Many of us grow up listening to country music, which is also known as country and western, and hillbilly music. It is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern United States in the early 1920s. It takes its roots from genres such as American folk music and blues.
Jeannie C. Riley (born Jeanne Carolyn Stephenson; October 19, 1945) is a country music and gospel singer. She is best known for her 1968 hit "Harper Valley PTA", which missed by one week simultaneously becoming the Billboard Country and Pop number-one hit.
In the 1970s, she became a born again Christian and began recording gospel music. As result of her conversion, she distanced herself from "PTA" for a time, due to its content. However, the song remained part of her live set and she still performs it in her shows. In 1980, she published her autobiography, From Harper Valley to the Mountain Top, which told her story of stardom in pop music to moving more into gospel music. The following year, she released a new gospel album with the same title.