A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article about the beginnings of rockabilly. Yesterday I was surprised to see a PBS show that covered the same subject. I think the show was actually a few years old, and it's just a coincidence that I wrote about the same subject (unless I have suddenly acquired ESP). In any case, I was glad to see that the show, which was much more detailed and involved than my article and seemed to agree with my conclusion. They too pointed to Elvis and "That's Alright Mama" as being a pivotal point.

But rockabilly was actually foreshadowed by another type of music, a sub-genre of country music that was around for a lot of years. It's a variety of music that I remember well from my childhood, not only from listening to it on the old Philco at my grandparents' house, but also because I had a cousin who owned one of the establishments where that type of music originated. That's right, he ran a honky-tonk joint.

Honky-tonks are a long established American tradition. The name has been applied to a variety of different places in different locales, but it's usually meant to describe a watering hole that caters to working-class folks, especially those who like to party and enjoy lively music. Through the years, that's usually meant live music, but a lot of places did just fine with a well-stocked jukebox instead.

My cousin's place was at the lone intersection in a tiny country village, and on weekends drew pretty good crowds from the surrounding vicinity. It was a farming area but also had lots of coal mines, and farmers and miners both know how to party after a long, dirty work week. Unfortunately, I was too young to go into the place, but I sure had big ears and heard a lot of gossip about it. Between the fightin' and the feudin', they had some lively Saturday nights. And I'm not talking about the music they featured, although I'm sure that was pretty high-spirited too.