A. American Country music was not invented; it emerged. It rose from the bottom up

B. The instrument most favored by rural folks, and for a long time virtually the defining instrument of country music, was the piano

C. The banjo, second only to the fiddle early on, came to America as a gourd with a fretless neck, brought by slaves from Africa

D. Most of all, the roots of American country music sprang from the need of everyday Americans—especially those who felt left out and looked down upon—to tell their stories