- Honky tonk music
Honky-tonk is a term has also been attached to various styles of 20th-century American
music . These genres are named for thehonky tonk , a type of bar with musical entertainment common in the Southwestern and SoutheasternUnited States .The first genre of
music to be commonly known as honky tonk music was a style ofpiano playing related toragtime , but emphasizingrhythm more thanmelody orharmony , since the style evolved in response to an environment where the pianos were often poorly cared for, tending to be out of tune and having some nonfunctioning keys. (Hence an out-of-tune upright piano is sometimes called a "honky-tonk piano", e.g. in theGeneral MIDI set of standard electronic music sounds.)Such honky tonk music was an important influence on the formation of the
boogie woogie piano style, as indicated byJelly Roll Morton 's 1938 record "Honky Tonk Music" (recalling the music of his youth, see quotation below), and Meade "Lux" Lewis's big hit "Honky Tonk Train Blues" which Lewis recorded many times from 1927 into the 1950s and was covered by many other musicians from the 1930s on, includingOscar Peterson andKeith Emerson .The
12-bar blues instrumental "Honky Tonk" by theBill Doggett Combo with a sinuoussaxophone line and driving, slow beat, was an earlyrock and roll hit. New Orleans native Antoine "Fats" Domino was another legendary honky tonk piano man, whose "Blueberry Hill" (originally recorded by singing cowboy Gene Autry) and "Walkin' to New Orleans" became hits on the popular music charts.During the pre-World War II years, the music industry began to refer to the "Honky Tonk" music being played from Texas and Oklahoma to the West Coast as "
Hillbilly music ". More recently it has come to refer primarily to the primary sound incountry music , which developed in Nashville as Western Swing became accepted there. Originally, it featured theguitar ,fiddle ,string bass andsteel guitar (an importation from Hawaiian folk music), and is one of the early sources ofelectric guitar in country music. The vocals were originally rough and nasal, like singer-songwritersFloyd Tillman andHank Williams , but later developed a clear and sharp sound with singers such asGeorge Jones andJohnny Paycheck . Lyrics tended to focus on working-class life, with frequently tragic themes of lost love, adultery, loneliness, alcoholism, and self-pity. Ted Daffin's "Born to Lose" is the prototype song.During
World War II , honky tonk country was popularized byErnest Tubb ("I'm Walking The Floor Over You") who took the sound to Nashville, where he was the first singer to feature a electric guitarist onGrand Ole Opry . The style was further popularized byMerle Travis in the late 1940s ("Divorce Me C.O.D.", "So Round, So Firm, So Fully Packed"). In the 1950s, though, honky tonk entered its golden age with the massive popularity ofWebb Pierce ,Hank Locklin ,Lefty Frizzell ,George Jones andHank Williams . In the mid to late 1950s,rockabilly , which melded honky tonk country toRhythm & Blues , and the slick country music of theNashville sound ended honky tonk's initial period of dominance.In the 1970s,
outlaw country music was the most popular genre, and its brand of rough honky tonk, represented by artists such as Gary Stewart,Waylon Jennings ,Willie Nelson ,David Allen Coe andBilly Joe Shaver gradually influenced the rock-influencedalternative country in the 1990s.Lynyrd Skynyrd playedhonky tonk during live performances of their song "Gimme Three Steps ". During the 1980s, a revival of slicker honky tonk took over the charts. Beginning withDwight Yoakam andGeorge Strait in the middle of the decade, a more pop-oriented version of honky tonk became massively popular. It crossed over into the mainstream in the early 1990s with singers likeGarth Brooks ,Alan Jackson andClint Black . Later in the 90s, country music became more pop-oriented and even farther removed from its rough roots with the mainstream success of slickly produced female singers likeShania Twain andFaith Hill .External links
* [http://www.honkytonkmag.com/ Honky Tonk magazine]
* [http://www.jimmyaldridge.com/ New Honky Tonk Song]
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