If blues is fundamentally Afro-american folk music, then country, popularly put, is 'the white man's blues.' Country music grew in the mid-20th century out of spirituals, folk songs, ballads, blues, European folk music traditions and hillbilly and mountain music from the Appalachian hills. In the beginning, country music was known as hillbilly music, later country & western. Country music arose in the south and south-western USA and had its roots in folk music traditions. When radio made country music popular in the 1920s, the best-known musicians were Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family.
Nashville in Tennessee soon became the centre of the country music world, and the radio programme The Grand Ole Opry was broadcast from The Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Country today has several subgenres, and you can find them at Tønder Festival: for example alternative country, outlaw country, honky tonk, rockabilly, western swing, neo-traditional country.
