The Rough Guide to the Roots of Country Music

In the 1920s and early 30s the term ‘country music’ had yet to be invented, so any description applied to these trailblazing tracks would probably have been the derogatory ‘hillbilly music.’ Yet the American folk music pioneers gathered here were helping to lay the foundations of modern American music by reshaping the old-world folk of the early European settlers and incorporating the African-American traditions of gospel and blues.

Former vaudeville star Uncle Dave Macon, often referred to as ‘the grandfather of country music,’ fittingly kicks of proceedings with a rascally track from 1926. But it's the following year's series of recording sessions, the Bristol Sessions (often called country's music's ‘big bang’), that introduced to the world two of the genre's most influential artists, Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family. The Singing Brakeman and the First Family are represented here, but so too are lesser-known participants in those fabled few days in Tennessee, such as banjo player BF Shelton and JP Nester's rural Virginian string band. Alongside such evocatively named ensembles as Earl Johnson & His Dixie Entertainers, Fruit Jar Guzzlers and Fiddlin' John Carson & His Virginia Reelers, they all offer a vigorous and enlightening glimpse of country music's raw and vital roots.