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Stock car racing is a major sport all over the United States today. However it got its start, and retains its base popularity,
in the south.
The first racing promoter in the south was Bill France, Sr. Daytona Beach had been the home of land-speed record trials
for a few years when Mr. France and his family arrived there in the mid 1930's. However, the trials were soon to be moved
to the Pacific northwest and the people of Daytona and Ormond beaches were left wanting more racing. In comes Bill France
and the rest is history.
After a couple of failed attempts, France was finally able to promote a successful race in Daytona in 1938.
Later, after many years of racing and promoting, Bill came to the realization that a central governing body was needed
in order to establish rules and make racing a legitimate sport in America. To that end, he retired from driving in 1947 and
formed the National Association for Stock Car Automobile Racing (NASCAR).
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Country music, or country and western music, was developed in the south, but it was influenced by music from many different
areas. The basis for country music comes from traditional folk music, spirituals, and the blues.
There are two artists or groups that are widely credited with the creation of this new musical hybrid, Jimmie Rodgers
and the Carter Family. Coincidentally enough, the earliest known recordings of both happened on the same day in the same
tiny studio in Bristol, TN.
The Carter Family consisted of A.P. Carter, his wife Sara, and their sister-in-law Maybelle.
A.P. contributed many songs to their canon that he had picked up in his traveling in the hill country near their home
in Virginia.
The two ladies also wrote many original numbers. Sara had a beautiful singing voice and Maybelle was a unique, original,
guitar player.
Their music led to the explosion of female country singers and songwriters, as well as the development of bluegrass music
by Bill Monroe and Ralph Stanley.
Jimmie Rodgers gave the music world a genre that would later be known as "country blues".
He took ordinary situations that people could relate to and turn them into songs for everyone. Things such as heartache,
drinking, troubles with the law, and a hard days work were all fodder for Jimmie.
It is fair to say that he is responsible for the future development of honky-tonk, rockabilly, and the so-called "Bakersfield
Sound" made popular by Buck Owens, Merle Haggard, and others.
Nascar is one of the most popular sports in America, but in the south it takes on epic proportions.
You can't drive down the street without seeing at least one car or pick-up truck that has some sort of Nascar insignia
on it.
Southerners love the do it yourself mentality of many stock car drivers and the every man for himself attitude that the
sport demands.
Every Sunday during racing season (and some Saturdays), millions of people gather around their tv sets to watch the race.
Not to mention the 100,000 or so fans that actually attend the races each week.
Nascar is special to people in the south because it started there. From Big Bill France to Jeff Gordon and Dale, Jr.,
Nascar will always be a "southern thang".
Country music is the most popular form of music in America today. People from all over the country, and in fact the world,
buy country albums and download songs by the billions each year.
The majority of this music is made in the south by people from the south. Country music is important to southern people
because its their music (as is rock n' roll, but that's another discussion entirely).
From the spirituals learned from slaves to the Appalachian folk ballads and the blues, country music is inherently southern.
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