All Things Country

[riley]

Black on Black by Waylon Jennings is my favorite country album.

I like all these guys too, and these are probably my favorites by them.

Exit 0 - Steve Earle
I Am What I Am - George Jones
Buenos Noches From A Lonely Room - Dwight Yoakam
Shotgun Willie - Willie Nelson
Kelly Willis - Kelly Willis
What A Crying Shame - The Mavericks
Mama Tried - Merle Haggard

and Blacklisted by Neko Case never seems to get described as a country album, but it's probably more country than anything new released in the last number of years.

[maarts]

Emmylou Harris.
'Til I Gained Control Again's probably my fave country-track. Wrecking Ball's perhaps not exactly country but damned beautiful.

Cash.
Alison Krauss & Union Station.
Chet Atkins.

And that's all the country I have in the house.

[chrisfan]

A year ago, my grandmother gave me all of my grandfather's old albums, because I'm the only one she knows who still has a record player. The best stuff in there is all of his old country - Willie, Waylon, George Jones. I knew my grandfather used to go into the living room to listen to music on headphones every night. But if I'd known he was listening to such good stuff, I wuold have begged him to get rid of the headphones so the whole house could listen.

[Adam]

I didn't own a cassette player - or purchase cassettes regularly - until the late 80s/early 90s (CDs came a few years later) so I had my parents vinyl and 8-track collection to dwell in. It was decent (I wish they had more rock) but the area they really succeeded in was country. Plenty of releases by Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Charlie Rich, Charley Pride, Tammy Wynette, Ronnie Milsap, Don Williams, among others (but no Johnny Cash; somehow, they got away with murder).
I was a pretty big follower of modern country until the mid-90s when the Nashville machine embraced the pop-crossover approach and would never return. Also, artists (mostly new, a few veterans) didn't seem to be trying; not enough pearls in a lot of swine. And I can't blame some of the problem on Garth Brooks because the man at least put out good albums. (and the Beatles Anthology was released in '95 so the great rock beast reared its head and swallowed me whole like Bruce the Shark from Jaws).
The problem in mainstream country still exists and might never go away. The sound and quality is not the same that I grew up with.

Anyway, here's what I own in the way of this genre:
Greatest Hits Collection, Alan Jackson
For The Record, Alabama
Only Daddy That'll Walk The Line, Waylon Jennings
The Spirit of Country, George Jones
The Ultimate Collection, Hank Williams
Down Every Road, Merle Haggard
Roots Vol. 1, Merle Haggard
If Only I Could Fly, Merle Haggard
Ain't Ever Satisfied, Steve Earle
The Bocephus Box, Hank Williams Jr.
Strait Out of the Box, George Strait
Latest Greatest Straightest Hits, George Strait
No Depression, Uncle Tupelo
Anodyne, Uncle Tupelo
89/95: An Anthology, Uncle Tupelo
Last Chance For A Thousand Years, Dwight Yoakam
Just Lookin' For A Hit, Dwight Yoakam
This Time, Dwight Yoakam
Honeysuckle Rose, Willie Nelson and Family
Red Headed Stranger, Willie Nelson
American Recordings, Johnny Cash
Unchained, Johnny Cash
American III: Solitary Man, Johnny Cash
American IV: The Man Comes Around, Johnny Cash
At Folsom Prison, Johnny Cash,
At San Quentin, Johnny Cash
LoveGodMurder, Johnny Cash
The Essential Johnny Cash 1955-1983
The Hits, Garth Brooks
Unearthed, Johnny Cash
G.P./Grevious Angel, Gram Parsons
A Decade of Hits, The Charlie Daniels Band

I also own albums by Lucero and Son Volt but they sound more rawkish than country.

[phil]

•Cash, Johnny : Columbia Recording 1958-86 (2x)
: At Folsom Prison*
: At San Quentin*

•Pride, Charley :Anthology (2x)

- Bob Dylan : Nashville Skyline

- Gram Parson : GP/Grievous Angel

•Kirchen, Bill :Have Love, Will Travel*

•K.d. Lang and the Reclines : Absolute Torch and Twang

•Krauss, Alison : Now That I’ve Found You – Best of

•Lamothe, Willie : Willie Lamothe

* indicates burned copy ...


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[luke]

Definitely an Old 97s fan, and Yoakam is one I've heard more about than actually heard...

I'll definitely check out The Backsliders. I just gave my computer a huge memory upgrade, and it runs like lightning, and I also got my old web-building teacher to come over and turn my computer into a sort of fortress against viruses, adware, and the like, so I MAY start downloading music again.

I do agree that Neko can come off as a country artist, especially live.

I love Willie and Waylon and Merle and Johnny and all that good stuff, but it's just really hard for me to stay interested in the old and/or dead for an extended period of time. Same way with rock and rap. It's hard for me to stay really excited about something that happened decades ago.

And Ken (I meant to tell this to Mary when she called me ekul not too long ago), I type accidentally type "ekul" nearly every time I log on, so it's no biggie. I'd actually be ekul around here, if it weren't for proboards aversion to AOL accounts.

[strat-0]

I'm a little surprised at the interest in country here. Of course, it's an integral part of blues, jazz, rock and roll, etc., so I guess I shouldn't be.

We do an acoustic mini-set in DNA (now on hiatus) that includes a pretty good 'Man of Constant Sorrow' with Doug on mandolin, and a really good 'Fox on the Run' (what a beautiful tune!) Also Seven Bridges Road and some CSNY, etc.

[chrisfan]

I picked up an essential Waylon Jennings CD yesterday when I was out and supposed to be doing more practical errands. That means my house will be cleaner than normal today so that I can continue to listen to the entire thing. It is the first compilation CD of his that I've ever found with Storms Never Last on it, so I HAD to buy it.

[Galactus]

I've been listening to Willie Nelson for about two days straight now.

[tuneschick]

It's only been in the past five years or so that I've really learned to appreciate country, to the point where it plays an absolutely essential role in my music listening. I'm stuck on the old country - Johnny, Willie, Patsy, Hank, George, Marty - stuff that conjures images of lonesome dusty highways and dark country bars and aching hearts numbed by a bottle of whiskey. Neko Case conjures up those sorts of images for me too, which is part of the reason I dig her so much.

Johnny Cash is really the top of the heap for me. I listen to him more than almost any other artist, period, let alone other country artists. I've had his unbelievably great 'Unearthed' boxset for awhile, but I picked up the new 'The Legend' boxset while I was on vacation two weeks ago and that's all I've listened to since. It's surprising that there was so little duplication of stuff I already had, which made it all the sweeter. His duet with Bob Dylan on 'Girl from the North Country' truly gives me chills.

My country collection right now (excluding stuff like Buffalo Springfield, The Byrds, Gram Parsons, Blue Rodeo, Neko Case)

Hank Williams - 20 of His Greatest Hits
Patsy Cline - The Patsy Cline Story
Marty Robbins - The Best of Marty Robbins
George Jones - Love Songs
Loretta Lynn - Van Lear Rose

Willie Nelson -
The Essential Willie Nelson
It Always Will Be
One for the Road (with Leon Russell)
Outlaws and Angels: Live

Emmylou Harris -
Elite Hotel
Quarter Moon in a Ten Cent Town
Blue Kentucky Girl
Roses in the Snow
Cimarron
White Shoes
Wrecking Ball
Red Dirt Girl
Stumble Into Grace

Johnny Cash -
Live at Folsom Prison
Live at San Quentin
Orange Blossom Special
Ring of Fire: The Best of Johnny Cash
16 Biggest Hits
Life
Murder
Love
American Recordings
Unchained
American III: Solitary Man
American IV: The Man Comes Around
Unearthed (five-disc box set)
The Legend (four-disc box set)

[chrisfan]

George Jones is next on my list of must buy country artists. Either that or Dwight Yoakam's new CD.

[Galactus]

As much of a heresy as it is...I really don't like Goerge Jones that much. I have his greatest hits but I almost never listen to it. Everytime I think about Goerge I think of him driving off a mountain, in this really cartoony Toonsis the Cat sort of way.

[chrisfan]

George is certainly a different kind of country. For me, he's not someone that I would ever listen to over and over and over, like I do Willie, Waylon, Johnny, or Patsy. But he's got a few songs tht I just can't help but sing along to at the top of my lungs. And it's hard to not give a good argument to "He Stopped Loving Her Today" being one of the best country love songs ever written.

[JACkory]

As a general rule the old country is the best...50's on into the mid-70's. From then through the 80's and into the very early 90's a fairly refined appreciation of kitsch is required for maximum enjoyment. 10 or 15 years from now that same kitsch value will probably save a lot of what's come out in the last decade, but you can't really tell from the vantage point of here and now.
Throughout all those years you'll find a smattering of truly excellent songs that hold their own with any genre (Garth Brooks' "The Dance" et.al.) as well as some duds that are just plain hard to listen to and yet somehow managed to sell a million copies (Billy Ray Cyrus' "Achy-Breaky Heart" et. al.).

The Byrds' Sweetheart of the Rodeo is one of the best country albums ever recorded, IMO.

[Galactus]

Yeah in the mid 70's most good country moved to the fringes. The guys who had already estabished themselves as legends got to stay but in a bid to stay mainstream country got more and more polished and more and more commercial until today popular country is for the most part a shallow crapfest...like mainstream pop.

Sweethearts is without a doubt one of the best country albums ever.