When I was a kid my mother had a Kitty Wells record. One of the songs was “I Gave My Wedding Dress Away:”
As a young girl I thought it was so sad, and so noble of the singer to do what she did. Then I grew up an thought “Girl, you had a close call! Why are you pining for a guy who would throw you over for your sister?”
No love for schmaltzy old Kenny Rogers?
Coward Of The County
The Gambler
Lucille
Give Western Swing a listen on archive.org. Artists I like:
Bob Skyles & His Skyrockets
Bob Dunn’s Vagabonds
Clayton McMichen’s Georgia Wildcats
Al Dexter
Jimmie Revard & His Oklahoma Playboys
Leon Selph & His Blue Ridge Playboys
Dave Edward & His Alabama Boys
Lot of great stuff here already. Tried not to duplicate anything. And I’ll add my vote for just about everything by Hank Williams.
George Jones - Bartender’s Blues
Townes van Zandt - Pancho and Lefty (the original version)
Townes van Zandt - Waiting Around To Die
Willie Nelson - Red Headed Stranger (get the entire album if you can)
Ray Charles & Willie Nelson - Seven Spanish Angels
The Charlie Daniels Band - The Devil Went Down To Georgia
The Charlie Daniels Band - Longhaired Country Boy
Dolly Parton - Here You Come Again
Hank Williams - Cold Cold Heart
Waylon Jennings & Willie Nelson - Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys
Merle Haggard - Okie From Muskogee
Merle Haggard - I Think I’ll just stay Here and Drink
Tanya Tucker - Delta Dawn
Johnny Cash - Ring Of Fire
Loretta Lynn - Coal Miners Daughter
Jim Reeves - He’ll Have To Go
Merle Haggard - Today I Started Loving You Again
Marty Robbins - El Paso
Ernest Tubb - I’m Walking the Floor Over You
Johnny Cash - One More Ride (though that recording is from around '89), The One on the Right, Guess Things Happen That Way, The Ballad of Ira Hayes
Johnny Russell - Rednecks, White Socks and Blue Ribbon Beer
Charlie Pride - Burgers and Fries, Is Anybody Going to San Antone
Conway Twitty - Don’t Cry, Joni
Tom T Hall - (Old Dogs, Children and) Watermelon Wine, I Like Beer
Hoyt Axton - Della and the Dealer, Lion in the Winter, Boney Fingers
Loretta Lynn - One’s on the Way
Dolly Parton - Joshua, My Tennessee Mountain Home, Jolene, Apple Jack
“Wabash Cannonball” - Roy Acuff & His Crazy Tennesseeans
Just because it’s late and I’m drinking and I don’t have that much to brag about: Roy Acuff was my step-father’s 1st cousin. (Trace the line back to Carr. Their shared grandfather was a horse & buggy doctor who my step-father would sometimes “help out” by carrying his bag.) Roy and his wife sent us an electric skillet when my first husband and I got married. When his mother died our family went to Nashville for the funeral. Met Minnie Pearl and Hank Williams Jr. who looked and acted like a greaser. All the men kept visiting an outbuilding where the liquor was kept. Roy’s place was on the river, nice, and Roy’d made many trips. While sitting in the rocking chairs on the long porch facing the river, Roy told me about the “vinyl sidyl” (siding)—he wasn’t drunk, he was talking in cursive lol—he’d got put on the house. It looked good. I’m 5’3" and he sat smaller in his rocker than I did. He didn’t really know me but had been close to my step-father (they still were up to their deaths) and he was just making nice in a rambling sort of way. I always appreciated his music, maybe more because it was “family.” And if I’ve actually posted this I really am in my cups.
If this is met with resounding silence, okay.
It’s a nice story. Glad you got to meet him.
Yes, good story. And I’m going to use the “talking in cursive” line. 
Thanks.
It’s not old but try “Gulf Cost Highway” – the version with Willie Nelson and Emmylou Harris, and see if you start crying when you hear it like I do.
Glad to see Kris getting his props. Agreed, his singing is like cheap whiskey poured through rusty barbed-wire, but he is one of the most amazing songwriters of the last century. I grew up listening to his lesser-known but equally powerful songs: Casey’s Last Ride, Duvalier’s Dream, Darby’s Castle, The Best Of All Possible Worlds, Just The Other Side Of Nowhere. Of course, many of his songs were hits for others: Me And Bobbi McGee, Sunday Morning Comin’ Down, Help Me Make It Through The Night.
If you like Buck Owens, look for Streets Of Bakersfield, a duet he did with Dwight Yoakum. Classic honky-tonk.