A Prairie Home Companion on NPR radio capitalized on the folk music scene.

Thanks, I’ve been trying to find this series for a while

Great Job Mark Chestnut on that Hank sr

I recently found the album Color Me Country by Linda Martell, the first black female on Grand Ole Opry.

Janis Ian, a folk singer, is trying to big up the value of Nashville. In the 1970s I was working as a British music journalist who visited America and got heaven-sent copy from the activities of people like Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jerry Jeff Walker, Michael Murphy and Guy Clark who were turning country on its head in Austin, Texas rather than Nashville. From what I found the Dads in Nashville weren't too keen on change and innovation. Some of them owned real estate and studios in Nashville so didn't want artists going out of town to base themselves.. Well Merle Haggard and Buck Owens did it in Bakersfield and were successful and others followed later. Dwight Yoakam and Heather Myles for instance. And the music often seemed to me to be either ballsier on the one hand or more thoughtful on the other. One or the other. The Texas Tornadoes (Doug Sahm, Flaco Jimenez) found their audience in Texas (although in their case particularly San Antone). But Austin itself is a university town where students are more receptive to new ideas. Is that it? Austin has always been at the crossroads of country, blues, folk and Mexican. As Heather Myles sang: "Move on over Ernest Tubb, Nashville's gone Hollywood."

There was another Jimmy Rogers in the 1950s. He was more of a pop singer than a country singer.