Ship of Fools: Country Music Fav Songs

Thread: Country Music Fav Songs Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Pyx_e (# 57) on :

My brother wants me to make him a country music compilation CD for Christmas.

What are your fav songs?

All the standards are a given. Something of the wall / modern / not so well known but good?

Just songs please as I have to buy them off amazon.

thanks,

Pyx_e

Posted by Hart (# 4991) on :

Of all the country songs I have on my iTunes, here are the ones that I gave 5 stars, meaning they rank in the top 1/16 of my music (you can take the kid out of math, but not the math out of the kid...):

The Band Perry, "If I Die Young"
Craig Morgan, "That's What I Love About Sunday"; "Tough"
Darius Rucker, "Wagon Wheel"
Martine McBride, "In My Daughter's Eyes"
Patsy Cline, "Walkin' After Midnight"
Rodney Atkins, "Watching You"
Taylor Swift, "You Belong With Me"
Toby Keith, "She Never Cried in Front of Me"
Travis Tritt, "Where Corn Don't Grow"

Posted by balaam (# 4543) on :

Nickel Creek - This Side

Posted by Alicïa (# 7668) on :

Billy Jo Spears - Sing Me An Old Fashioned Song
Kacey Musgraves - Merry Go Round
Jake Bugg - Country Song
Carrie Underwood - See You Again

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

D,I,V,O,R,C,E, as sung by Billy Connolly

Jolene - sung by Dolly Parton

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Hart:
The Band Perry, "If I Die Young"

This song is probably my favorite thing that has hit country radio in a while. It sounds both old timey and modern (mandolins featured throughout), and the lead singer's voice is something else.

Corb Lund and the Hurtin' Albertans are not quite refined enough for Nashville (I listen to a lot of stuff that puts the "Western" in Country and Western,) but my wife and I love them. "Five Dollar Bill" is a great record.

Miranda Lambert is a big name these days, and my wife's absolute favorite (after Dolly, of course.) "Famous in a Small Town" was a big hit, "Guilty in Here" is a good deeper cut.

Posted by Meg the Red (# 11838) on :

Quartette - I especially like their first, self-titled album. Some examples:

Cowboys and Rodeos

King of the Cowboys

Anthing from kd lang's Absolute Torch and Twang album

If Wishes Were Horses by Claire Lynch

Posted by Thyme (# 12360) on :

Blanket on the ground - Billie Jo Spears

Crystal Chandeliers - Charlie Pride (and others)

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Kinky Friedman: They Don't Make Jews Like Jesus Anymore?

Actually, watching a programme on Glenn Campbell the other night reminded me how memory adhesive 'Witchita Lineman' and 'Rhinestone Cowboy' are.

[ 11. December 2013, 21:43: Message edited by: Firenze ]

Posted by Francophile (# 17838) on :

Stand By Your Man by Tammy("the only ground for divorce is marriage")Wynette

Posted by Thyme (# 12360) on :

Streets of Laredo - Marty Robbins

El Paso - Marty Robbins

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

Here is my favorite bit of Appalachian music.

Moo

Posted by BessHiggs (# 15176) on :

I like Zac Brown Band, Colder Weather is a good one, and for a bit off the wall, Sic 'Em on a Chicken is hilarious.

Colt Ford does a song called Chicken & Biscuits which is also a bit out there.

Billy Currington has a song called Love Done Gone which is the peppiest, happiest break-up song ever.

You could try some of the stuff by the Texas Tornados, it's more tex-mex-western but Who Were You Thinking Of, is one of my all time favorites.

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
Here is my favorite bit of Appalachian music.

Moo

I give up. Which of 2013 Ringtone Legends, Selena Gomez, Bruno Mars or Blur are from Appalachia? None of them sound particularly hillbilly.

Posted by Pancho (# 13533) on :

Patsy Cline - I Fall To Pieces

Posted by Francophile (# 17838) on :

Patsy Cline "Sweet Dreams"

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:

quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
Here is my favorite bit of Appalachian music.

Moo
I give up. Which of 2013 Ringtone Legends, Selena Gomez, Bruno Mars or Blur are from Appalachia? None of them sound particularly hillbilly.

"I'll pass over thee" by Ralph Stanley. When I click on the link I posted, I see nothing but that song. Maybe the fact that you are on the other side of the pond complicates things.

Moo

Posted by Amanda B. Reckondwythe (# 5521) on :

I'm not a C&W fan, but this brings me to tears every time I hear it.

Posted by Timothy the Obscure (# 292) on :

For a Christmas mix CD, you absolutely must include Robert Earl Keene's "Merry Christmas From The Family".

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Moo:

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:

quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
Here is my favorite bit of Appalachian music.

Moo
I give up. Which of 2013 Ringtone Legends, Selena Gomez, Bruno Mars or Blur are from Appalachia? None of them sound particularly hillbilly.
"I'll pass over thee" by Ralph Stanley. When I click on the link I posted, I see nothing but that song. Maybe the fact that you are on the other side of the pond complicates things.

Moo

If I put that title in the search box, it brings it up for me (in versions by two different artists).

So - anyone for whom the link doesn't default, that's what to do.

Posted by Moo (# 107) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
If I put that title in the search box, it brings it up for me (in versions by two different artists).

So - anyone for whom the link doesn't default, that's what to do.

The Ralph Stanley version is the right one.

Moo

Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :

(I love Ralph Stanley, too.)

Alison Kraus "A ghost in This House"

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Timothy the Obscure:
For a Christmas mix CD, you absolutely must include Robert Earl Keene's "Merry Christmas From The Family".

Even on a NON Christmas mix that one works!

What was the context of the request? Is this someone who listens to Country radio, someone who wants an introduction to the classics, someone who knows nothing about Country?

Posted by MrsBeaky (# 17663) on :

Someone once left a country music album in my car and I remember singing along with my kids to a track by Doug Stone called "Why didn't I think of that?" None of us particularly liked country music but we loved that song: great voice , great lyrics

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Moo:

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:

quote:
Originally posted by Moo:
Here is my favorite bit of Appalachian music.

Moo
I give up. Which of 2013 Ringtone Legends, Selena Gomez, Bruno Mars or Blur are from Appalachia? None of them sound particularly hillbilly.
"I'll pass over thee" by Ralph Stanley. When I click on the link I posted, I see nothing but that song. Maybe the fact that you are on the other side of the pond complicates things.

Moo

I get the Stanley too.

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :

Kinky Freedman very much seconded! [i/]They ain't making Jews like Jesus any more[i/] is an instant modern classic! For a more poignant take on anti-semitism, his Ride em Jewboy makes me cry.

You say "All the standards are a given" but one man's "standard" is another man's old fart straw-chewing hillbilly bore - and someone else's new-fangled over-produced commercial pap. So I assume you already have everything by Johnny Cash? And at least some Dolly Parton (at least Jolene and Coat of many Colours (which also makes me cry and has the merit of being sort-of a true story) And you will want some Willie Nelson (almost anything its almost all good, though its not all country- and he's done loads of great cover versions of older songs).

I suppose my idea of Country "standards" are the comparitively few songs that crossed over the Atlantic in the 60s and 70s and got well-known and would now be found on karaoke machines (or late noght documentaries on BBC digital channel 4). So they might include, along with the Cash: Loretta Lynn singing Coal Miner's Daughter, and Charlie Pride Crystal Chandeliers, and Tammy Wynette Stand by your man, and Freddy Fender Before The Next Teardrop Falls. You need the saddest song in the world, He Stopped Loving Her Today by George Jones (though Johnny Cash's version is great too) and also by Jones, A Good Year For the Roses (but everybody and his mother recorded that and its nearly all good). Oh and Kenny Rogers Lucille,

I guess they are the ones you'll likely find on karaoke (in this country at least)

Some others I like (and have played a lot on my itunes!):

BF Shelton Pretty Polly or O Molly Dear
Bill Haley My Mom heard me crying and Wreck on the Highway
Bill Monroe Blue Moon Of Kentucky
Bob Wills Faded Love
Carter Family Wildwood Flower, Will the circle be unbroken? (another song recorded by everybody from Willie Nelson to Mavis Staples to Pentangle. Those last two not being very country.
Faron Young Four in the Morning
Frankie Laine Rawhide
Hank Thompson Wild Side of Life (I didn't know God made honky-tonk angels)
Hank Williams Lonesome whistle or Lost Highway or I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry or Jambalaya
Johnny Biond When the work's all done this fall
Kitty Wells It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels
Laura Cantrell When the Roses Bloom Again
Molly O'Day The tramp on the street
Patti Page Tennessee Waltz
Ralph Stanley O Death (one of the songs in "O Brother where art thou?") and Little Birdie
Rosanne Cash 500 miles, also Reba McEntire's version (it seems I have about 28 versions of this song and its friends and relations)
Roy Acuff Great Speckled Bird
Tennesse Ernie Ford Sixteen Tons
Tex Ritter High Noon
The Crooked Jades Ain't No Grave
The Nashville Grass I Heard My Mother Call My Name In Prayer

And, of course, for the true sentimentalist at heart John Denver Country Roads. Its a pity that John Denver's publuic image as insufferably soppy MOTR pixie, because he was quite a good singer and wrote at least two or three great songs... but there it is, he is terminally uncool and nothing will ever change that. For Canadians Country Roads can be replaced by Four Strong Winds, as sung by anyone at all - though Neil Young does it a lot better than Ian and Sylvia. In fact John Denver does it better than Ian and Sylvia, and Johnny Cash's version is very different, but they don't count because of latitudinal issues.

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

quote:
Originally posted by ken:
For Canadians Country Roads can be replaced by Four Strong Winds, as sung by anyone at all - though Neil Young does it a lot better than Ian and Sylvia. In fact John Denver does it better than Ian and Sylvia, and Johnny Cash's version is very different, but they don't count because of latitudinal issues.

Neil Young may do it better, but I'll be damned if I let anyone put down Ian Tyson, whose stuff I was raised on.

Re: John Denver, "Thank God I'm a Country Boy" always brings down the house at sporting events here.

No mention of Alabama yet. They are corny as all get out, but I love a number of their hits. "Dixieland Delight" was a fraternity house standard at Sewanee- you got to dance close to your date, which was always a bonus. "If you're Gonna Play in Texas You Gotta Have a Fiddle in the Band" is another barn burner. Brad Paisley has a new hit called "Old Alabama," in which he recycles the formula for every great Alabama song, to great success. It's not that hard: tell a story, have a catchy chorus, and then let the fiddle player go nuts. Still works every time.

Posted by Niminypiminy (# 15489) on :

Loretta Lynn's You Aint Woman Enough to Take My Man (great title, great song)

Almost anything by the Louvin Brothers, Broadminded (chorus goes 'the word broadminded is spelled S.I.N'), but also Cash on the Barrelhead and The Christian Life.

Lefty Frizzell is a less-known heir of Hank Williams, like Hank with voice full of hard living and heartbreak.

Dolly Parton (totally underestimated in my view) wonderful album The Grass is Blue has loads on it, but Silver Dagger makes the hairs rise on the back of your neck.

[ 12. December 2013, 21:30: Message edited by: Niminypiminy ]

Posted by nickel (# 8363) on :

from my favorites:

Chet Atkins – Jam Man [recently used in a commercial for insurance, but a nice tune by a classic artist]
Jonathon Byrd – May the River Run Dry
Hayes Carll – She Left Me for Jesus
Chesea Crowell – Better Than Her [daughter of Roseanne Cash and Rodney Crowell]
Justin Townes Earl – The Good Life
Felice Brothers – Whiskey in my Whiskey; Love Me Tenderly
Arty Hill and and Long Gone Daddys – Tore Up Junction; I Might Have Been a Lawyer (but I Couldn’t Pass the Bar)
Eilen Jewell – Nowhere in No time
Eilen Jewell as Butcher Holler – all Loretta Lynn covers! Fist City; Deep as Your Pocket
Diana Jones – My Remembrance of You
Kane Welch Kaplin – Lost John Dean
Corb Lund – Cows Around; Bible on the Dash
Roger Miller – Pardon This Coffin; Chug-a-Lug;
Plant/Krauss – Your Long Journey
Jim Reeves – Oklahoma Hills
Reverend Horton Heat – Where In the Hell Did You Go with My Toothbrush
Nancy Sinatra – These Boots are Made for Walkin’ (not very country but sure fits in with my memories of those years in the middle of the dial!)
Tennessee Ernie Ford – Sixteen Tons
Gillian Welch – Look At Miss Ohio

Posted by A.Pilgrim (# 15044) on :

Is this a thread designed to smoke out those shipmates who listen to the most unfashionable music in the world?? [Paranoid]

(Sorry Pyx_e, I guess it's bad form to attribute ulterior motives to the OPer... [Hot and Hormonal]

)

Well, if your brother might like the more modern, New Country sound with some toe-tapping up-tempo tracks, try some of my favourites:
Mary-Chapin Carpenter I feel lucky
Tim McGraw I like it, I love it and You got the wrong man
Pam Tillis Already fallen and Cleopatra, Queen of Denial
Kim Hill Janie’s gone fishin’
Joe Diffie Honky-tonk attitude and Prop me up beside the jukebox
Clint Black Nothin’ but the taillights
Lari White Itty bitty little single... and Good, good love
Reba McEntire Fancy
Zaca Creek Maverick Saloon

with a bit of a blues flavour:
Clint Black Bitter side of sweet
Alan Jackson Good imitation of the blues

I agree with Ken that He Stopped Loving Her Today is touching, but by far the saddest song I know is Brad Paisley and Alison Krauss’s Whiskey lullaby. [Waterworks]

By the time we’ve finished with this thread, you’ll have enough recommendations for the next ten years’ worth of compilation albums. [Big Grin]

Angus

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :

quote:
Originally posted by A.Pilgrim:
Is this a thread designed to smoke out those shipmates who listen to the most unfashionable music in the world??

I was in Nashville a few weeks back and spent an afternoon at the Country Music Hall of Fame. I came out convinced that Country fans have nothing to apologize for. Sure Nashville is an industry, but they don't try to hide it.

Now if you don't mind, I am off to hang our souvenir Dobro tree ornament on our tree.

Posted by L'organist (# 17338) on :

I'm amazed no one has entered Bobby Bare's Drop kick me Jesus : country song AND religious. [Biased]

Posted by Twilight (# 2832) on :

I'm surprised at the people posting here, too. Moo is from western Virginia and I'm from West Virginia, so it's no surprise we like Blue Grass, but the rest of you? Shocking.

If you like you're country music 90 years old, haunting and raw, Washington Phillips is great, particularly "Mother's Last words to Her Son." It's on YouTube but I can't get the URL to pick up.

Posted by LeRoc (# 3216) on :

I'm not really into country, but I like some of the stuff by Krauss.

Posted by Pyx_e (# 57) on :

Well I think you are all awesome, thank you so much! Treat for me and hopefully for my bro.

Fly Safe, Sul

Posted by A.Pilgrim (# 15044) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Og, King of Bashan:

quote:
Originally posted by A.Pilgrim:
Is this a thread designed to smoke out those shipmates who listen to the most unfashionable music in the world??
I was in Nashville a few weeks back and spent an afternoon at the Country Music Hall of Fame. I came out convinced that Country fans have nothing to apologize for. Sure Nashville is an industry, but they don't try to hide it.

Now if you don't mind, I am off to hang our souvenir Dobro tree ornament on our tree.

I confess to speaking from a UK social milieu in which the only music more despised than Country is Sing Something Simple with the Cliff Adams Singers. You have to be a real hard case over here to admit to liking Country, while those of us who do, certainly appreciate it.

quote:
Originally posted by Twilight:
I'm surprised at the people posting here, too. Moo is from western Virginia and I'm from West Virginia, so it's no surprise we like Blue Grass, but the rest of you? Shocking.

Well, if we're going to get into Bluegrass as well, there's always Run C&W who take pop classics and do them 'As God intended - bluegrass style'. And if you want obscure, try The New Coon Creek Girls with The L&N don't stop here anymore which is as plaintive as they come. (And a great track.)

Angus

Posted by Gussie (# 12271) on :

I'm a fan of Washington Philip's too. His Denomination Blues is probably worthy of a thread in it's own right.

I thought I didn't like country music, till I listened to the the Bob Dylan Radion Hour a few years back, where he played some amazing stuff.

Posted by Timothy the Obscure (# 292) on :

Ken had a good list. Here is a country mix CD I made for my daughter when she fell in love with country music after seeing "Cash" several years ago:

Jimmie Rodgers: Blue Yodel (#1)
Johnny Cash: Don't Take Your Guns to Town
Tom T. Hall: A Week in a Country Jail
Merle Haggard: Mama Tried
Lefty Frizzell: Long Black Veil
Tammy Wynette: Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad
Ray Price: Bubbles in My Beer
Flatt & Scruggs: Foggy Mountain Breakdown
Eddy Arnold: Tennessee Stud
Roger Miller: King of the Road
Bobby Bare: Detroit City
Ralph Stanley: Hard Times
Lefty Frizzell: Saginaw Michigan
Claude King: Wolverton Mountain
Merle Haggard: Okie From Muskogee
Jeannie C. Riley: Harper Valley PTA
Tammy Wynette: Stand By Your Man
Conway Twitty & Loretta Lynn: After the Fire Is Gone
Dolly Parton: Satin Sheets
Hank Williams: A Mansion On the Hill
Merle Haggard: I Never Go Around Mirrors
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys: Corrina Corrina
Patsy Cline: Walking After Midnight

There was a second CD, which I won't list track by track, but it included:

Patsy Cline: I Fall to Pieces
Tammy Wynette: D-I-V-O-R-C-E
George Jones: He Stopped Loving Her Today
Loretta Lynn: Don't Come Home A-Drinkin'(with Lovin' on Your Mind)

Plus more Bob Wills, the Maddox Brothers & Rose, Hank Snow (Golden Rocket), the Delmore Brothers... and almost everything Hank Williams recorded (but skip the "Luke the Drifter" album).

For the more modern stuff, look at Lyle Lovett, Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, Todd Snider, Iris Dement, and for the more mainstream commercial stuff Brad Paisley, the Pistol Annies, and Melinda Lambert. Alan Jackson is pretty good sometimes (and really awful at others).

Sturgeon's Law applies (90% of everything is crap), but people who sneer at country music are just as unmusical as those who say that opera is just a bunch of people screaming.

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