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50 free Classic Country trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
This classic country trivia quiz covers the music from the 1927 Bristol sessions through the outlaw era of the 1970s: Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, Roy Acuff and Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams, Kitty Wells, Patsy Cline, Johnny Cash, Marty Robbins, Buck Owens and the Bakersfield sound, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, George Jones and Tammy Wynette, Dolly Parton, Charley Pride, Conway Twitty, Glen Campbell, Kris Kristofferson, Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, plus the Grand Ole Opry and the Ryman. Expect questions on the yodelling brakeman, the first woman to top the country chart, the plane crash that killed Patsy Cline, the pardon Merle Haggard received from Governor Reagan, the map that named Conway Twitty, the seat Waylon gave up on Buddy Holly's plane and the song that revived George Jones in 1980. About a third of the questions are easy for anyone raised on the classics, a third need a closer memory of the hits and the labels, and the rest reward the fans who know the details of the biographies. Every answer was checked against Wikipedia's articles on the artists and institutions before publishing, and each question carries the sentence that establishes it. If you think one is wrong, use the report button and we will look again.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which nickname is Jimmie Rodgers best known by?
The Father of Country Music
He was also called the Singing Brakeman, after his years working on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad.
Q 02In which Tennessee city did the Carter Family make their first recordings in August 1927?
Bristol
Jimmie Rodgers recorded for the same producer, Ralph Peer, the very next day.
Q 03Which member of the original Carter Family sang harmony and played lead guitar?
Maybelle
Sara sang lead and played rhythm guitar or autoharp; Maybelle was her first cousin and sister-in-law.
Q 04With which songwriter did Roy Acuff co-found Nashville's first major country publishing company in 1942?
Fred Rose
Acuff-Rose signed Hank Williams, Roy Orbison and the Everly Brothers, and Acuff became the Hall of Fame's first living inductee in 1962.
Q 05Ernest Tubb's 1941 hit "Walking the Floor Over You" marked the rise of which country style?
Honky-tonk
Tubb was also the first to have a hit with "Blue Christmas", in 1948, a decade before Elvis.
Q 06Which 1952 hit made Kitty Wells the first female country singer to top the US country chart?
It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels
She won top female vocalist awards for 14 consecutive years and was called the Queen of Country Music.
Q 07Which blues musician taught Hank Williams to play guitar in Alabama?
Rufus Payne
Payne, known as Tee-Tot, and Roy Acuff were the two biggest influences on his style.
Q 08What was the name of Hank Williams's backing band?
The Drifting Cowboys
His mother managed the band, and he dropped out of school to devote himself to the road.
Q 09How old was Hank Williams when he died in the back seat of a car on New Year's Day 1953?
29
He was on his way to a concert in Canton, Ohio, when his heart failed near Oak Hill, West Virginia.
Q 10Which 1948 cover became Hank Williams's first number one on the country chart?
Lovesick Blues
He had joined the Louisiana Hayride radio show the year before, after his hit "Move It On Over".
Q 11What was the name of the backing band that gave Johnny Cash his train-like chugging rhythm?
The Tennessee Three
Guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant were the original Tennessee Two.
Q 12At which Memphis studio did Johnny Cash audition for Sam Phillips in the mid-1950s?
Sun
He sang mostly gospel and was told to come back with something more commercial.
Q 13Johnny Cash was born to poor cotton farmers in which Arkansas town?
Kingsland
His parents compromised on the initials J. R. because his mother wanted John and his father wanted Ray.
Q 21Loretta Lynn was born in which Kentucky community, immortalised in "Coal Miner's Daughter"?
Butcher Hollow
Her father Ted Webb was a coal miner and subsistence farmer.
Q 22Which actress played Loretta Lynn in the 1980 film Coal Miner's Daughter?
Sissy Spacek
Lynn went on to be the only female ACM Artist of the Decade, for the 1970s.
Q 23Which prison held the young Haggard, as inmate A45200, from 1958?
San Quentin
He had been caught trying to rob a roadhouse and attempted an escape from the county jail.
Q 14Which song became Patsy Cline's first major hit after she sang it on Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts?
Walkin' After Midnight
It charted on both the country and pop charts, an early example of her crossover appeal.
Q 15Which producer shaped Patsy Cline's Nashville sound after she moved to Decca Records in 1960?
Owen Bradley
Bradley's lush arrangements helped her achieve consistent success in her final years.
Q 16Which two fellow country stars died alongside Patsy Cline in the March 1963 plane crash?
Cowboy Copas and Hawkshaw Hawkins
Her manager and pilot Randy Hughes also died on the flight from Kansas City back to Nashville.
Q 17Which signature 1959 Marty Robbins song won the Grammy for Best Country and Western Recording?
El Paso
It began his long association with Western balladry.
Q 18Which 1982 Eastwood film was named for a Marty Robbins song and featured his final screen role?
Honkytonk Man
Robbins was also named the 1960s Artist of the Decade by the Academy of Country Music.
Q 19Buck Owens and the Buckaroos pioneered which sound, named for their California hometown?
Bakersfield
Owens preferred to call it simply "American music", and co-hosted Hee Haw with Roy Clark from 1969.
Q 20Which guitarist supplied the high harmony vocals in Buck Owens's band until his death in 1974?
Don Rich
Owens's son said the loss of his closest friend impaired his creativity for years.
Q 24Which California governor granted Haggard a full pardon in 1972?
Ronald Reagan
By then Haggard was a star with hits like "Okie From Muskogee".
Q 25Who topped Rolling Stone's 2017 list of the 100 Greatest Country Artists of All Time?
Merle Haggard
He beat Cash and Williams to the number one spot; he had 38 country number ones.
Q 26Which sparse 1975 Willie Nelson concept album did Columbia reluctantly release?
Red Headed Stranger
Its success came from a contract giving Nelson complete creative control.
Q 27Whose band did Willie Nelson join as a bassist after moving to Nashville in 1960?
Ray Price
He had already written future standards including "Crazy" and "Hello Walls" while working as a DJ.
Q 28What was country music's first platinum album, released in 1976?
Wanted! The Outlaws
It featured Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Jessi Colter and Tompall Glaser.
Q 29Whose band was Waylon Jennings playing bass in when he gave up his seat on the plane that crashed in 1959?
Buddy Holly's
Holly had arranged Jennings's first recording session the year before.
Q 30Which 1959 Big Bopper song launched the career of the singer later nicknamed 'No Show Jones'?
White Lightning
His alcoholism later earned him the nickname "No Show Jones".