Country and Americana
Harmonically the simplest style here, and that is a decision rather than a shortage. The harmony is not allowed to ask for attention, because the attention belongs to the lyric.
- plain triads
- bass on 1 and 3
- major pentatonic
In which styles
- Country
- Americana
- Bluegrass
- Folk
In short
Plain triads are the norm and major sevenths barely appear. What colour there is comes from suspensions, added seconds and the occasional borrowed chord, never from extensions that would pull the ear upward into jazz.
Plain-spoken. The style sounds like someone telling you something, and every musical choice protects that.
How the style works
This is dance music that became listening music, and the groove still shows it: bass and kick on the strong beats, one and three, backbeat on two and four, and a bass that alternates root and fifth because dancers need to feel where the bar is.
Where you run into this
- A song where you can follow every word on first listen
- A bass alternating root and fifth all night
- A pedal steel bending between two chord tones
What you leave out
Major seventh chords, which make the harmony float and jazzy and remove exactly the plainness the style runs on. Western swing and the countrypolitan records of the sixties and seventies are the deliberate exceptions.
Keep going
Everything in styles
- Pop
- Rock and Folk
- Singer-Songwriter
- Country and Americana