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Bluegrass musician Nick Novia plays at the grave of Marion T. Slaughter � known professionally as Vernon Dalhart � in Bridgeport's Mountain Grove Cemetery. Davis Dunavin / WSHU There are questions that might stump even the most dedicated country music fan: Who kickstarted the country music industry in the 1920s, even before big names like Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family? And why is this Texas musician buried in Bridgeport, Connecticut? His name was Vernon Dalhart, and he released some of the best-selling records of the era, including �The Prisoner�s Song.� �You can�t overemphasize the impact that Dalhart had on American music,� says country music historian Bill Malone. �He just revealed to the entertainment trade that the music he was doing had an appeal, that people wanted to hear it.� By just about any measure, he was the first superstar in American country music. He recorded thousands of songs with virtually every recording label of the day. His two-sided ...

Williams lived fast and died young but in 1951 he was able to do radio broadcasts at 7.15am, where the wisecracking improvisor showed his mastery of music. Hank Williams: more than just a tortured soul. Photograph: Supplied B y now you�d think we know everything there is to know about Hank Williams . He had a short life, dying New Year�s Day 1953 aged 29 in the back of a car parked at a gas station in rural Virginia. Three years earlier he had made his debut on the Grand Ole Opry , launching a body of work that would serve as one of the definitive blueprints of modern country music. A definitive box set in 1998 claimed to house every note Williams sang. Not so fast. This month marks the reissue of a 15-CD set called The Complete Mother�s Best Collection ... Plus! unveiling 142 lost performances by the country music star in an unvarnished setting as the featured performer of an early morning radio program in 1951. The recordings, rescued from acetates salvaged in the 1970s and...

There can be few country music singers quite as lonesome as Shota Adamashvili. He is the only one in Georgia - not the American state, the country which lies on the border of Europe and Asia. With his cowboy hat and boots and pretty convincing Southern accent, many who come to see him play mistake Shota for an American. But he has never been to the U.S.A, and he taught himself English by listening to country music.