Music of Illinois - Country Music

Country Music

With the largest country radio station, WUSN in Chicago, Illinois has become one of the leading country music destinations outside of Nashville, Tennessee.

Alison Krauss was part of the revival of bluegrass music in the late 1990s. She grew up in the central Illinois city of Champaign. Suzy Bogguss from Aledo in western Illinois had a number of country hits in the 1990s. Gretchen Wilson of Pocahontas, Illinois charted several top ten hits from 2004 to 2006. David Lee Murphy who hails from Herrin, Illinois had hits in the mid-1990s. Joshua Scott Jones, winner of Season 2 of CMT "Can You Duet" and one-half of the duo "Steel Magnolia", is from the southeastern town of Charleston, Illinois. Illinois is also a center of the shaped note singing revival with the Midwest Sacred Harp convention taking place yearly in Chicago.

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