That's a difficult question to answer. What we now call "Country & Western" was once called "folk music" or "hillbilly music" by the music industry, but by the the late '40's had settled on "Country & Western."
The music industry doesn't seem to have made much of an effort to distinguish "Country" from "Western." However, in my view, "Western" music would would cover groups such as The Beverly Hillbillies and The Four Aces, who sing cowboy songs and Western ballads, while "Country" would include music of the South, the Appalachians, and rural communities outside the West--acts such as Lulu Belle & Scotty or Fiddlin' John Carson.
Much of what folks consider ‘country’ today sounds what we called ‘folk rock’ in the 70s.