Cross Polination

One of the things I find fascinating about building popular music collections is how different musical traditions influence each other. Take Country Music for example. It was originally called hillbilly music because it grew out of Appalachian folk and gospel music. Then it merged with Western Ballads by way of guys like Gene Autry and Roy Rogers. These Ballads have a musical history that go back through Spain to medieval Provence (Southern France). Swing and Boogie Woogie were Jazz innovations that influenced C&W in the 40's and the Hawaiian guitar was a fad that hit the west coast and got picked up by West Coast C&W musicians. Hank Williams credited a blues man with teaching him everything he knew about music.

Rock Music has a similar broad based history. Boogie Woogie, Rythm and blues, and Country Music all had a major influence on Rock. Both Jerry Lee Lewis and Buddy Holly came out of Country Music and once Elvis topped the Country, Rock, and Gospel charts all at the same time. Crossover between Country and Rock has been a consistent theme in both musical forms. Buddy Holly gave Waylon Jennings his start in music and there has been major crossover between Country and Rock ever since. One of my more interesting discoveries has been Gram Parsons. Gram played with the Byrds and the Flying Burito Brothers but his roots were country. He produced two albums with Emmylou Harris, GP and Grievous Angel. These two albums have been an inspiration for such diverse musicians as Dwight Yokam and the Eagles. Listening to these albums is to listen to pure country but at the time Merle Haggard thought Gram Parsons was just a crazy long haired Hippie. But within two years Merle, Waylon, Willie, and the Charlie Daniels Band were all playing music that copied Gram Parsons.