Progressive country is a subgenre of Texas country music started in the early 1970s in Austin, Texas. The term was coined by programmers at Austin's KOKE-FM in 1972 as a way to differentiate the style of country music in Austin from that being made in Nashville. Progressive country music, also known as "redneck rock," was strongly influenced by a variety of "hard" country music styles, including western swing, honky tonk, and the Bakersfield Sound.

Notable performers include songwriters Michael Murphey, Jerry Jeff Walker, the Lost Gonzo Band, B.W. Stevenson, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, and Steven Fromholz; western swing and honky tonk musicians Alvin Crow, Ray Benson (Asleep at the Wheel), Marcia Ball (Freda & the Firedogs); and Nashville-based Outlaw country musicians Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, David Allan Coe, Jessi Colter, and Tompall Glaser.

A Nashville based parallel development was showcased at the EXIT/IN. Key exemplars are BR549, Area Code 615, Charlie Daniels and Barefoot Jerry.

Other stations, including KAFM in Dallas, KOKE in Austin and KFDI-FM in Wichita, Kansas, programmed a progressive country format with significant success. Additionally, live radio concerts were produced and simulcast with KRLD-AM to 13 states. Artists included Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Asleep at the Wheel, David Allen Coe, Jimmy Buffett, Jerry Jeff Walker and others. Dave Thomas founding Music Director and later Program Director was the Executive Producer who brought live radio broadcasts back to major market radio.

Herbert Clayton Penny (September 18, 1918 – April 17, 1992) was an accomplished banjo player and practitioner of western swing. He worked as a comedian best known for his backwoods character "That Plain Ol' Country Boy" on TV with Spade Cooley. He was married to country singer Sue Thompson from 1953-63.

Penny was the leader of the Radio Cowboys, which featured guitarist Julian Akins, steel guitarist Sammy Forsmark, tenor banjo player Louis Damont, bassist Carl Stewart, and vocalist, guitarist, and fiddler Sheldon Bennett in the 1930s. At WLW Radio in Cincinnati during World War II, Penny formed the Plantation Boys, which included fiddler Carl Stewart, guitarist/bassist Louis Innis, fiddler Zed Tennis, and lead guitarist Roy Lanham.

Penny had three hits on the Billboard Country Singles chart, "Steel Guitar Stomp" (1946) an instrumental featuring both Noel Boggs on steel guitar and guitarist Merle Travis, "Get Yourself a Red Head" (1946), and his own composition "Bloodshot Eyes" (1950).

Penny's "Bloodshot Eyes" was also recorded in 1951 by rock and roll singer Wynonie Harris, who turned it into a major rock hit (King 4461). Harris was a big influence on Elvis Presley, who did go to see him play and met him in his formative years and recorded Roy Brown's Good Rocking Tonight after hearing Wynonie Harris' hit version. Appreciated by white country music fans and black rock and roll followers alike, "Bloodshot Eyes" became an early landmark in racial integration. It was much appreciated in the Caribbean, where Wynonie Harris had a large following. Along with other Wynonie Harris records, it was being played on Jamaican dancehalls as early as 1951. In 1958 Jamaican mento group Denzil Laing and the Wrigglers recorded a fine version of it for their Arawak Hotel album featuring jazz guitar great Ernest Ranglin. Bermuda Islands legend Sydney Bean also recorded it, releasing it circa 1955.