 |
|
|
| Country Music |
|
|
|
Country music is rooted in the folk music of the
British Isles. English, Irish, Scottish, and Welsh
poetry, folklore, ballads, and sea chanteys form the
basis for many of the earliest songs that came to be
called country music in the United States. However,
modern country music has been profoundly influenced by a
variety of other regional and ethnic genres of music
over the past few centuries. African Americans, Mexican
Americans, German Americans, Polish Americans, French
Americans, and several other groups all have had a major
impact on the development of country music. |
|
|
| The origins of what we think of
today as country music can be traced back in large part
to the eighteenth-century American South, as large
numbers of English-speaking settlers moved into the
region. By the early nineteenth century, some of these
Anglo pioneers had moved as far west as Texas. As a
primarily rural, agrarian society, the South remained
somewhat culturally isolated from the increasingly
urbanized and industrialized North. Consequently,
southerners tended to preserve the traditional folk
music of their ancestral homelands. However, even though
southern folk songs typically were based on traditional
music from the British Isles, they underwent significant
transformation according to the particular ethnic and
social influences present in different parts of the
South. By the mid-nineteenth century, "country" music
included a wide variety of styles that differed
dramatically from region to region across the South and
elsewhere throughout the United States. |
|
|
|
In Texas, country music developed its own unique
characteristics. Beginning with Moses and Stephen
Austin's agreement with the Mexican government to bring
English-speaking settlers into the province of Tejas in
the 1820s, tens of thousands of white southerners poured
into Texas over the next two decades, bringing their
southern folk culture with them. Many also brought black
slaves, who would have a significant impact on the
unique development of country music in Texas. |
|
|
|
Texas won its independence from Mexico in 1836, and, by
the time it joined the United States in 1845, the
original Native American and Hispanic inhabitants had
been joined by an astounding array of other immigrant
and ethnic groups, including Anglo, Irish, Scottish,
Welsh, African, German, French, Czech, Polish,
Jewish, and Italian. Partly because Texas was less
strictly segregated than the Deep South, and partly
because the rugged environment of the western frontier
necessitated cooperation among traditionally disparate
groups, people of different racial, ethnic, and
socioeconomic backgrounds interacted somewhat more
freely in Texas than in other parts of the South,
exchanging musical ideas and influences in the process.
This blending of a variety of rich musical traditions
made Texas a fertile ground for the emergence of several
new sub-genres of country music. |
|
|
| Willie Nelson performs at the Texas
Prison Rodeo, ca. mid-1970s. The “Red Headed Stranger”
was one of the leaders of the “redneck rock” or
progressive country music movement that was centered in
Austin in the 1970s. In the early twenty-first century,
he has remained one of Texas’s most famous names in
country music. Courtesy of Texas State Library and
Archives Commission, Prints & Photographs #1998/038-394. |
|
|
|
The great cattle drives from Texas up into the
Midwest during the late 1800s made the cowboy a key
player in the developing Texas economy and secured
his status as an almost mythical figure within the
folk culture of the Southwest. The music of the
cowboys included traditional folksongs that were
modified to fit the unique living and working
conditions cowboys faced. "Bury Me Not on the Lone
Prairie," for example, was based on the old English
sailor's song "Ocean Burial." Other songs included
humorous anecdotes or spoke of the lonely, difficult
nature of life on the open range. Since nearly half
of all Texas cowboys were Hispanic, black,
Native-American, or of some other non-Anglo
ancestry, the cowboy's repertoire also reflected
lyrical, instrumental, and stylistic influences from
a variety of ethnic backgrounds. In some cases,
songs widely considered to be traditional cowboy
ballads actually were written or modified years
after the great cattle drives by songwriters hoping
to recapture what they considered to be the romance
and adventure of a bygone era. Such is the case with
the classic tune "A Home on the Range," which
probably originated as an authentic cowboy song, but
was later updated and popularized by Texas composer
David Guion during the early twentieth century. |
|
|
|
By the 1920s the increasing availability of radios,
phonographs, and moving pictures helped spread country
music, which previously had been limited mainly to the
South and Southwest, across the nation and even into
international markets. The first known commercial
recording of country music came in 1922, when
Amarillo-based fiddler Eck Robertson, with fiddler
Henry C. Gilliland, recorded "Arkansas Traveler" and
"Sallie Gooden" for Victor Records. In 1924 Vernon
Dalhart from Jefferson, Texas, released the first
country record to sell over one million copies.
Dalhart's phenomenal success with "The Wreck of the Old
97" (also known as "The Wreck on the Southern Old 97")
convinced major record labels that there was a lucrative
national market for country music. Soon, record
companies and Hollywood film producers launched
nationwide searches for marketable country singing
stars. Among the most influential of these stars who
were from or had lived in Texas were Gene Autry, Dale
Evans, Tex Ritter, and Jimmie Rodgers. Rodgers,
originally from Meridian, Mississippi, helped
blend the Deep South country style of his native state
with the western style of the Texas prairies to create
the music that would come to be called "country and
western." The tremendous popularity of such radio and
movie singing personalities helped carry this musical
genre to an international audience and made the cowboy
and his music a permanent and powerful symbol of Texas
history and culture. |
|
|
| During the Great Depression of the
1930s, Texas continued to contribute to the ongoing
evolution of country music. Folksinger Woody Guthrie,
who was born in Oklahoma but spent much of his early
life in Texas, became an important spokesman for
millions of Texans, Oklahomans, and Arkansans displaced
by the great Dust Bowl. Also, during the 1930s, Bob
Wills, born in Limestone County, Texas, and Milton
Brown, born in Stephenville, Texas, joined with a
variety of jazz and country musicians to create western
swing, one of the most eclectic, exciting, and enduring
forms of American music ever to appear. Western swing
blended traditional ballads and country fiddle tunes
with blues, jazz, ragtime, polkas, schottisches,
waltzes, reels, and instrumental arrangements that
reflected the influences of numerous musical styles,
from mariachi to big band swing. The great versatility
of these western swing groups was due in part to the
love that Wills, Brown, and the others had for all types
of music, regardless of their ethnic or geographical
origins. However, economic considerations also played a
part in shaping the diverse repertoire of these bands.
In order to keep their jobs on radio during the
Depression, entertainers had to be able to perform a
broad array of musical styles that would appeal to a
large and diverse audience. The end result was a new
type of music, known as "Texas Swing" or "Western
Swing," which introduced an astounding array of musical
influences into mainstream country music. |
|
|
|
The World War II era brought other important changes
to country music. The rapid mobilization of the civilian
population for the war effort resulted in a dramatic
increase in urbanization and industrialization, as
millions of Americans from rural backgrounds moved to
the cities to work in factories and office buildings.
This rapid transformation from an agrarian to an urban
lifestyle was reflected in the emergence of a new type
of country music called "honky-tonk." Although still
based primarily on the musical structures and
instrumentation of traditional country, honky-tonk dealt
more candidly with the problems of an increasingly
urbanized, industrialized, and morally permissive
society. Issues such as alcoholism, infidelity, divorce,
and other social problems, which formerly were not
discussed openly in public, became common themes in
honky-tonk songs. |
|
|
|
Ray Price performs at Panther Hall in Fort Worth for
a broadcast of Cowtown Jamboree, a popular Saturday
evening country program on KTVT television in the 1960s.
Price, born in Perryville, Texas, helped define the
honky-tonk country sound of the 1950s and later enjoyed
success with a more sophisticated lush Nashville sound
of the 1960s. Photograph by Wayne Beckham, Panther Hall
Collection, Wittliff Collections, Texas State
University. |
|
|
| Some of the most influential
honky-tonk musicians of this period came from Texas.
Ernest Tubb, the first country singer to perform at
Carnegie Hall, helped pioneer the post-World War II
honky-tonk era, along with Floyd Tillman, Lefty
Frizzellqv, Hank Thompson, Ray Price, Moon Mullican,
and George Jones. By the late 1950s, Texas artists were
bridging the gap between country and pop, bringing
country music increasingly into mainstream popular
culture. For example, Johnny Horton's "Battle of New
Orleans," Jim Reeves's "He'll Have to Go," Jimmy Dean's
"Big Bad John," Roger Miller's "King of the Road," and
Jeannie C. Riley's "Harper Valley P.T.A." all became
major hits on both the country and pop charts.
Texas-born Buck Owens even had one of his songs, "Act
Naturally" (written by Mississippian Johnny Russell),
recorded by pop superstars, the Beatles. |
|
|
| In the 1970s, Texas gave birth to yet
another sub-genre of country music that forever altered the
course of American music. Centered in Austin, the phenomenon
known as "progressive country" sprang from an unlikely
combination of traditional country music and the hippie
counterculture of the late 1960s. Such Austin venues as the
Armadillo World Headquarters and Soap Creek Saloon provided an
environment in which cowboys, hippies, bikers, and college
students could mingle freely and hear a wide variety of music,
including blues, country, rock-and-roll, and conjunto. Texas
singer-songwriters, such as Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, and
Kris Kristofferson, helped pioneer the progressive country
movement, along with the somewhat edgier "outlaw" country
movement. |
|
|
|
Kris Kristofferson, born in Brownsville, Texas, on June 22,
1936, includes on his resumé such diverse occupations as
janitor, Rhodes Scholar, and helicopter pilot. He became a
successful songwriter and movie star, recording and performing
with Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash, and Barbra Streisand. Waylon
Jennings, born in Littlefield, Texas, near Lubbock on June 15,
1937, played bass guitar for Buddy Hollyqv before moving to
Nashville to record for RCA Records. Willie Nelson, born on
April 30, 1933, in Abbott, Texas, was raised by his
grandparents. As a child, he began composing his own songs and
by the 1960s had established a successful songwriting career in
Nashville. Some of the biggest stars of country music turned
Nelson's songs into top hits, including Ray Price with "Night
Life," Patsy Cline with "Crazy," and Faron Young with "Hello
Walls." However, by the early 1970s, Nelson had returned to
Texas seeking greater creative freedom in his home state. |
|
|
|
The phenomenal commercial success of such progressive country
hits as "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)" and
"Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys," forced
the Nashville establishment to acknowledge Nelson, Jennings, and
other "outlaw" artists and to incorporate their unconventional
musical style into the country mainstream. Soon, a flood of
younger Texas performers, including Ray Wylie Hubbard, Billy Joe
Shaver, Marcia Ball, Asleep at the Wheel, Guy Clark, Michael
Martin Murphey, Rodney Crowell, Johnny Rodriguez, Tanya Tucker,
B.J. Thomas, Freddy Fender, Billie Jo Spears, Townes Van Zandt,
Don Williams, and transplanted Texan Jerry Jeff Walker, were
riding the wave of a new and more eclectic country music market
that embraced country, folk, blues, pop, rock, and western
swing. |
|
|
| The 1980s brought further important
developments in country music. While native Texans such as Kenny
Rogers, born in Houston in 1938, Barbara Mandrell, born in
Houston in 1948, and Larry Gatlin, born in Seminole in 1948,
topped the charts with crossover pop-country hits, a group of
college friends living in San Marcos was about to turn the
country music world on its head. The Ace in the Hole Band, which
included Mike Daily, Terry Hale, Tommy Foote, Ron Cabal, and a
young, unknown singer named George Strait, exploded on the
scene, inspiring a return to the roots of traditional country
music. George Strait, born in Poteet, Texas, in 1952 and raised
in nearby Pearsall, honed his singing skills during a stint in
the United States Army and then went on to pursue a degree in
agriculture at Southwest Texas State University (now
Texas State University–San Marcos). Between classes and local
gigs, particularly at Kent Finlay's Cheatham Street Warehouse in
San Marcos, Strait and the band developed a loyal following. In
1981 Strait signed on with MCA Records and quickly became a
country superstar. With an emphasis on western swing and
back-to-basics honky-tonk, his long string of Number 1 hits,
which includes "Fool Hearted Memory," "Right or Wrong,"
"Amarillo By Morning," "Baby Blue," and "Does Fort Worth Ever
Cross Your Mind?," spawned legions of imitators and reawakened
an interest in more traditional-sounding country music. Strait
was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2006 and
named Artist of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music in
2009. As of 2010 Strait's remarkable run included fifty-seven
Number-1 hit singles--a world record among music artists in any
genre. |
|
|
|
From the 1990s into the twenty-first century, such Texas
artists as Lee Ann Womack, Clint Black, Lyle Lovett, LeAnn
Rimes, Robert Earl Keen, Jr., Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, Pat
Green, Randy Rogers, Kevin Fowler, Rick Treviño, the Dixie
Chicks, and countless others have followed in the footsteps of
these earlier pioneers to build successful careers of their own.
These younger musicians appear committed to making sure that
Texas will continue to have a profound and lasting impact on
country music for many years to come. |
|
|
|
Go To Top
Of Page! |
|
|
|
