Honky-Tonk Era
tagStarted 1946Peak 1948-1957Last big hit 1959
Located in 1 route
The sound of postwar beer joints: amplified pedal-steel cry, walking electric guitar, slip-note piano, and shuffle rhythm cut loud to be heard over a noisy bar. Plainspoken, hard-luck vocals about drinking, cheating, divorce, and heartbreak. Raw, danceable, and unsentimental after the cowboy gloss faded.
History
As wartime workers filled Texas and Southern taverns, electrified bands toughened country to cut through crowd noise. Ernest Tubb and Al Dexter set the tone; Hank Williams perfected it with 1949-1952 hits, becoming its defining figure. Lefty Frizzell and Webb Pierce kept it atop charts until the smoother Nashville Sound began displacing it late in the decade.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum
- Bill C. Malone, Country Music U.S.A.
- Encyclopedia of Country Music (Oxford)
- AllMusic Honky-Tonk essay