by Jerry Curtis

Created on: January 16, 2009   Last Updated: April 06, 2010

An unauthorized history of country music

Origins
No one really knows for sure where country music originated. However, some rural intellectuals opine that it is music from hills of rural America. Less xenophobic researchers claim, however, that it may have originated in the mountains of France where a goat herder named Guilliame (French for William) composed love songs to his goat; hence, the term "hillbilly."

Regardless of where the music originated, first traces of what we now call country music first appear in colonial records of North Carolina. Country music historian, Wallace Thudpucker, writes:

"Backcountry people of this area would congregate monthly in barns where they would dance and sing to stringed instruments in a community celebration of joy and often courtship. They were the only means for young men to meet young women. Of course, in these isolated communities, these celebrations were also known as family reunions."

Growth in Early America
Some historians say that country music did not begin to grow until the expansion of slavery in the Old South. The yearning for freedom and deep spirituality growing from the plantation experience as hillbillies toiled in the field under the cruel lash of their masters can be heard today in many country songs. There is some controversy and dispute on the foregoing, however, as some claim this all has to do with Negro spirituals. Others, like Charlie Pride, disagree.

Country Music Comes of Age
The Great Depression and migration of farm workers brought with it a surge in country music in America. As "Okies" flocked to California's central valley, for example, they brought their foot-stomping, string-based celebration of poverty, degradation and misery to a previously content state. Their legacy of Bakersfield and the unabashed "aw shucks" demeanor of Buck Owens are the main reasons that travelers on California Freeway 99 would rather stop in Castaic.

Back east, however, there was a remarkable commercial awakening of country music as the now world-famous Grand Ole Opry began its uninterrupted rise to fame to become the Mecca for country music. Stars like Roy Acuff, Grandpa Jones, Minnie Pearl and the raucous comedian musicians, Homer and Jethro, broadcast their Saturday night jamborees with the gusto and quaintness that would embarrass even Garrison Keeler.

The 1930's version of the Grand Ole Opry underwent a hiatus during the height of the Depression when the cast was recruited en masse to participate in a WPA coast-to-coast

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