Mark Holt & Kimberlee Holt Tully
Tops Bluegrass Chart

Mark Holt & Kimberlee Holt Tully have reached the top spot on Audio Street's daily Bluegrass Chart with their current single, Midnight Rider. Their Audio Street page is http://www.audiostreet.net/markholtkimberleeholttully

In the midst of this excitement, they are in the running for a review in Country Line Magazine. Acoustically Native can be voted on at www.countrylinemagazine.com/cd-vote.html before February 25.

Mark Holt and Kimberlee Holt Tully do not really fit neatly into any specific label, and that is exactly how they want it to be. However, they do have a very western and bluegrass sound to their music. Joe Chernicoff from CowboyArtShow.Com in Las Vegas describes them as a "little bit of old time, mixed with mountain music...working together to make you believe you're really in the west...just like it used to be!"

This brother and sister team recently released their debut album, Acoustically Native, which was produced by Bil VornDick, who has also worked with Alison Krauss. Dianna Watson "Kiwi Kate" from "Hot Off the Press" radio shows in New Zealand says "This is the most fantastic, beautiful album, I've heard for a long time. The Instrumentation is outta this world."

For more information, please contact Laura at
Wildfire Publicity
Email: wildfirepublicity@comcast.net
Phone: 614-748-9627; Fax: 760-437-4633
Web Site: http://www.wildfirepublicity.net
PO Box 558, Smyrna, TN 37167

Click here to listen to a radio show featuring Mark Holt on Inside Nashville Country Music Radio Show with interviews and music.

Origin Of Country Music

   When some people hear talk of country music, they think only of singers of sad songs with stereotypically twangy accents. These misconceptions did impede country music's growth at its birth, but the stereotype did not prevent it from becoming one of the most popular music forms of the 20th century. In fact, country music is one of the best-selling genres after rock/pop. This site will take you from country music's origins in the late 19th century through all the changes and sub-genres that have developed over the past 100 years or so.
   To better understand country music, it is helpful to understand the most commonly used musical instruments in the genre. The fiddle (or violin) was the most common instrument since it was easy and inexpensive to make and not a major burden to carry around. At first it was the sole lead instrument, but later it became popular to add more accompanying instruments. The banjo, brought to the American South by slaves, became popular in the mid-1800s. The guitar did not come into the picture until the early 1900s when they became mass-produced and affordable for the everyday person. At first, the guitar was only a rhythm instrument, but picking styles later became popular. Contemporary country music often uses the electric guitar, which became popular in the '50s. Other stringed instruments include the dobro, the dulcimer, the steel guitar, the mandolin, the zither, bass guitar and the autoharp. In other types of country music you might hear the accordion (since the 1920s), the harmonica, the piano (beginning in the 1930's with the rise of Western swing), washboards (as rhythm instruments) or drums (not popular until the 1960s).
   Country music has its beginnings in music styles brought over by the first European settlers. In medieval times, storytelling was a tradition that allowed history to be recorded when few were able to read and write. When the first British settlers came to America, they brought this tradition with them, along with songs they had learned in Europe. The people who settled in the Appalachian mountains and the West did not have an easy life and their music gave them an outlet to express their hardships.
   While country music began with the ballads and songs of the British Isles, it changed in content and personality as it grew in America. The British songs were objective, often relating gruesome stories matter-of-factly. They had many themes of the supernatural, avenging spirits, loves found and lost, and violent happenings. In America, the songs became very subjective and personal, downplayed the supernatural, and, in songs of crimes, emphasized the evil acts while minimizing the gore. When the songs had to do with love gone bad, the Americanized ballad removed the violence and vulgarity altogether. The change may have been due to the rise of the Victorian Age, but it might also have been because it suited the philosophy of the Southern lifestyle better. Another characteristic of the Americanized ballad is the addition of moral statements at the ends of songs. This was in reaction to the Puritan belief that art must be functional or else it is frivolous. Ballads were often written to convey current events, but in America these ballads became more journalistic than the British ones. They became a fairly accurate way for the more isolated town-folk to hear about happenings in the rest of the world.

Citizens Of The Country Music Planet
3-M'S / Roy Acuff / Trace Adkins / Rex Allen, Jr.
Bill Anderson / John Anderson / Joe Kidd Baker / Doyle Bates
John Berry / The Carter Family / Clint Black
Clyde "Babe" Bowman / Chris Brade / Baylie Brown
Billy Don Burns / Donald Lee Burns / Bobby Caraway
Ace Cannon / Candi Carpenter / Johnny Cash / Dave Dudley
Tylie Vaughan Eaves / Dillon Finn / Janie Frickie
Jack Greene / Griffith And Cross / Gwendella
George Hamilton IV / George Jones / Katherine Kay
Ben Krahne / Shawn Lane / Clayton Lee / CoCo LeVan
Jerry Mac / Sonny Martin / Nicole Mote / Billy Nathan
Kelci Paige / Lanny Parkhurst / Minnie Pearl / Charley Pride
Phil Redrow / Jim Reeves / Donn Reynolds / Rickiejoleen
Rick Robledo / Jumpin' Gene Simmons / Ashley Simons
Pop Stoneman / Roni Stoneman / Heather Taylor
"Big" Al Traynor / Tanya Tucker / Time Bandits
Two Steppin' / Kenny Vernon / Jessie Tylre Williams
Les Williams / Hank Williams, Jr. / Tammy Wynette

Click here to view a list of over 100 other citizens!
We have CDs available on these country music singers there

   Hello visitors. I'm Jerry Mac, the editor.
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