From the June 7, 2015, Parade Magazine.
EARLY 1920S: Musicians in the Appalachian Mountains had been playing "country" for decades. It gained more exposure as radio shows--including the GRAND OLE OPRY out of Nashville in 1925-- began broadcasting.
1927: The CARTER FAMILY and JIMMIE RODGERS are "discovered" and recorded in a Bristol, Tennessee studio.
1930s: GENE AUTRY and other singing movie cowboys put the western into "country western" music.
1945: EARL SCRUGGS joins Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys in stage at Nashville's Ryman Auditorium (Grand Ole Opry). Bluegrass gets a wider audience.
1954: ELVIS PRESLEY spawns a rock and roll sound that first threatens and later informs country music.
Like the Bartender at Bob's Country Bunker Said on the "Blues Brothers," "We've Got Both Kinds of Music, Country and Western." --RoadDog
