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Labelled the ‘first lady of country music’, Virginia Wynette Pugh was born on 5 May 1942, in Itawamba County, Mississippi. Throughout the early 1960s she worked as a waitress and beautician – among other jobs – and only dreamed of stardom. It was not long coming, but like many of her contemporaries, Loretta Lynn, Connie Smith ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen

The singing cowboys did not have the monopoly on country music on the silver screen, although it was their breed that first caught Hollywood’s attention. By the time the 1940s rolled around, several of Nashville’s top stars found that they could expand their careers by bringing their talents to the vast new audiences. Singing Stars In the earlier decade ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen

Major changes occurred in country music during the 1970s and 1980s, and country icons came and went as the music escaped from the stereotypical image of the 1960s, when it had been gingham dresses for the ladies and rhinestone suits for the men. Now country music had a new face: Dolly Parton’s extravagant dress sense and the shaggy-haired Outlaw ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen

(Producer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, b. 1936) One of Nashville’s most influential producers during the 1970s and early 1980s, Alabama-born Billy Norris Sherrill started out playing piano at tent shows where his father, an evangelist minister, preached. Later, he played in local rock’n’roll and R&B bands. When he came to Nashville in 1964, Sherrill brought ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen

(Vocals, guitar, b. 1939) Texas-born Williams worked in 1964 with folk trio The Pozo-Seco Singers. Encouraged by producer Cowboy Jack Clement, his solo career began in 1971, and resulted in gentle hits like ‘Amanda’ (1973), ‘You’re My Best Friend’ (1976) and ‘Tulsa Time’ (1978). He enjoyed immense popularity in the UK, where he had success with ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen

Born on 12 September 1931, near Saratoga, Texas, in a remote region of East Texas known as The Big Thicket, George Glenn Jones is widely considered to be country music’s quintessential honky-tonk singer and probably the most influential artist to come along since Hank Williams’ death in 1953. Throughout his 50 years of record-making, Jones has ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen

(Vocals, guitar, b. 1946) Prine was a Chicago mailman when Kris Kristofferson stumbled across him at a local folk club and recognized him as one of the best lyricists of his generation. A very different lyricist than Bob Dylan, Prine used the unspoken implications of plain, blue-collar speech rather than the dazzle of literary language to make ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen

Country music has spawned numerous superstars, but few can match the impact made by the woman who became known as the Coal Miner’s Daughter. Born Loretta Webb on 14 April 1935 in Butcher’s Hollow, Kentucky, she married Oliver ‘Moonshine’ Lynn in 1949. She has been an inspiration and guide to countless aspiring female acts who followed her into ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen

At the beginning of the 1970s, the influences in mainstream country music continued to originate from a wide spread of sources, the most dominant being the Nashville sound, which now had strong pop overtures alongside a greater distortion of country music itself. On the other hand, an innovative breed of songwriters were about to be heard, ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Country Music, consultant editor Bob Allen

The names of this array of landmark artists whose music either straddled or transcended specific genres, – Johnny Cash, Dolly Parton, Tammy Wynette, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Conway Twitty, Charley Pride and Buck Owens among others – have become synonymous with country music. During the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, country’s popularity penetrated ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

After the seismic shifts of the previous decade, the 1970s reflected faster-moving, less permanent crazes, beginning with glam rock and ending with the new wave. Glam rock saw the likes of Alice Cooper and Kiss taking make-up to extremes, while the comparatively anonymous Eagles and Bruce Springsteen respectively updated the blueprints established the previous decade by country ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley

Popular music’s most influential decade saw British and American rock develop in parallel, the creative torch passing across the Atlantic to The Beatles, then returning as the West Coast rock boom reflected the influence of drugs on music. In rock, guitar was now the undisputed focus of the music with ‘axe heroes’ like Clapton, Hendrix, Townshend ...

Source: The Definitive Illustrated Encyclopedia of Rock, general editor Michael Heatley

The Nashville sound has been both praised and maligned. Occasionally called ‘crossover country’, ‘easy listening country’ or ‘countrypolitan’, it was a trend more than an innovation. As such, it arose as much from commercial considerations as it did from personal artistry. All through the decades there have been periodic cross-pollinations between the country world and the wider pop audience. From ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer

The young country movement was an industry-driven trend aimed at the mass market of teens and twenty-something music fans. Like the urban cowboys, young country artists often contemporized or diluted prevailing styles like honky-tonk and pop country for mass consumption. The early 1990s saw a continuation of the mid- and late-1980s neo-traditionalist movement and produced a glut of gifted young ...

Source: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Music, general editor Paul Du Noyer
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