April 23 – The word hillbillie is printed for the first time in the New York Journal.[citation needed]
No dates
Several train crashes, all occurring between 1890 and 1903, occur throughout the country, inspiring several early country music recordings. These include the wreck of the C&O in 1890 ("Engine 143" by the Carter Family), train 382 near Vaughn, Mississippi (which inspired "Casey Jones") and train 97 near Danville, Virginia (bearing "Wreck of the Old 97"). The resulting themes are tales of tragedy, bravery and triumph.
"Rube" comedy and long country dialect tales, such as the "Uncle Josh" series of songs from Cal Stewart, become popular in the first decade of the 1900s and first part of the 1910s.
October 7 – Uncle Dave Macon, "The Dixie Dewdrop" and country music pioneer who combined banjo playing, singing and comic talents to be one of the Grand Ole Opry's first stars (d. 1952).
1883
April 6 – Vernon Dalhart, early 1900s singer whose "The Prisoner's Song" became country music's first million-selling single in 1925 (d. 1948).
1885
June 6 – Gid Tanner, old-time fiddler and leader of the Skillet Lickers, which became one of the first major country music bands (d. 1960).
1887
November 20 – A.C. "Eck" Robertson, fiddle player whose "Sally Gooden" became the first recording in the country music genre (d. 1975).
1889
October 19 – Arthur E. Satherley, pioneering music executive (d. 1986).
1891
August 25 – Tom Darby, singer, guitar player and partner of Jimmie Tarlton (as Darby and Tarlton) (d. 1971).
September 15 – Roy Acuff, pioneering singer-songwriter of the 1930s onward, founder of Acuff-Rose Music publishing, longtime member of the Grand Ole Opry (d. 1992).
June 17 – Red Foley, guitarist and songwriter, one of country music's top stars of the 1940s and 1950s (d. 1968).
August 22 – Rod Brasfield, comedian and star of the Grand Ole Opry (d. 1958).
November 9 - Curly Fox, old-time and country fiddler, singer and country musician. Part of the Comedy-Oldtime-Country-Duo "Curly Fox and Texas Ruby" (d. 1995).
November 5 – Roy Horton, music executive (d. 2003).
December 8 – Floyd Tillman, early honky-tonk singer of the 1940s (d. 2003).
1915
June 1 – Johnny Bond, singer of the 1940s through 1960s, best known for his novelty songs about drunkenness (d. 1978)
June 9 – Les Paul, one of the most important persons in the development of modern electric instruments (the electric guitar) and recording techniques (multitrack recording), which came into extensive use in country music starting in the 1950s. (d. 2009).
May 15 – Eddy Arnold, the "Tennessee Plowboy"; a pioneer in crossover music, his recording career spanned from the 1940s through 1990s (d. 2008).
July 20 – Cindy Walker, songwriter whose hits spanned the 1940s through 1980s (d. 2006).
October 16 – Stoney Cooper, bluegrass and gospel singer who best known for his series of recordings with wife, Wilma Lee (as Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper), from the 1940s through early 1960s. (d. 1977)
1919
February 13 – Tennessee Ernie Ford, singer and television star who enjoyed his greatest fame in the 1950s (d. 1991).
Kingsbury, Paul, "Vinyl Hayride: Country Music Album Covers 1947–1989," Country Music Foundation, 2003 (ISBN0-8118-3572-3)
Millard, Bob, "Country Music: 70 Years of America's Favorite Music," HarperCollins, New York, 1993 (ISBN0-06-273244-7)
Whitburn, Joel. "Joel Whitburn's Pop Memories 1890–1954: The History of American Popular Music," Record Research Inc., Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, 1986 (ISBN0-89820-083-0).
