Country Music

Country Music originated in the rural regions of the Southern United States in the 1920s. Country music often consists of ballads and dance tunes with generally simple forms and harmonies accompanied by mostly string instruments.  They brought some of their most important valuables with them, and to most of them this was an instrument: “Early Irish settlers enjoyed the fiddle because it could be played to sound sad and mournful or bright and bouncy."  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.  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.