Well, when the man’s right, he’s right! I stopped listening to country music around the time Shania got really popular, and around time time Faith Hill had her makeover and stopped singing country music. To me, that marks the clear point when C&W stopped being C&W and became nothing more than a strand of obnoxious, over-produced, underwhelming, pop crap.
The Cowboy Junkies. They got a bit coffeetable later, but Whites Off Earth Now, The Trinity Sessions and Caution Horses were a fantastic hat-trick of albums. Oh, and killah def lang, especially when The Reclines were still her band.
Maybe not well known, but damn good and under appreciated.