Dick Barrie's
Country Music Website

Top Ten Acts That Made A Difference

In preface to this list, I should explain that - as I see it - about every ten years or so along comes an act which totally changes the direction "country music" is or was heading in at that time…..

We can all have our opinions on who have been the most-influential acts behind such sea-changes, but this is how I see it…..

Anyone with a differing opinion, of course, is welcome to e-mail me their protest in right away or debate it on the message board!

But here's how I see the world's finest two kinds of music (country and western!) having evolved - and who caused the evolution!

This list is created in roughly chronological order. Dates and facts quoted are, at best, my faltering memory's best guesswork.…

1) JIMMIE RODGERS: Up 'til 1927, when his radio work and records (massively aided by the spread of mail-order catalogues among the rural southern US communities) made his work widely-known, "hillbilly music" had been derivations of European fiddle tunes and folk songs. From Jimmie's time on, the music became American, following his trend-setting "Blue Yodels" and travelling songs. In his prime, he was recording with Louis Armstrong and selling millions of records - but after six short years of fame he was dead, from TB at the age of 36. But he had made a difference, and given rural America a music of its own.

2) BOB WILLS When he formed his first small band in 1930, James "Bob" Wills was on the way to creating new forces in music. Never a champion of temperance, Bob drifted from band to bigger band, finally creating the Texas Playboys unit in the mid-thirties. With vocalist Tommy Duncan and a trusted team of first-rate instrumentalists (including Wills himself, who was an excellent fiddler) on his bandstand, he took his Playboys from strength to strength. In the early wartime years, they were playing to audiences of several thousand dancers in the big ballrooms of Oklahoma and California, as well as throughout his home state. Post-war changes in musical fashions, and his own ill-health, saw Wills slip from the pinnacle of popularity achieved by songs like "San Antonio Rose" and "Faded Love". But he had made a difference, and taken Texas dance-hall music to the biggest cities, and introduced his Western swing to huge new audiences from other parts of the nation, drawn to the West Coast by wartime work.

3) ERNEST TUBB The first great solo honky-tonker, the "Texas Troubadour" began as a Jimmie Rodgers sound-alike, but developed his own distinctive sound at a time the big swing bands held sway. To have his much-smaller band's sound carry to the further reaches of the biggest dance-halls, and cut through the noisy atmosphere of a packed honky-tonk bar, either live or from one of the new-fangled (in the early '40's) juke boxes, Tubb took his music to the next level by amplifying the guitars and operating with a full drum-kit.. Later in life, after making a then-innovative career move to Nashville, he opened his famous downtown record store and became a fixture on the Grand Ol' Opry. But he made a difference by amplifying his band's sound - the first major country entertainer to "go electric".

4) HANK WILLIAMS: The first great singer-songwriter, whose career was over in six short years - but what a career! Despite a tempestuous marriage and many public failings caused by alcohol and (later) pain-killers his public performances were the most exciting of their days and his songs reached every corner of the world as the pop stars of the day queued up to record his music. The first true superstar of country music, his life, times and tragic early death (he was only 29!) deserve a better film or play than has yet been created for his memory. But he made a huge difference, and after Hank, no country song would ever be ignored by the bigger stars on the grounds of not being worthy of their attention.

5) ELVIS PRESLEY: Do I need to go on? A southern country boy, he changed everything. When he appeared on the Opry, the established stars were sniggering - but Webb Pierce simply turned around and told them all that he hoped they'd been investing their earnings, because "after this kid, none of us will be worth a damn thing, doing it the old way". He made a difference, country music was always peppier after his coming, and country ballads were always smoother if his quite outstanding voice was involved. Perhaps the biggest watershed of all, comparing the music before and after Elvis.

6) CHET ATKINS: While a magnificent guitarist in his own right, it was as an identifier of new talent and the producer of the "Nashville Sound" of the '60's that Chester made his real mark. He worked on the early Everly Brothers (among other new, younger, acts) records in the later 1950's, and was later appointed by RCA to produce their Studio B sessions in Nashville. Chet's studio skills made world-wide mainstream hits in the early '60's for country acts such as Jim Reeves, Don Gibson, Hank Locklin, Skeeter Davis and The Browns. Other producers, such as Owen Bradley at Decca and (Englishman) Don Law at Columbia quickly followed suit to make similar big bucks with artistes like Patsy Cline and Marty Robbins. But Chet showed them the way. He made a difference by softening the edges of the music, making it palatable all over the world.

7) JOHNNY CASH: Very much his own man, JR Cash (only called John after being drafted, when Air Force authorities insisted he couldn't get by with only initials!) was raised among poor farming stock in Arkansas, and only learned guitar and tried signing while serving in Germany. On demob, he took himself and his family to Memphis, followed Elvis into the Sun studios on Union Avenue -- and the rest is history. The first true world-wide country-music icon, his totally-distinctive voice is probably as well-known in Timbuctu as in Tennessee, not least because of regular tours to most of the inhabited parts of the planet, not just the easier bits of the USA. In the mid-sixties, he hosted one of America's most-popular network television shows, bring his own uncompromising songs direct to an audience of millions every week. The first country artiste - maybe one of the first performers ever - to create "concept" albums. He made a difference by taking the music onto network television, opening up huge new markets for the "country" industry.

8) GRAM PARSONS Maybe the least-well-known name (to the general public) on this list. A rich kid from Florida, Gram was entranced by music from his teens, firstly through the folk boom created by the popularity of bands such as the Kingston Trio and later by the British invasion of beat groups led by the Beatles. But the deep-rooted love of country music found Gram influencing even the Stones (with whom he hung out in their wilder early days) and then the Byrds, whom he joined at just the right time to help create their masterpiece "Sweetheart Of The Rodeo" album in the mid-sixties. Later, along with fellow-Byrd Chris Hillman, he formed The Flying Burrito Brothers - and country-rock was born! Less than five years (and two magnificent solo albums, coloured by harmony work by the young Emmylou Harris) he was dead in the desert, a victim of a lifestyle too common in that era. But he made a difference, almost single-handedly introducing the fusion of rock into country that prevails to this day.

9) ALABAMA: Two cousins and two pals. The worked the clubs and bars on the South Carolina coastline for nearly a decade, got a record deal, got a hit or two to get going - and several million records later, they're still at the top today. Good story, but what makes them worthy of this list? What changes did their coming evoke? Well, it may sound strange today, but before the Alabama boys came along, there were no groups (playing their own songs, making their own sound with their own instruments and singing their Beatle-structured harmonies) in country music! Traditionally, before Alabama, "country groups" were gospel-styled vocal outfits - the two top acts of this type just before Alabama's arrival on the scene were the Statler Brothers and the Oak Ridge Boys, who each just sang with instrumentation by an anonymous back-up band. Alabama made a difference, and for the past twenty years, it has been acceptable for a self-contained group to write, play and sing their stuff without outside help.

10) GARTH BROOKS The man who took country music to infinity and beyond! Acute enough to see the future opening up, Garth took his country songs onto MTV with the aid of innovative videos, and took his live music into the world's biggest stadiums. Pre-Garth, the biggest deal a "country" artiste could expect might have been one of the top-earning rooms in Las Vegas, and the most records they might sell - in a career - might be a very respectable twenty million. Enter Garth Brooks. Within a few years, he's playing to 80,000 people in a stadium - often for a week at a time, to a new audience every night - and in the 'nineties alone, he sold a world record total of 100 million records! He opened the doors for his followers, many of whom are also now out-stripping pre-Garth records with ease. He made the biggest difference of all.. So far.

Of course, I just know you don't really agree with the above, do you? You think I should have given credit to one of the ladies (Kitty Wells maybe) who made a big watermark on our music, or Dylan, or the Carter Family, or Roy Acuff, or Lefty Frizzell - or a dozen more. Well, you're maybe quite right - but if you don't tell me about it, and allow me to reconsider (or update) my Top Ten, it ain't going to happen, is it?

DICK BARRIE - 8.3.01