Where is the epicenter of country music?

Question

My friend (who grew up in Nashville but has lived in the west coast since he was four) and I were having an arguement. I said that Nashville was the epicenter of country music. He said that it was the rock and country city, and the actual epicenter is someplace called Guitlinburge. So whats the deal?

Answer 1

Until the 1970s, Nashville's chamber of commerce did NOT like to be associated with country music. Nashville didn't even have a recording studio until the 1950s (which is why "Lovesick Blues" was recorded in Cincinnati at Herzog Studios).



I'll put it this way: Nashville likes to THINK it's the center of the country music world. The truth, however, is that you could make a legitimate argument for Texas (since so many country singers came from Texas), Knoxville (the cradle of the Hall of Fame), Cincinnati (home of the world's first record company devoted exclusively to country music, King Records), or Bakersfield (where a thriving country music scene put Nashville to shame and produced Hall of Famers like Merle Haggard and Buck Owens). I would say Nashville hasn't been the epicenter of country music since they stopped making country music 20 years ago.

Answer 2

I believe the Grand Ole Opry is enough to call Nashville the epicenter of country music, personally. I mean, just listen to some older country songs; A LOT of them refer to Nashville and the history behind the place.

Answer 3

Country music was born in Bristol Tennessee in 1927 with the Ralph Peer sessions, and it died in Nashville with "Achy Braeky Heart" in 1992! The only real "epicenter" anymore is in Texas. Gatlinburg (guess that's what "Guitlinburge" is supposed to be) has a lot of theaters over therew ith a lot of real country music entertainmnet but nobody famous and in fact the only famous people who ever came out of the area are Roy Acuff and Dollly Parton.

Answer 4

Does he mean Gatlinburg? I don't think anyone would claim that a tacky tourist trap is the epicenter of country music.



Nashville is the home of country music, in my opinion. People do record and play elsewhere, but if you say "country music", most people will say "Nashville".

Answer 5

.....Texas?Nashville?Branson?LA? all could be called the epicenter of country music, but my opinion is that the epicenter is in the "Heart Of Each Country Fan".

Answer 6

Hi, the official home of country music and it's even recognized by the US government is Bristol Virginia/Bristol Tennessee. You walk across the street and your in tennessee and back across the street your in virginia. Otherwise known as the crooked road has all the popular stops along the croooked road where country music started.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z_mVcpIvWqo (Crooked Road Tribute) by Ike Mumpower. Shows some of the places where Country music started also.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWdnN-R8vRE (Down On The Crooked Road) a song about the crooked road, a very good song actually. It's by the Dixie Bee Liners.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s10ZolAdIQM&feature=related I should have added this one earlier It tells about the birth of country music.



They been trying to bring more attention to the real area where country music started.



In my true opinion, Bascom Lamar Lunsford is really the true father of country music, he recorded in 1924 for the library of congress which was 3 years before the carter family and jimmy rodgers.



Only reason Bascom Lamar Lunsford isn't credited for it they were not his songs, he traveled all throughout the appalachian mountains collecting the songs and he always credited the song to the person he learned it from. He's older than the carters, and jimmie rodgers. He was born in 1882 died in 1973.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HopNyR4Vtk8 A rare clip of bascom on the porch in 1964.



I hope this helps you out.

Answer 7

The epicentre of Country Music for me is my record collection and my memories of great Country songs past. "They don't make 'em like that anymore".