Early Country

Country music is rooted in Anglo- and African-American Folk styles that date back centuries. But country had its commercial beginnings in the early 1920s, when record companies first discovered southern white rural singers and instrumentalists like Eck Robertson, Fiddlin' John Carson, and Uncle Dave Macon. Some, like Robertson, were champion fiddlers, while others, like Riley Puckett and Blind Alfred Reed, were street balladeers. Collectively, their work was first called "old familiar," "old-time," "native American," and finally "hillbilly" music. The Carter Family emerged in the late '20s, and songs of theirs like the "Wabash Cannonball" and "Will the Circle be Unbroken" became the foundation of modern country music. Singer-Songwriter and guitarist, Jimmie Rodgers, was the era's biggest star. For his contributions, he is widely known as "the father of country music."