I can't think of old Texas country and western swing without hearing twin fiddles. You don't get more Tejas country than early George Strait, can you imagine this without the fiddle at the beginning and end?
Plus, Alabama made every excuse to get Jeff to open up his case. I saw them on their fairwell tour at Phillips Arena and the next night at Oak Mountain. Jeff Cook was playing a lime green Telecaster, but when they played "If You're Gonna Play in Texas" he broke out a lime green electric fiddle that was cut to look like a miniature Telecaster. It was awesome.
That's why I said "indigenous" which would be more Tenn and Kentucky (bluegrass). I def think the steel guitar/pedal guitar is something that was in a lot of that early Texas Western music and was true to it. Acoustic is even more common. Strait is still a jonny come lately in the overall picture of country music, although I give him kudos on the use of fiddle in his early stuff. Amarillo by Morning is his best to me.
Saw Alabama on that same tour in Columbus. Jeff is an amazing, underrated musician.
I thought this was an interesting tidbit as far as the roots of fiddling and banjo music:
Immigrants to the Maritime Provinces and Southern Appalachian Mountains of North America brought the music and instruments of the Old World along with them for nearly 300 years. They brought some of their most important valuables with them, and to most of them this was an instrument: “Early Scottish settlers enjoyed the fiddle because it could be played to sound sad and mournful or bright and bouncyâ€[7] The Irish fiddle, the German derived dulcimer, the Italian mandolin, the Spanish guitar, and the West African banjo[8] were the most common musical instruments. The interactions among musicians from different ethnic groups produced music unique to this region of North America. Appalachian string bands of the early 20th century primarily consisted of the fiddle, guitar, and banjo.[9] This early country music along with early recorded country music is often referred to as old-time music.
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