If you can find it, start with Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire.” Absent that, go with “Greatest Hits.”
Also check out some Hank Snow, Ferlin Huskey, Farron Young, Ernest Tubb, early Willie Nelson (also pick up “Stardust”), George Jones’ first greatest hits package (the one with the pink leisure suit and horrendous polyester shirt on the cover - “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” pure poetry). On the female side there’s only a couple of places to start: Patsy Cline and Kitty Wells. You can also pick up k.d. lang’s “Shadowland” CD and hear a great, country-influenced package (produced by Owen Bradley - creator of the Nashville Sound).
Stay away from any male singer who wears a cowboy hat.
Since you specifically mentioned “Dead Flowers,” you have to get “Grievous Angel,” and “GP” by Gram Parsons. He was the Stones’ country influence (also Emmylou Harris’s main man). Died of a heroin overdose and then his friends stole his body and burned it at the Joshua Tree Monument in Death Valley. Go figure.
“He stopped loving her today,
They placed a wreath upon his door.
And now they carry him away,
He stopped loving her today.”
Stones ‘Sweet Virginia’ on Exile on Main Street.
Kinks ‘Muswell Hillbillies’
T-Bone Burnett
Daniel Lanois (Acadie)
kd lang’s first three albums.
Ween “12 Country Greats” title refers (I think)not to the ten songs but to the Nashville session men who helped record this great love note/satire.
Elvis Costello “King of America” was recorded with some of the more awesome country session men notably James Burton, EPs sun sessions guitarist.
TexasSpur lists a lot of good acts (though I’m not sure that Jerry Jeff Walker could be considered “young and just entering his prime”… ;)).
And TexasSpur is right. There are a lot of good “underground” country acts out there right now. (Some refer to this as “alternative country”.) These acts are getting back to the roots of country, playing more honky tonk style music, and not the lame country/pop you hear on the radio.
If you live in a large city, chances are there’s a club somewhere in town that features these acts. Check around. Also, there are a few “Americana” format radio stations popping up around the country that play some of these new country acts, along with Jones, Cash, Haggard, et al. I only wish we had such a station in Atlanta. The closest one is 1170 AM up in Cumming (about 30 miles north of town), but its signal is too weak to reach downtown. Any north Atlanta dopers out there might want to check it out, though.
And TexasSpur, Nashville is not out of the loop on this stuff. In fact, Nashville has a lot of these acts popping up. (BR5-49 springs to mind.)
Branson, Missouri, on the other hand, is the seat of all that is evil in country music.
Oh well, if you’re talking country rock in the Gram Parsons tradition, I should mention more current (or at least recent) acts Wilco, Sun Volt and The Jayhawks.
Of course, country rock was big in the 70’s. The Eagles were doing it. There was Pure Prairie League, The Marshall Tucker Band, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, etc. The Stones were obviously influenced by the sound.
And speaking of The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, you might want to give a listen to Will the Circle Be Unbroken, a 70’s ensemble album that brought together some of the folks doing country rock with some of their older bluegrass and country influences.
This is all true. On the other hand, Bill Monroe may have invented Bluegrass, but Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs perfected it. If you have any interest in Bluegrass at all, pick up Tis Sweet to Be Remembered, which collects their best work.
Speaking of invention, Scruggs invented the three-fingered banjo style now used by virtually all bluegrass pickers. Before he came along, people just strummed the durned thing. :rolleyes:
Flatt and Scruggs started out as members of Bill Monroe’s band, but this is a case of the pupils surpassing the teacher if ever there was one.
If you’re interested in Bluegrass at all, the Appalachian Stomp compilations from Rhino Records are a good introduction to the genre.
I’d also like to put in a few words for Wayne Hancock and Dale Watson. These two have only been around for a few years, but they sound like throwbacks to the golden age of honky tonk music.
I’ll second the mention of Jimmie Dale Gilmore. “Dallas” is a great song and the whole “After Awhile” CD is fine, too. Check out Joe Ely for a little more rockin’ flavor. Lucinda Williams, if you’re interested in the female side, is tops in my book.
Get thee to a record store and buy Johnny Cash’s recent collection Love God Murder. It is country music. (You can buy the three discs separately, and if you must do so, get Murder, but they’re all worth having.)
If you find a quality record store, they may have a section of “Alternative Country”, which I once heard defined as “country music that isn’t mass-produced claptrap”. There you’ll find some of the artists mentioned above–Junior Brown, BR5-49, Lyle Lovett, the Old 97’s, Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams (her Car Wheels on a Gravel Road is a masterpiece), etc.
I love the way everyone jumped on this question with some high-quality suggestions. I love this MB.
You must check out Lyle Lovitt. His music isn’t really country…oh, I can’t explain it. I got hooked on him in college and I go to his shows every time he comes to town.
Emmylou Harris, Johnny Cash, and my all-time favorite, WILLIE NELSON are good. Nelson put out an album not too long ago called “Teatro” that is the best conversation-inducing album I have right now (I hope that makes sense).
One other performer you might check out is Jason Ringenberg. He just released a nice little acoustic CD entitled Pocketful of Soul on his own label.
The new CD is in the alternative country vein, but Jason’s history is in the so-called cowpunk genre. If you’re interested in that stuff (country music doused in gasoline and set on fire) then check out Essential Jason and the Scorchers - Are You Ready for the Country.
Even if you don’t buy either CD, by all means take any chance to catch a live performance by Jason Ringenberg or by Jason and the Scorchers. Jason is one of the most electrifying live performers ever. He’s touring right now with just a guitar, and he still drove the crowd nuts in Atlanta.
Here are his tour dates, most of which (sadly) have already passed. Looks like he has a couple of dates in Texas and one in Birmingham coming up in January, though.
I wont make you tell me
what I’ve come to understand…
your a certain kind of woman,
I’m a different kind of man.
I’ve tried to make you love me,
you’ve tried to find a spark
of the flame that burned
but somehow turned
to smoke rings in the dark
~snip~
The night is like a dagger
long and cold and sharp
as I sit here on the front steps
blowin smoke rings in the dark…"
I get goosebumps every time I hear it. I am listening to it right now and all the hairs are sticking up on my arms.
I am not a big fan of country, but there’s a song called “Highway Man”, sung by Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Kris Kristofferson, that I adore.
The Devil Went Down to Memphis and Ghost Riders in The Sky are also high on my hits list.
And there’s also The Outlaws, Ozark Mountain Daredevils, some stuff by Lynyrd Skynyrd and the first albuns by ZZ Top.
You might also like Aaron Tippin. If nothing else, I think you might like “Kiss This”, which was just played on the radio and inspired thie recommendation.
Thanks yet again for all your fantastic suggestions, I’ve been having a great time getting familiar with the music that’s been mentioned.
Has anybody heard the soundtrack for the upcoming Coen Brothers film Oh Brother, Where Art Thou? I did and it’s great; it’s a collection of period music that includes bluegrass, traditional country, blues, and other stuff I don’t have the vocabulary to describe. The songs are very well-chosen and I’ve never heard a soundtrack like it… it’s very Mark Twain-esque. (The movie looks great, too… I hope it opens here soon.)