4 Weird Instruments You Never Expected To Hear in Country Music

From UFO sounds to Celtic drones, sitar twangs to Tex-Mex accordion, country music occasionally loved to get a little weird. Fiddles and steel guitars may define the genre’s twang, but every so often, an adventurous producer will sneak in a crazy sonic. From Porter Wagoner’s haunted echoes to Steve Earle’s bagpipe rebellion, Lynn Anderson’s psychedelic shimmer, and Dwight Yoakam’s Tex-Mex flair, these oddball sounds prove that country’s roots run deeper than the holler.

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Is That a Theremin?

The theremin is one of music’s strangest tools— an instrument better known for UFO movies than for honky-tonk music. Created in 1920 by Russian physicist Léon Theremin, it’s played without being touched. The performer moves their hands near two antennas — one controls pitch and the other volume. The result is a haunting quiver that is common to avant-garde composers and Hollywood sound designers. However, stories of its use in country music are tangled, confused, and twisted with sonic doppelgängers.

Music Row chatter has linked a handful of country singers to the oddball instrument. Guitar pioneer Chet Atkins reportedly dabbled with it, and Mickey Gilley was said to have experimented with the sound. But when fans hear eerie moments in country history and assume it’s theremin, they may be wrong.

Porter Wagoner’s 1972 single “The Rubber Room” is cited as one of Nashville’s spookiest cuts. Listeners sometimes swear they hear a theremin, but they may be wrong. Reportedly, Wagoner used echo, reverb, and studio effects to create the noise. More recently, artists like Sierra Ferrell have used the musical saw, a bowed steel blade that produces the same swooping tone, tricking audiences into thinking it’s a theremin.

Bagpipes

Bagpipes might sound worlds away from steel guitars and fiddles, but they are musically and historically related. Rooted in Celtic folk traditions, bagpipes drone similarly to the Scots-Irish ballads brought to Appalachia in the 18th and 19th centuries. The early immigrants added the fiddle and storytelling. That framework, blended with African American blues and banjo styles, formed the foundation of American country. Bagpipes and country music have a shared ancestry.
A few artists have utilized that familial connection. Steve Earle used bagpipes to open “Copperhead Road” in 1988.

Glen Campbell turned to bagpipes for his 1973 televised performance of “Amazing Grace.” He performed Paul McCartney’s “Mull of Kintyre” with a full pipe arrangement in Dublin, Ireland, in 1981.

Sitar

The sitar may be rooted in Indian classical tradition, but its unique twang slipped into country music during the late 1960s and early ’70s. Nashville was dabbling in pop crossovers and psychedelic flourishes, and the instrument, with its long neck and buzzing strings, added an exotic tone that was strangely compatible with Nashville’s new lush sound.

Lynn Anderson included sitar in her “Rose Garden,” giving the crossover hit a psychedelic shimmer. Elvis Presley’s 1970 version of “Snowbird” leaned on legendary player Harold Bradley’s electric sitar for a modern edge. Hank Williams Jr. turned to session genius Reggie Young to contribute sitar work to “A Country Boy Can Survive” in 1981.

Accordion

The accordion might not be the first instrument people associate with Nashville, but it might be country music’s long-lost cousin. European immigrants introduced the instrument to American roots music, and it found a home in humble establishments around the southern borders of Texas and Louisiana. The accordion blended with Western swing, Cajun country, and Tex-Mex to add a regional flair.

Hank Williams and Roy Acuff featured the accordion in their bands. Merle Haggard’s 1983 hit “That’s the Way Love Goes” also featured the instrumental outlier. Dwight Yoakam’s duet with Buck Owens, “Streets of Bakersfield” in 1988, used Flaco Jiménez’s Tex-Mex, and The Mavericks made the instrument a signature of their country-Latin fusion.

(Photo by David Redfern/Redferns)