Country Music

Country Music

Completely a North American idiom, Country Music can be said to have had it's beginnings from some of the Jazz style called Dixie. A contrast of Dixie Jazz and Country music will show similar structure in the chords, and certainly the speed of the chord changes is fast for both styles. The music can be quite moving itself, with intricate solo work played on a violin or guitar. Due to the vocal inflection(rise and fall of the voice), which tends to have a certain "twang" to it, this style of music which appeared in the 1930's (of course it had been under development before this time) is now popular only with it's fans. This is not to say that the following of country is small, for it has collected millions of listeners along the way. Country greats include Hank Williams, Jonny Cash, Dolly Parton, and in Canada where the country feel has been mixed with political feelings of the time, Stompin Tom Connors is recognised as one of the greats, and more recently k.d.lang has enjoyed much success. This photograph features a bandolin. [AW] {NR}