The Evolution of Country Music
Country music has been around as long as there have been stories to tell. In times past, country music told stories relating to life having to deal with personal issues such as alcoholism, cheating spouses and economic hardships. Although these issues still exist today, the sound and the presentation of country music has evolved and crossed over into genres such as pop, rock and hip hop. Take a look back and see how much country music has changed.
The Man In Black
Johnny Cash is one of the greatest country singer/songwriters of all time because he wrote from his soul. Many people could relate to his music dealing with sorrow, moral tribulation and redemption because they themselves were usually struggling with the same things.
Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas on February 26, 1932 and his birth name was J. R. Cash. He took the stage name Johnny Cash after signing with Sun Records in 1955. Johnny Cash worked in the cotton fields by age five and his family’s economic and personal struggles inspired many of his songs like Five Feet High and Rising relating to the their farm flooding.
Cash was taught guitar by his mother and childhood friend. He began writing songs as a young boy. The song Folsom Prison Blues hit # 5 on the country charts and I Walk The Line hit # 1 while hitting the pop charts at # 20. Cash left Sun Records and signed with Columbia Records; while there, Don’t Take Your Guns To Town became one of his biggest hits.
Johnny Cash had decades of success as an international representative of country music and had a resurgence of fame in the 1990’s. He has influenced countless numbers of artists throughout the years and was given a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999 as well as ranked #31 in 2004 on Rolling Stones Magazine’s 100 Greatest artists of all time.
The Perfect Pair
Kenny Rogers is an American country music singer/songwriter, record producer, actor, photographer, and entrepreneur. He was born in Houston, Texas on August 21, 1938. His career began in the 1950’s with a doo-wop group called the The Scholars but in 1976 he signed as a solo artist with United Artist Record Company. In 1977 the album Kenny Rogers was a major hit with single Lucille reaching the pop charts in 12 countries selling over 5 million copies. The album reached #1 on the Billboard Country Music charts. This was just the beginning of his worldwide success as an established artist.
Kenny Rogers followed up with the muti-million selling album The Gambler with another international #1 hit, Coward of the Country. Later in 1980 he teamed up with Lionel Ritchie who wrote and produced Rogers #1 hit, Lady. Lionel Ritchie also wrote and produced Rogers’ 1981 Album, Share Your Love, which song Through The Years, hit the pop charts at #13. Today, Kenny Rogers is still touring with strong performances, evident by him winning the 2007 Country Music Album of the year, Water & Bridges. Before this, he was known for pairing with female country music star Dolly Pardon. Their duet, Islands In The Stream was also a #1hit.
Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American country music singer/songwriter, author, actress, and philanthropist. Parton was born in Seiverville, Texas and her family was considered ‘dirt poor’. They lived in a dilapidated one-room cabin in Locust Ridge north of Greenbriar in the Great Smoky Mountains. Parton’s parents were parishioners in the Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee), a Pentecostal denomination, and music was a very large part of her church experience.
Parton began performing as a child, singing on local radio and television programs in East Tennessee. By age nine, she was appearing on The Cas Walker Show on both WIVK Radio and WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee, and at 13, she was recording on a small record label, Goldband, and appearing at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, Tennessee. It was that night at the Opry that she first met Johnny Cash, who encouraged her to go where her heart took her, and not to care what others thought. The day after she graduated from high school in 1964 she moved to Nashville, taking many traditional elements of folklore and popular music from East Tennessee with her.
To date, she remains one of the most successful country artists, with 26 number-one singles (a record for a female performer) and 42 top-10 country albums (more than anyone else). She is known for her distinctive mountain soprano, sometimes bawdy humor, flamboyant dress sense, and voluptuous figure.
Country Controversy
Garth Brooks (born February 7, 1962) is an American country music singer-songwriter. Successfully integrating rock elements into his recordings and live performances, Brooks soon began to dominate the country singles and country album charts and quickly crossed over into the mainstream pop arena, exposing country music to a larger audience. Brooks has enjoyed one of the most successful careers in popular music history, with over 70 hit singles and 15 charted albums to his credit and over 130 million albums sold in the United States alone.
Garth Brooks has released six albums to achieve diamond status in the United States, including, Garth Brooks - (10× platinum), No Fences - (17× platinum), Ropin’ the Wind - (14× platinum), The Hits - (10× platinum), Sevens - (10× platinum) & Double Live - (21× platinum). Garth’s follow up album No Fences, released in 1990 spawned many hits such as the blue collar anthem ‘Friends In Low Places’ and the controversial The Thunder Rolls.
“The Thunder Rolls” tells the story of a wife waiting up late into the night for her husband. As he comes into the house, she smells another woman’s perfume on him. All of this is set against the backdrop of a storm, representing the tribulation of her marriage. The song originally contained a third verse in which the woman runs to her dresser drawer to get a pistol, telling herself that she’ll never again wonder where he is. However, producer Allen Reynolds felt it worked well with just two verses and the third verse never appeared on the studio version, although Brooks does sing it at concerts as is evidenced in the version included on Double Live.
The video to the single (which does not include the third verse) does have a scene where the woman kills her husband, played by Brooks. It should be noted that the wife in the video has a black eye. The video also contains scenes suggesting that domestic violence has played a large part in their lives, thus giving the wife more motive than the song suggests. The video won Music Video of the Year at the 1991 CMA Awards.
Shania Twain (Eileen Regina Edwards) was born in Windsor, Ontario on August 28, 1965. Her parents divorced when she was two and her mother moved to Timmons, Ontario and married Jerry Twain a Native American. He adopted Shania and her sister and legally changed their last name to Twain. Her mother and adoptive father died in a car accident Novemer 21, 1987 so Shania moved to Huntsville, Ontario and took care of her half brothers (Marn & Darryl) and sister (Carrie Ann) by singing locally. In 1991 she was invited to record a demo tape which led to her first recording contract whereupon she changed her named to Shania Twain. An Obijwa (Native American) name which means “On My Way”.
Shania is a Canadian Singer/Songwriter in the country and pop music genres. Her third album Come on Over is the biggest-selling album of all time by a female musician, and the best-selling album in the history of country music. She is the only female musician to have three albums certified Diamond by the Recording Industry Association of America, and is also the second best selling artist in Canada, behind Céline Dion, with three of her studio albums being certified double diamond by the Canadian Recording Industry Association. Twain has achieved both critical and financial success, having received five Grammy awards, 27 BMI Songwriter awards, and sold over 65 million albums worldwide to date including 48 million in the US alone.
Along with success comes controversy. Not only is Shania known for her music success but she’s also well known for her provocative style of dress. Before her arrival in the country music industry there was not much controversy over dress styles. Her mid-drift became synonymous with her music and caused a stir when her supermodel body was shown on her videos in tight leather pants and shirts showing her mid-drift.
The Dixie Chicks are a multiple Grammy Award-winning female alternative country band, comprised of three women: Emily Robison, Martie Maguire and Natalie Maines. The Dixie Chicks achieved massive country and pop success, beginning in 1998 with hit songs such as “Wide Open Spaces”, “Cowboy Take Me Away”, and “Long Time Gone”. The women became well-known for their independent spirit, instrumental virtuosity, thoughtful song compositions, fierce loyalty, and outspoken comments on controversial subjects, including politics.
Ten days before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, lead vocalist Natalie Maines publicly criticized U.S. President George W. Bush. The ensuing controversy cost the group half of their concert audience attendance in the United States. As of 2008, they have won 13 Grammy Awards, with five of them earned in 2007 including the coveted Grammy Award for Album of the Year for Not Ready to Make Nice, an album that proved the band’s resiliency and appeal, regardless of controversy.
The “Big Boy” of Country
Toby Keith is an American country music singer-songwriter who was born on July 8, 1961 in Clinton, Oklahoma. Keith graduated from Moore High School and, in 1979, went to work as a derrick hand in the booming oil fields of Oklahoma. He worked his way up to become an operation manager. At the age of 20, he formed the Easy Money band and they played local bars as he continued to work in the oil industry. At times, he would have to leave in the middle of a gig if he was paged to work in the oil field.
In 1982, the oil industry in Oklahoma began a rapid decline and Keith soon found himself unemployed. He fell back on his football training and played defensive end with the semi-pro Oklahoma City Drillers while continuing to perform with his band.
In 1993, Keith went to Nashville, Tennessee. Keith hung out and busked on Music Row and at a place called Houndogs. He distributed copies of a demo tape the band had made to the many record companies in the city. There was no interest by any of the record labels and Keith returned home feeling depressed. Keith had promised himself to have a recording contract by the time he was 30 years old or give up on music as a career. He had already passed that age without any prospects for a recording contract.
Fortunately for Keith, a flight attendant and fan of his gave a copy of Keith’s demo tape to Harold Shedd, a Mercury Records executive, while he was traveling on a flight she was working. Shedd enjoyed what he heard, went to see Keith perform live and then signed him to a recording contract with Mercury. His debut single, “Should’ve Been a Cowboy” (1993), went to number 1 on the Billboard country singles chart, and his self-titled debut album was certified platinum. Other hit singles included “A Little Less Talk and a Lot More Action” and “Wish I Didn’t Know Now”.
In 1999 Keith went on to work on a new album, ‘How Do You Like Me Now’, The first single off How Do You Like Me Now failed to make the Top 40 on the country charts. However, the follow-up single, which was the album’s title track, went on to spend five weeks at number one, helping boost the album’s sales to double platinum.
On March 24, 2001, Keith’s father, H.K. Covel, was killed in a car accident. That event and the September 11, 2001 attacks prompted Keith to write the song “Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue (The Angry American)”, a song about his father’s patriotism and faith in the USA. At first, Keith refused to record the song and sang it only live at his concerts for military personnel. The reaction was so strong that the Commandant of the Marine Corps James L. Jones told Keith it was his duty as an American citizen to record the song. As the lead single from the album Unleashed (2002), “Courtesy of the Red, White, & Blue” peaked at number one over the weekend of July 4.