No. 1, making Rucker the first solo artist to debut with three No. 1 hits in over a decade. He is also the first African American with a No. 1 country hit since Charley Pride in 1983. In 2009, George Strait was named Artist of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music. This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2008) Outside of the US, Canada has the largest country music fan and artist base. Mainstream country music is culturally ingrained in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba: areas with large numbers of rural residents. Canadian country music originated in Atlantic Canada in the form of Celtic folk music popular amongst Irish and Scottish immigrants to Canada’s Maritime Provinces (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island). It’s no surprise that Canadian country’s roots are in this region which draws many parallels to the US south and Appalachia. All three regions are of heavy British Isles stock and rural. The development of country music in the Maritimes mirrored the development of country music in the US south and Appalachia. Don Messer’s Jubilee was a Halifax, Nova Scotia based country/folk variety television show that was broadcast nationally from 1957 to 1969. It out drew the Ed Sullivan Show from the United States and became the #1 rated television show in Canada throughout much of the 1960s. Don Messer’s Jubilee followed a consistent format throughout its years, beginning with a tune named “Goin’ to the Barndance Tonight”, followed by fiddle tunes by Messer, songs from some of his “Islanders” including singers Marg Osburne and Charlie Chamberlain, the featured guest performance, and a closing hymn. It ended with “Till We Meet Again”. The guest performance slot gave national exposure to numerous Canadian folk musicians, including Stompin’ Tom Connors and Catherine McKinnon. Some Maritime country performers went on to further fame beyond Canada. Hank Snow, Wilf Carter (also known as Montana Slim), and Anne Murray are the three most notable. The cancellation of the show by the public broadcaster in 1969 caused a nationwide protest, including the raising of questions in the Canadian parliament. Despite country’s roots in the Maritimes, many traditional country artists are present in Eastern and Western Canada. They make common use of fiddle and pedal steel guitar styles. Some notable Canadian country artists include: Shania Twain, Blue Rodeo, Marg Osburne, Hank Snow, Johnny Mooring, Don Messer, Doc Walker, Emerson Drive, Paul Brandt, The Wilkinsons, Wilf Carter, Michelle Wright, Corb Lund and the Hurtin’ Albertans, Stompin’ Tom Connors, Terri Clark, Crystal Shawanda, Shane Yellowbird, The Road Hammers, and Anne Murray. Country music in Australia has always been popular, especially given the rural nature of the country. Starting in the 1800s with bush balladeers writing songs of their tales of the bush, as well as songs of protest against the tyranny of the government. In the 1940s, the Slim Dusty embarked on a country music career that spanned over fifty years and over 100 albums. Smoky Dawson was also a country music pioneer in Australia, modelling himself very much in the traditional cowboy style, even starring in his own comic books and radio serials. In more recent years, artists like Keith Urban and Sherrie Austin have been keeping the tradition of country music alive. Focusing its feel on lyrics, Australian country music developed it own unique style, mirrored by such artists as Lee Kernaghan, Slim Dusty and Graeme Connors. The Tamworth Country Music Festival is an annual country music festival held in Tamworth, New South Wales (Country music capital of Australia). It celebrates the culture and heritage of Australian country music. During the festival the CMAA holds the Country Music Awards of Australia ceremony awarding the Golden Guitar trophies. Other significant country music festivals include the Whittlesea Country Music Festival held north of Melbourne in February, Boyup Brook Country Music Festival held in Western Australian in February, Bamera Country Music Festival held in South Australia in June, the National Country Muster held in Gympie during August, Mildura Country Music Festival for solely “independent” performers held in during October and the Canberra Country Music Festival held in the national capital during November. Some festivals are quite unique in their location: Grabine State Park in New South Wales promotes Australian country music through the Grabine Music Muster Festival; Marilyns Country Music Festival is a unique event held in South Australia’s Smoky Bay annually in September and is the only music festival in the world using an oyster barge as a stage. Country HQ showcases new talent on the rise in the country music scene downunder. Australia has a 24 hour music channel dedicated to non-stop country music in Australia. CMC (the Country Music Channel) can be viewed on Foxtel and Austar and features once a year the Golden Guitar Awards, CMAs and CCMAs alongside international shows such as The Wilkinsons, The Road Hammers, and Country Music Across America. Tom Roland, from the Country Music Association International, explains Country Music’s global popularity: “In this respect, at least, Country Music listeners around the globe have something in common with those in the United States. In Germany, for instance, Rohrbach identifies three general groups that gravitate to the genre: people intrigued with the American cowboy icon, middle-aged fans who seek an alternative to harder rock music.