The Evolution of a Unique American Music Genre: Country Music

The Scottish immigrants brought their fiddles with them to the New World 300 years ago when they settled in the remote mountains of Appalachia. The tales and traditions of the Old World set to lively melodies and mournful ballads served as an oral history to the hard working people struggling to survive in the relative isolation of the unforgiving mountains of the southern United States. Today’s country music legends, such as Loretta Lynn, Dolly Parton and Hank Williams, Jr. refer to these historic tunes as root music. Root music gave birth to not to modern country music; further south in Memphis root music developed into the blues and in the Mississippi delta in the area around New Orleans the traditional music blended with creole and African rhythms to become jazz.

The sound of root music in Appalachia differed from the blue and jazz because of the isolation of the mountain folks. The lyrics evolved as a function of the life experiences of people with the will to survive in an unforgiving environment. The people and music of the Appalachian, Blue Ridge, and Great Smokey Mountains remain virtually unaware of the culture and society of the rest of the United States until early in the 20th century with the advent of radio. Country music legends introduced the country to “hillbilly” music on the Grand Ole Opry radio show from Nashville, Tennessee. Soon country music began to make a showing in the music charts as the old family tunes and the new stories from the mountains and hills of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Tennessee spread across the country.

Country CDs from Collectors’ Choice Music offers collections of the renditions of the original roots music and the work of all the country music legends. These historical recordings offer not only a glimpse of the evolution of the mountain people but also tales from everyday people living in the 20th century.

Not only does Collectors’ Choice Music have variety of old country music, they also carry new country artists like, Martina McBride, Jennetter McCurdy, Dierks Bently, Thompson Square, Ronnie Dunn, and other country artists. In addition to these artists, CMT has countdown albums to country music as well as top country artist charts.

BUY Country CDs