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Cheatin', drinkin', workin', prayin' and pickin'...Country music (in its purest form) is the music of adults. In the late 1920's, Ralph Peer, an RCA-Victor record exec from New York City took a mobile recording unit to rural Appalachia to record authentic "hillbilly" music. Peer hit paydirt with the discovery of the "First Family of Country Music" The Carter Family and "The Singing Brakeman" Jimmie Rodgers. The recordings took place in Bristol, Tennessee and put the traditional mountain folk songs on vinyl and into the homes of millions of Americans.

Several radio stations in Chicago, Shreveport and Nashville soon offered live hillbilly shows. The most famous of these radio shows debuted on WSM 650-AM in Nashville. It was dubbed The Grand Ole Opry. Hillbilly and folk music artists from the Southeastern United States were featured on the program like The Skillet Lickers, Uncle Dave Macon, George D. Hay and later, Roy Acuff, "The King of Country Music."

Some of the best Country music artists to grace the stage of the Opry were The Louvin Brothers, Hank Williams, Webb Pierce, Lefty Frizzell, Carl Smith, Ernest Tubb, Jack Greene and Porter Wagoner. Some of the most prolific songwriters to grace America's sheet music have been Country songwriters. Bill Anderson, Kris Kristofferson, Tom T. Hall, Curly Putman, Harlen Howard and Larry Gatlin are just a few that catapulted the Country genre into mainstream music.

Nashville was never the only hotspot for Country music. Bakersfield, California was the West Coast headquarters. Artists like Wynn Stewart, Buck Owens, Merle Haggard and Tommy Collins created anew brand of Country, intermingling the honky tonk style with the West Coast rock n roll guitar, enter: The Bakersfield Sound.

Some of the best Classic Country artists are Johnny Paycheck, Cal Smith, Bob Wills, Willie Nelson, Bobby Bare and Merle Haggard.

Classic Country music by definition is a body of musical works within the Country genre that is at least 20 years old. Such artists who are now known as "Classic" would be Randy Travis, Dwight Yoakam, Keith Whitley, Hank Williams, Jr. and even Shenendoah. Classic Country music usually has mature storylines and very well written song lyrics that depict real to life situations the average American adult faces some time in their lives. Lost love, infidelity, adultry, lust and death are popular overtones in the traditional classic country song.

Really, no matter what race, creed, color, relifious affiliate you are, most all of us can identify with Classic Country music.

Learn more about this author, Timothy Edward Jones.
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