Jimmie Rogers is often called the "Father Of Country Music". However, his style was highly influenced by Mississippi Blues. The Carters are called "The First Family Of Country Music." Their style was mountain folk music. Vernon Dalhart was an opera singer who became the first country recording superstar because his high nasal voice was easily transposed to records. Charlie Poole and Uncle Dave Macon brought in the mountain banjo sounds that would evolve into bluegrass. Gussie Davis, a man of colour, was a writer of many of the songs in early country recordings.
If you mix this all together you get a starting point for country music, but it is almost all folk based.
Through the years the music has evolved for better or worse. Like Kendall, I do not care much for the modern version of what is called country. The music played through the public media today no longer pleases my ear, and probably hasn't much in the last 30 years. The music has not died but has hidden through lack of media exposure. There still are old fossils like myself singing and playing the old stuff to small but appriciative audiences.