Country boogie
The term Country Boogie , also known as Hillbilly Boogie , describes a style of music from North America . Country boogie is subordinate to country music and was particularly popular in the 1940s and early 1950s. The style is a synthesis of traditional country music and boogie woogie , a style of music that was particularly popular in jazz and popular music before the Second World War .
Country boogie, like western swing, was a danceable form of country. Almost every country musician had at least one Country Boogie on their program during the style's peak in popularity. Examples of Country Boogie are the Shot Gun Boogie by Tennessee Ernie Ford , the Guitar Boogie by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith or the Hillbilly Boogie by the Delmore Brothers .
history
Basics
The first boogie woogie song was recorded in 1928 by Chicago pianist Clarence 'Pinetop' Smith under the simple name Boogie Woogie . Due to the success of the record, this new style quickly became known as "Boogie Woogie". It was characterized by a fast piano with a strong bass in the left hand and solos in the right hand; In addition, the Boogie Woogie was based on an eight-bar scheme.
In 1938 the big band conductor Tommy Dorsey covered the song and revived the boogie woogie. In the late 1930s, artists such as Albert Ammons and Meade Lux Lewis became famous.
First recordings
The old-time / country musician Johnny Barfield (1909–1974) made the first recording with boogie-woogie elements on August 21, 1939. The song Boogie Woogie was a remake of the 1929 hit but was about Decatur Street in Atlanta , Georgia (the city's red light district) and was based on an eight bar chord scheme. Only the instrumentation - Barfield accompanied himself on the guitar - deviated from Pine Top Slim's version next to the text. Released in the fall of 1939 on Bluebird Records , the record quickly became a hit on the jukeboxes . In February 1940 Barfield was invited to the studio again, where he recorded The New 'Boogie Woogie .
"Golden Era" and finish
But it was not until 1945 that country songs with boogie-woogie elements were able to achieve permanent national fame. The Delmore Brothers , strongly oriented towards the blues in the 1930s , recorded numerous Country Boogie for King Records from the mid-1940s , the first of which was Hillbilly Boogie . They expanded their band to include double bass , fiddle , electric guitars , steel guitar and harmonica , which was played by Wayne Raney throughout .
Arthur Smith recorded, also in 1945, together with his band The Crackerjacks, the instrumental piece Guitar Boogie , which, only released in 1948 on MGM Records , reached first place in the new country charts and was also able to place itself in the pop charts.
The popularity of Country Boogie increased significantly during this time and established as well as new artists recorded successes with it. The Delmore Brothers had further success with songs like Jack and Jill Boogie , Pan American Boogie and their number one hit from 1951 Blues Stay Away from Me , Red Foley recorded with songs like Chattanoogie Shoe Shine Boy and Tennessee Saturday Night Country Boogies pianist Moon Mullican also celebrated success with his Cherokee Boogie .
Country boogie maintained its popularity within the country scene until the 1950s. With the development of rockabilly from 1953/1954, however, the style lost its popularity and later dissolved completely into rockabilly. Craig Morrison described in his book Go Cat Go! hence the Country Boogie as a “forerunner” of rockabilly and as the “rockabilly of an earlier generation”.
literature
- Craig Morrison: Go Cat Go !: Rockabilly Music and its Makers (1996); University of Illinois Press, ISBN 0-252-06538-7 .