In the beginning however, the "Western" in Country & Western refered to what was known as "cowboy" music, i.e. Gene Autry, Sons of The Pioneers, etc ....music about cowboy themes in the old west.
The "country" evolved from early musicians like Jimmy Rogers, and later those who were associated with the Grand Ole Opry such as Roy Acuff.
The "western" in western-swing however came from the big-band swing music of the 1930s and 40s. The original western-swing music was essentially the same as the big-band swing music....only with different instrumentation....It was primarily instrumental dance music with a vocalist singing occasionally, but certainly not on every song, and many times not even considered necessary. Frank Sinatra can be credited with making the vocalist an important member of a band, and Tommy Duncan and Hank Thompson can probably be credited with doing the same for western-swing.
The original western-swing musicians were snobbish about being mistaken for what was back then called "hillbilly musicians" because they played many of the same instruments, Guitar players for example were overly sensitive that someone might mistake their jazz-oriented bar-chords on something like "How High the Moon", with one of those "open chord hillbilly players". Thankfully, the passage of 50 years has removed those perceptions of superiority among musicians. (it has, hasn't it)
But enough of history....music has become so homogenized since those days that it's hard to find agreement about what music belongs in what classification. Just try to get a dozen musicians to agree on what comprises "country" or "pop" or "jazz" today!
Have a good day.... Gene
<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by Gene Jones on 04 January 2003 at 03:51 PM.]</p></FONT>
