I grew up in East Tennessee, right next to the Smoky Mtns Nat’l Park...Chet Atkins, Archie Campbell, Dolly Parton...
Kenny Chesney went to high school where I once coached football (before his time)
We had real country music, though “Texas Swing” was also country at it’s best too....
My mom’s folks were from Nashville and they knew many of the Grand Ole Opry stars back in the 1940s.
Mom married dad, went west. One day the Grand old Opry came to town and she went to see it. She asked one of the promoters if Roy Acuff would be there.
He looked shook, and said Roy could not make it.
During the program out came Minnie Perl! Mom was shocked as it was NOT Minnie Pearl.
She realized they were all a bunch of fakes skimming the high Plains people who had never seen a real Opry star.
When she looked at her program, it was Minnie Perl, Not Minnie PeArl.