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New release of Louis Vasnier recording.

The Earliest Known ‘Country’ Recording Has Been Found. The Singer? A Black Man.

A new release of an 1891 song by Louis Vasnier deepens what we know about the genre’s origins.
by Geoff Edgers via Washington Post on November 30, 2024
Johnny Cash and Waylon Jennings.

How Nashville Outsiders Changed Country Music Forever

An excerpt from the new book "Willie, Waylon, and the Boys."
by Brian Fairbanks via Nashville Scene on June 13, 2024
Toby Keith performing onstage with "Made in America" on screen behind him.
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How Country Music Became Patriotic

Country music boosters rebranded the genre and tied it to America's military mission as a way to build popularity.
by Joseph M. Thompson via Made By History on June 6, 2024
Posters for Beyonce's "Cowboy Carter" album.
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History Explains the Backlash to Beyoncé's 'Cowboy Carter'

Black cowboys made up as much as a quarter of working ranch hands during late 19th century. That legacy has been obscured.
by Elyssa Ford, Rebecca Scofield via Made By History on April 12, 2024
Book cover of "Cold War Country" by Joseph M. Thompson.

Big Government Country

Connie B. Gay and the roots of country music militarization.
by Brock Schnoke via UNC Press Blog on April 11, 2024
A celebration of Linda Martell on the stage of the Country Music Awards.

Who is Linda Martell, the Black Country Musician Beyoncé Spotlights?

The first Black woman to play the Grand Ole Opry and hit Billboard’s country music charts.
by Jonathan Edwards via Washington Post on March 30, 2024
The album cover of "Cowboy Carter" released by Beyonce in 2024

Cowboy Carter and the Black Roots of Country Music

Beyoncé is following in the footsteps of many Black musicians before her.
by The Birthplace of Country Music Museum via Teen Vogue on March 29, 2024
Vinyl disc of "Love, Love, Love" by Ted Jarrett

The Black Songwriter Who Took Nashville by Storm

Before Tracy Chapman’s “Fast Car” won song of the year at the CMAs, hit maker Ted Jarrett’s music topped the country charts.
by Robert M. Marovich via Zócalo Public Square on January 31, 2024
Hank Williams Jr.

Whose Country?

It is impossible to talk about the blues and country without talking about race, authenticity, and contemporary America’s relationship to its past.
by Geoff Mann via New York Review of Books on November 2, 2023
Shadow of Jason Aldean performing on stage.

Jason Aldean's 'Small Town' Is Part of a Long Legacy with a Very Dark Side

The country song that pits idyllic country life against the corruption of the city is a well-worn trope. Aldean's song reveals the dark heart of the tradition.
by Amanda Marie Martinez via NPR on July 22, 2023

Jason Aldean Can’t Rewrite the History His Song Depends On

That history has nothing to do with culture wars, and everything to do with what real justice looks like in the United States, and who has access to it.
by Nicole Hemmer via CNN on July 20, 2023
Black and white photograph of Loretta Lynn holding a microphone

Personifying a Country Ideal, Loretta Lynn Tackled Sexism Through a Complicated Lens

The singer wasn't a feminist torchbearer, but her music amplified women's issues.
by Amanda Marie Martinez via NPR on October 9, 2022
Johnny Cash performing with band

The Radicalism of Johnny Cash

The best-selling musical artist in the world in 1969, Johnny Cash sang of (and for) the "forgotten Americans": the imprisoned men of all races.
by Livia Gershon, Daniel Geary via JSTOR Daily on December 24, 2021
Picture of country singer Charley Pride performing with guitar and microphone.

Charley Pride: How the US Country Star Became an Unlikely Hero During the Troubles

Tammy Wynette and Johnny Cash cancelled gigs in Belfast during the violent 1970s, but Pride played on.
by Walker Mimms via The Guardian on December 8, 2021
Morgan Wallen
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The Crossroads Facing Country Music After Morgan Wallen’s Use of a Racist Slur

Will the industry remain a bastion of conservatism, or take advantage of the opportunity to broaden its base?
by Amanda Marie Martinez via Made By History on February 17, 2021
Johnny Cash poses for a portrait for a publicity shot

The Complications of “Outlaw Country”

Johnny Cash grappled with the many facets of the outlaw archetype in his feature acting debut, Five Minutes to Live.
by Kristin Hunt via JSTOR Daily on December 3, 2020

Rewriting Country Music's Racist History

Artists like Yola and Rhiannon Giddens are blowing up what Giddens calls a “manufactured image of country music being white and being poor.”
by Elamin Abdelmahmoud via Rolling Stone on June 5, 2020
Picture of DeFord Bailey holding a harmonica amplified by a gourd.

The Unsung Black Musician Who Changed Country Music

From the moment DeFord Bailey stepped onto a stage in Nashville, country music would never be the same. Decades after his death he finally got his due.
by Diana Bianco via Narratively on January 23, 2020

The Commercial Rise of Country Music During the Great Depression

The Depression was the gravitational pull that created country stars and their nationwide universe of listeners.
by Christopher C. Gorham via We're History on October 7, 2019

A Lifetime Of Labor: Maybelle Carter At Work

Maybelle Carter witnessed the dawn of the recording era and helped create country music as one of the genre's biggest acts.
by Jessica Wilkerson via NPR on August 14, 2019
Maybelle and Helen Carter.

For Women Musicians, Maybelle Carter Set the Standard and Broke the Mold

One of the most indispensable guitarists of all time, Carter was a quiet revolutionary.
by Tift Merritt via NPR on August 13, 2019
Still from a video game animation of a Black cowboy aiming a pistol at another.

‘Old Town Road’ and the History of Black Cowboys in America

A songwriter-historian weighs in on the controversy over Lil Nas X’s country-trap hit.
by Dom Flemons, Jonathan Bernstein via Rolling Stone on April 5, 2019
Painting of the mouth of a cave.

Down in the Hole: Outlaw Country and Outlaw Culture

Country music has often stood, as it were, with one foot in and one foot out of the cave.
by Max Fraser via Southern Cultures on October 16, 2018

Canon Fodder

Where's the country music on Pitchfork's Best Albums of the 1980s?
by Shuja Haider via Popula on September 13, 2018
Woman playing a guitar, and the cover of the book 'Country Music USA.'

‘Country Music … Was Anything BUT Pure’

On the music’s African-American tributaries, its unpredictable politics, country radio’s woman problem, and working on Ken Burns’ forthcoming doc.
by Bill C. Malone, Will Hermes, Tracey Laird via Longreads on August 1, 2018

Agriculture Wars

On country music as a lens through which to trace the corporatization of American farming.
by Nick Murray via Viewpoint Magazine on March 12, 2018
Charley Pride on stage.

Charley Pride’s Music Taught Listeners That Country Music Was Black Music, Too

The mythology of cowboy culture is aggressively white, but there was always a black West.
by Nina Renata Aron via Timeline on February 12, 2018

A Hardworking Man Named Bob McDill

The steady hand behind more than 30 No. 1 country hits.
by Jennifer Justus via The Bitter Southerner on February 8, 2018

How Country Music Went Conservative

Country music is assumed to be the soundtrack of the Republican Party. But it wasn't always that way.
by On The Media via WNYC on October 6, 2017
Gram Parsons.

Nudie and the Cosmic American

The iconic fusion of country and rock in Gram Parsons' legacy.
by Elyssa East via Oxford American on January 7, 2016
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