Country music is an almost direct descendant of folk music of the United States rural south. Country music's popularity began after World War II but its roots go all the way to the Civil War. The violin or fiddle are the instruments most associated with country music. However,

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many country musicians are proficient in guitar and even wind instruments such as the harmonica or flute.

Worldwide appeal of country music began during World War II. Many servicemen took their country music to other parts of the world, iniviting a sort of peace in music

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while great powers of the world were battling. After the war, country music found its home in Nashville, TN where radio stations, music production companies and talent searches opened for business.

Today, country music still has wide appeal. With the extreme popularity of such musicians as Garth Brooks and the young Leanne Rhymes, country music has been a contender of other types of music. All rock and roll, alternative and even present day R&B are somehow influenced by country music. Jars of Clay, a young chrisitian group who became widely popular in 1995, have songs in which the guitar chords and music are hauntingly similar to country guitar styles but in a wholely different mood.