ABSTRACT
Country music in Liverpool is a passionately contested cultural activity. Music scenes are developed through a variety of cultural, geographical and personal circumstances. Networks of individuals have to band together in order to create something that lasts longer than a one-off gig or a night in a pub. Country music acted as a catalyst for perhaps the greatest function myth of all time, containing as it did direct links to the dream world of the United States. The sound of local country music was also subject to change and mutation and many variations took place across this loose performance network. Re-installing the vitality of rock 'n' roll via covers the Mersey beat 'matrix', as it were did not have the required effect for all Merseyside's. British and Irish country music groups seldom ever 'made it big' partly because the British country music fans were a seriously critical community.
