Country took shape in the southern USA in the 1920s from the folklore of Anglo-Irish and Scottish settlers, enriched by the blues. Its instrumental face is the acoustic guitar, the banjo, the fiddle, the double bass, and later the steel guitar with its characteristic “weeping” timbre.
Country lyrics are simple, sincere tales of love, work, home, faith, disappointment, and the longing of the “ordinary person.” The genre travelled from the rural recordings of the Carter Family and the legendary Hank Williams to the world industry of Nashville. Country spawned many offshoots (bluegrass, honky-tonk, country rock) and remains one of the most widespread and most characteristic layers of American musical culture, deeply rooted in the folk song tradition.
