Country Music
Country music's roots lie in the ballads, folk songs, and popular songs of the English, Scots, and Irish settlers of the Appalachians and other parts of the American South. Country songs regularly feature stringed instruments such as the fiddle, guitar, banjo, and mandolin, and the genre is especially associated with ballads and dance tunes. The gap between country and the mainstream of pop music narrowed with the replacement by electric guitars of more traditional instruments, though country music has retained an unmistakable character as one of the few truly indigenous American musical styles. The genre's celebrated artists include such diverse performers as Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, Tim McGraw, and Kacey Musgraves.
Country Music Encyclopedia Articles
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Kris Kristofferson
Kris Kristofferson American singer, songwriter, and actor known for his gravelly voice and rugged good looks and a string of country music hits, notably “Me and Bobby McGee,” “Help Me Make It Through the...
Willie Nelson
Willie Nelson is an American songwriter and guitarist who was one of the most popular country music singers of the late 20th century. Nelson learned to play guitar from his grandfather and at the age of...
Lionel Richie
Lionel Richie American popular singer, songwriter, and producer most admired for his smooth and soulful love ballads of the 1970s and ’80s. A highly versatile musician, he was able to perform—and skillfully...
George Strait
George Strait American country music singer, guitarist, and “new traditionalist,” known for reviving interest in the western swing and honky-tonk music of the 1930s and ’40s through his straightforward...
Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton American country music singer, guitarist, and actress best known for pioneering the interface between country and pop music styles. Parton was born into a poor farming family, the fourth of...
Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley was an American popular singer widely known as the “King of Rock and Roll” and one of rock music’s dominant performers from the mid-1950s until his death. Presley grew up dirt-poor in Tupelo,...
Hank Williams
Hank Williams American singer, songwriter, and guitarist who in the 1950s arguably became country music’s first superstar. An immensely talented songwriter and an impassioned vocalist, he also experienced...
country music
Country music, style of American popular music that originated in rural areas of the South and West in the early 20th century. The term country and western music (later shortened to country music) was...
Garth Brooks
Garth Brooks American country music singer-songwriter whose crossover appeal to the pop market made him the top-selling solo artist of all time. Brooks was born into a musical family; his mother had a...
Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline American country music singer whose talent and wide-ranging appeal made her one of the classic performers of the genre, bridging the gap between country music and more mainstream audiences....
Béla Fleck
Béla Fleck American musician recognized as one of the most inventive and commercially successful banjo players of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Fleck became fascinated by bluegrass music during...
Kenny Chesney
Kenny Chesney American country-music singer, songwriter, and guitarist whose contemplative ballads and hard-core party songs, onstage energy, approachable character, and sophisticated concert productions...
Faith Hill
Faith Hill American country music singer known for her commercial success on both the country and pop music charts. Hill grew up in Star, Mississippi, where she began singing at an early age. Her first...
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis American singer and pianist whose virtuosity, ecstatic performances, and colourful personality made him a legendary rock music pioneer. Born into poverty, Lewis began playing the piano...
Ricky Skaggs
Ricky Skaggs American mandolin and fiddle virtuoso, singer, and music producer who played a leading role in the New Traditionalist movement of the 1980s by adapting bluegrass music’s instrumentation and...
the Band
The Band, was a Canadian-American band that began as the backing group for both Ronnie Hawkins and Bob Dylan and branched out on its own in 1968. The Band’s pioneering blend of traditional country, folk,...
Mel Tillis
Mel Tillis American songwriter and entertainer who composed more than a thousand country music songs (music and lyrics), many of which became standards. Overcoming a pronounced stammer, he achieved stardom...
Tom T. Hall
Tom T. Hall American songwriter and entertainer, popularly known as the “Storyteller,” who expanded the stylistic and topical range of the country music idiom with plainspoken, highly literate, and often...
Kenny Rogers
Kenny Rogers American country music singer known for his raspy voice and multiple hits such as “Lady,” “The Gambler,” “Lucille,” and “Through the Years.” Rogers grew up poor in a Houston housing project....
Loretta Lynn
Loretta Lynn American country music singer who was known as the “Queen of Country.” Loretta Webb was born in a coal miner’s shack. (Although she claimed 1935 as her birth year, various official documents...
Jimmie Rodgers
Jimmie Rodgers was an American singer, songwriter, and guitarist, one of the principal figures in the emergence of the country and western style of popular music. Rodgers, whose mother died when he was...
Reba McEntire
Reba McEntire American singer and actress, one of the most popular female country vocal artists of the late 20th century, who later found crossover success as a television star. As the daughter of a world...
the Judds
The Judds, American country music duo, consisting of Naomi Judd (originally Diana Ellen Judd; b. January 11, 1946, Ashland, Kentucky, U.S.—d. April 30, 2022, outside Nashville, Tennessee) and her daughter...
Kitty Wells
Kitty Wells American country music singer and songwriter who was the first female star of the genre. Deason sang gospel music in church as a child. In the 1930s she made her radio debut and took her stage...