Resources: Genres and Performers: Rockabilly (and Folkabilly)
Rockabilly is blend of the blues, country and gospel with the rhythm of pop music that began to emerge in the United States in the late 1950s. Teenagers of the era responded to its driving guitar licks and vocals, slap bass and drum backbeat.Elvis Presley, Ricky Nelson, Carl Perkins, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Bill Haley & The Comets, Roy Orbison (pictured above), The Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, Eddie Cochran, Buddy Holly, Gene Vincent, and others who are less familiar developed a music genre that formed the foundations of rock'n'roll. This American music form is alive and well as we enter the 22nd century. Veteran rockabilly artists and musicians in their 20's and 30's play rockabilly in small venues and on recordings. A softer version of the genre has emerged in the last few decades.
Retaining the influences of blues, country and gospel, but losing some of the "thump" of rockabilly, folkabilly blends folk influences into the music. In the 1970s, Nanci Griffeth and artists like Lyle Lovett, Dwight Yoakam, and Steve Earle brought this folk/country/pop music style to Nashville, where it has prospered and grown.