In my foolish youth, I said "Country Music sucks". Now I know better.

[K364]

I’m still dubious about top-40 Country. But around the Edges and down in the Roots I’ve discovered some of the best music I’ve ever heard.

Whether pure twang or slight twang or whatever there is a connection to simple values and emotions that ring so true.

Here are some examples. Please post more if you can.

Blackie and the Rodeo Kings featuring Serena Ryder perform Black Sheep
Forever Young - Audra Mae & The Forest Rangers
Jerusalem’s Ridge - Mark O’Connor with Kenny Baker
The Civil Wars - Dance Me to the End of Love
Anna Fermin’s Trigger Gospel - Northern Lights
Sally Timms - When the Roses Bloom Again
Shawn Colvin - Crazy
John Prine and Iris DeMent - In Spite of Ourselves
Gene Clark & Carla Olson - Gypsy Rider

[nightshadea]

if ya want real and true country start at hank Williams SR patsy cline willie nelson George jones and johnny cash and grandmas personal favorite jim reeves ……
stop at anything after garth brooks …….

[lisiate]

Dave Rawlings Machine - To Be Young

[BobBitchin]

@nightshadea

if ya want real and true country start at hank Williams SR patsy cline willie nelson George jones and johnny cash and grandmas personal favorite jim reeves ……
stop at anything after garth brooks …….

I personally support this statement:D:D

[terentii]

I’ll add this to the mix:

BIG BAD JOHN ~ Jimmy Dean (1961)

[jaycat]

@nightshadea

if ya want real and true country start at hank Williams SR patsy cline willie nelson George jones and johnny cash and grandmas personal favorite jim reeves ……
stop at anything after garth brooks …….

Actually you can stop after Gary Stewart…

[Beckdawrek]

Look into Hayes Carll. He’s really genre-d as Americana, but he has deep country roots. The Carter Family is da bomb. As in June Carter Cash’s family.

[Penfeather]

Wilderness by The Handsome Family is a masterpiece of awesome weirdness: it’s basically a concept album about wild animals, and is what would happen if Davids Attenborough and Lynch smoked a whole bunch of weed together and then got Johnny Cash to turn their visions into song:

Sylvia was struck by lightning while reading in bed one night
She’d left the window open, the storm caught her by surprise
For days she lay still as stone hooked to pumps and tubes
Then out her window the street lights flashed and at last a finger moved
She awoke to a cacophony of electric and radio waves
Pulsing rays of energy falling from outer space
High in swaying towers, down in basements full of dust
She could not escape the static, the sixty cycle hum
She wore dark-tinted spectacles, several fur-lined capes
Three pairs of velvet gloves, a veil of dotted swiss
But all the Earth’s vibrations still pounded through her ears
So she packed a steamer trunk, flew a prop plane to Belize

{from Caterpillars}

{Spoilers: she gets wrapped up in silk by caterpillars}

[nearwildheaven]

@Beckdawrek

Look into Hayes Carll. He’s really genre-d as Americana, but he has deep country roots. The Carter Family is da bomb. As in June Carter Cash’s family.

Maybelle Carter is just plain old one of the greatest guitarists ever.

[pool]

I was much the same way and just wrote country music off in my youth. Now a little older and wiser I have learned to appreciate it. Still generally I don’t like modern pop country as much as I like the older outlaw type country music.

[Siam_Sam]

In my foolish youth, I said “Country Music sucks”. Now I know it holds true.

[Dinsdale]

@nightshadea

if ya want real and true country start at hank Williams SR patsy cline willie nelson George jones and johnny cash and grandmas personal favorite jim reeves ……
stop at anything after garth brooks …….

Thirded.

Add in Jimmy Rogers, Bob Wills, Waylon, Merle, Buck Owens and man I don’t know how many old groups.

Of more recent vintage, try Sleepy LaBeef, Jason and the Scorchers, Goober and the Peas, Mike Ness…

Or how bout Dwight Yaokum, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock, Joe Ely…

I used to be like you - I said I liked all music other than opera and country. Still can’t stomach opera, and have no use for “big hat” music. But if it ain’t got a twang, there’s a good chance it ain’t shit.

[Skywatcher]

Believe it or not, the Bee Gees tried country for a while before going disco.

[RealityChuck]

I hated it back in the 60s. Nowadays, though, country music is just country rock like Poco or the Eagles. Not a fan (except for Lyle Lovett), but I don’t hate it any more.

[Skywatcher]

Speaking acts from Australia, Mike McClellan might be of interest.

[Happy_Lendervedder]

Used to say country sucked myself. And today’s stuff does. But Willie, Waylon, Johnny, Alan, the Georges (Jones & Straight) and Buck are among my favorites now.

All-time favorite is Dwight Yoakam. Three amazing country albums: “Guitars, Cadillacs, etc.,” “Hillbilly Deluxe” and “A Long Way Home.”

[Skywatcher]

How about some instrumental bluegrass?

[snfaulkner]

@nightshadea

if ya want real and true country start at hank Williams SR patsy cline willie nelson George jones and johnny cash and grandmas personal favorite jim reeves ……
stop at anything after garth brooks …….

4th’d

[scabpicker]

Heh, in my early youth, I was raised on country/western, novelty songs and show tunes. That’s where I learned that there’s good and bad in any form, no matter the age. My current recent favorite is Sturgill Simpson. He gets it.

[Rick_Kitchen]

@nightshadea

if ya want real and true country start at hank Williams SR patsy cline willie nelson George jones and johnny cash and grandmas personal favorite jim reeves ……
stop at anything after garth brooks …….

I beg to differ. Christ Stapleton is a god.