Ken Burns - Country Music Documentary on PBS

Settle down ya pretentious bastard.

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Oh, those Scott-Irish (Gaelic/Celtic) as played on their Italian conceived mandolins and fiddles and of course them folks that brought over the banjo. . . who might disagree as to it's purity and sancity.

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FTFY

This mish mash was actively occurring long before ever crossing the pond. The first to arrive, their songs, words and tunes, and their reels, jigs, and hornpipes might have remained straight, square, and true; however like everything of man it's groundwork, laid upon, what has come before. And why we see more than penny whistle, bodhran, and bagpipes in their mix. Music has always borrowed from what come before. Country music was just another stop along the line and merged into what first arrived.

It just took a while before these-poors did more than simply retain the frame work of western music as taught and handed down to them. (IE: I've heard that heard that argument before.)

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(IE: I've heard that heard that argument before.)

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Thanks for that. Looks very interesting. And I think the preview captures the essence of what I was talking about.

I should probably correct one thing I said earlier, though. There weren't a lot of Irish in America prior to about 1840 (potato famine). Most of the Appalachian folk were Scots-Irish, which simply means Scotsmen who had moved to Ireland before coming to America. (There's a lot of history of the Scots-Irish in the UK which I wont go into here, but it's fair to say the Scots-Irish and the real Irish didn't like each other).

After the Irish came en masse in 1840, I'm not sure how many of them ended up in Appalachia. I would wager not many. Most of them stayed in city centers like Boston or NYC. Remember most Irish are Catholic and there's not a whole lot of Catholics in Appalachia. The Scots-Irish (or Ulster-Scots as they're known in the UK) were heavily protestant.

So I should correct "Straight outta Dublin" to "straight outta the Scottish lowlands." (Most Scots-Irish in America were lowland Scots, not highlanders).

As for the southern accent, it was invented in Appalachia around the time of the Civil War. (Linguists have narrowed it down to that time frame). Prior to that, most southerners spoke no differently than Yanks. Indeed, if you go listen to audio recordings of old Confederate soldiers, they don't sound anything like us ole baws do today. They are very proper and almost sound British. So back then the Appalachian accent (which dominates the South today) was likely very regional, mostly only in the mountains.

In any case, the Scots-Irish likely brought some of this musical with them from Ireland. Though I agree that today's country music is American.

*camera zooms in to a picture of Florida -Georgia line*
*twangy violin music plays*

“ as the last blue jean cut offs were removed and the last of the bud light had been drank, as the trucks all jacked up gathered round and the bonfire died down... this is where the party was at “

Refuse to watch it.

He PCs everything he involves himself in.

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He PCs everything

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Please explain, with examples.

Looking forward to it. Thanks!

Bump for tonight.

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Disagree. Country music (at least in the early days) was pretty much a Scots-Irish thing. Those poor hillbillies in Appalachia brought it over.

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Jimmy Rodgers is known as The first Country Music Star, as a matter of fact, the first Popular artist of any genre. The term "Country and Western Music" really wasn't even being used yet, because it was all a new thing, and radio was just taking off. Things hadn't been categorized yet and defined, the radio stations would just play whatever they could get their hands on, because there really wasn't much to choose from.

Most of the recordings, before that time, had been made by the record player companies, for people to play on their gramophones. Mostly it was symphony and orchestra music.
Jimmy Rodgers changed all of that. With that said, Jimmy Rodgers music had huge Blues influence, right from the beginning, with the yodel thrown in. He played the music that he had learned, from any musician that he came across. He didn't even know what to call it.

The music that any musician might play, was just influenced by the other musicians that he happened to know. Radio, is what started all of the categories, and maybe Alan Lomax a bit too.