Jimmie Rodgers was born in Meridian Mississippi, in 1897. Originally he worked on the railroads until his ill health got the better of him and it was only during this time that he followed his earlier love of entertaining. In 1927 he followed word that Victor Records were setting up a portable recording studio and made his way there. He was immediately signed and continued recording and playing music until he died in 1933.
In 1965 he was one of the very first musicians to be added to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961 along with Hank Williams and Fred Rose. On the same day as Jimmie Rodgers signed with Victor Records, so did the Carter Family, who would become one of the most famous country music bands of all time. They remained with Victor Records until 1936. Not even divorce could separate the band though and they continued to record with Decca until 1939. Things started to hit a rough patch at this stage and despite signing for Universal and eventually Victor Records again, the band split in 1941.
It is widely acknowledged that that big day in 1927 was the introduction of country music to the rest of the country. Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family were met with huge critical acclaim and became incredibly popular helping to sell a great many records. Country music singers and bands of today will often talk about the Carter Family or Jimmie Rodgers as being their major influence and with very good reason.
Country music is a blend of popular musical forms originally found in the Southern United States and the Appalachian Mountains. It has roots in traditional folk music, Celtic music, gospel music, and old-time music and evolved rapidly in the 1920s. The term country music began to be used in the 1940s when the earlier term hillbilly music was deemed to be degrading, and the term 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 in the United States.
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.
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 in Nashville, Tennessee. Gospel music, too, remained a popular component of country music.
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. This music 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". 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 Daffin, Floyd Tillman, and the Maddox Brothers and Rose, and Hank Williams, would later be called "traditional" country.
In this post World War II period "country" music was called "folk" in the trades, and "hillbilly" within the industry. In 1944 Billboard replace the term "hillbilly" with "folk songs and blues", and switched to "country" or "country and western" in 1949.
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 on Nashville, Tennessee. Under the direction of producers such as Chet Atkins, Owen Bradley, and later Billy Sherrill, the "Nashville sound" brought country music to a diverse audience and helped revive country as it emerged from a commercially fallow period. This sound was notable for borrowing from 1950s pop stylings: a prominent and "smooth" vocal, backed by a string section and vocal chorus. Instrumental soloing was de-emphasized in favor of trademark "licks". Leading artists in this genre included Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, and later Tammy Wynette and Charlie Rich. The "slip note" piano style of session musician Floyd Cramer was an important component of this style.
