I've never much liked country music, but over the last couple of years I started realizing that that's partly because what I always knew as country music is a particular, slicked-up, pop-music Nashville style, and I've gotten interested in investigating the earlier history and roots of country (African-American string bands, Appalachian mountain music, gospel, blues, Hawaiian slack-key guitar, Mexican bandera, Childe-ballad-type folk music of the British Isles, etc). I'm still not all that knowledgeable about it, but I got to talking with my dad about it while I was on vacation, and ended up putting together a quick and dirty 50-minute mix that tries to show some of that early evolution.
You can stream the mix or download it as a zip file, or you can stream individual tracks below:
01 Way Down the Old Plank Road.mp3
02 B. F. Shelton - Pretty Polly.mp3
03 Shortbuckle Roark & Family - I Truly Understand, You Love Another Man.mp3
04 Roy Acuff & His Crazy Tennesseeans - Wreck On The Highway.mp3
05 Standin' on the Corner (Blue Yodel #9).mp3
07 The Carter Family - Bury Me Under The Weeping Willow.mp3
11 Down On The Banks Of The Ohio.mp3
12 Nine Pound Hammer Is Too Heavy.mp3