Hank Williams…ahhhh…
I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.
I used to fall asleep on a Saturday night, listening to WSM and the Grand Ole Opry.
I heard 'em all. Hank Snow, Hank Thompson, Kitty Wells, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Roy Acuff, Webb Pierce, Ray Price. This was all before 1962.
I like about any kind of music you can name. Blues and Bluegrass are perhaps still my favorite. I quit listening to “country music” in the 70’s. Not that there haven’t been some good performers.
I have an early(1959)album of Ray Price’s. He was known as the “Cherokee Cowboy.” The cut on there that was his biggest hit at the time was “Crazy Arms.” It’s classic 1940’s-50’s nasal twang at its best. I bought an album of his some many years later, after he had been on Johhny Carson, and country music got mainstream. Played the same cut from that album. You wouldn’t believe the difference. With the violins in the background, and perhaps what sounds like lessons from Henry Higgins, you wouldn’t know it was the same guy. Pity.
George Straight has been pluggin’ along forever and still does it right.
Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash
Loretta Lynn can sing and write the shit outta songs.
This is a great thread! You and I must be close in ageSamclem .
Just took a quick look in my “Classics” file.
Waylon - Sally was a good old girl
Oak Ridge Boys - Monogahela
- Y’all Come Back Saloon
Billy Walker - Charleys Shoes
Buck Owens - Sams Place
Marty Robbins - Don’t Worry 'Bout Me
Faron Young - Hello Walls
Grandpa Jones - Eight More Miles To Louisville
Hoyt Axton - Della And The Dealer
Ray Price - anything really but my favorite is City Lights
And not to forget Canada’s contribution to classis country - Hank Snow. My personal favorites - Millers Cave and I’ve Been Everywhere. Try to sink along with that!
And many, many more.
I’m going to agree for the most part with Big Bad Voodoo Lou, and also mention to milquetoast that although I like The Corn Sisters that album is a crap recording. Best to see them live, in fact I count myself as a huge fan of the “other Corn Sister”, Carolyn Mark. Especially live.
To return to the OP, for the oldtimers (that haven’t already been mentioned) you should check out The Maddox Brothers & Rose and nearly anything that came out on Sun Records.
Some more good new(er) country you should check out…
The Handsome Family
Junior Brown
John Doe
The Sadies
Blanche
Uncle Tupelo (and Son Volt and Wilco)
and
The Supersuckers (the album, Must Have Been High… you may not necessarily appreciate their other ones)
FUCK LUCKENBACH! PARTY HERE! 
My wife and I listen to Dish channel 951 while we play cards. Lots of “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!” and seriously corny lyrics.
I’m too drunk to rememer my “favorite” from this channel, but there are some winners there.
I will definitely check that out. Thanks!
Such good recommendations you all have given. My iTunes is racking up!
I absolutely second “He Stopped Loving Her Today” as a great love song. That’s up there with Willie’s “You Were Always On My Mind.”
I really love good country music; not fond of most of the Muzak coming out of Nashville these days.
Fave older country/rockabilly artists: Hank Williams, George"The Race Is On" Jones, Johnny Cash, Carter Family, Louvin Brothers, Loretta Lynn, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens on a good day, Johnny Paycheck, Marvin Rainwater, Charlie Feathers, Delmore Brothers, Vernon Oxford, Del McCourey, Whitey Schaeffer…ok, suppose that’s a start.
My all-time favorite band is Maddox Brothers and Rose. If I had a chance to travel back in time, first on my list would be to go back and see them perform. They were incredible! Arhoolie’s The Maddox Brothers and Rose, “America’s Most Colorful Hillbilly Band” Vol 1 is great. There’s a boxed set, too, that I hope to get soon. Don’t know if these are downloadable, but “Move It On Over”, “New Step It Up and Go”, and “I Want To Live and Love” are good for starters.
Newer alt-country(well, real modern country to my mind, but that’s the term to set it apart from the Nash-driville) : Dale Watson, Kelly Willis, Lucinda Williams, Iris Dement, The Flatlanders (TX legends Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, Butch Hancock), Tift Merritt, The Two Dollar Pistols, and a good shout out to the Dixie Chicks, too.
You might want to check out No Depression magazine for some good reading on alt-country, but also articles paying proper respect to older artists as well.
And here would be the should have been link: http://www.nodepression.net/
A lot of people have already said!
Johnny Cash!!
Even if your not a counrty fan, you gotta love his voice and some of his
songs!
Johnny Cash - The Reverend Mr. Black
Johnny Cash - A Boy Named Sue
I though this song was by Cash for many years.
Charlie Daniels Band - THe Devil Went Down to Georgia
It sounds like, and the style is like Cash + one kick ass fiddling job!!
A little obscure, but some great old-school country is Tom T Hall…he’s a Johnny Cash voice with aBuck Owens humor. 
Hanlk Snow & His Radio Cowboys: I’m Moving On, I’ve Been Everywhere
Webb Pierce: There Stands the Glass, I Ain’t Never
Warren Smith: Black Jack David
Don Gibson: Oh Lonesome Me
Roger Miller: Dang Me, My Uncle Used to Love Me But She Died
Red Sovine: Girl on the Billboard
Flying Burrito Brothers: Sin City, Hot Burrito #2
Buck Owens: Under Your Spell, Close Up the Honky Tonks
J.J. Cale: Crazy Mama, They Call Me the Breeze
Johnny Darrell: Why You Been Gone So Long
Tompall Glaser: Get Your Biscuits in the Oven (and Your Buns in the Bed)
John Anderson: Wild and Blue
David Allen Coe: You Never Even Called Me By My Name
For more recent stuff, hows about Laura Cantrell, “Churches on the Interstate,” Jason Boland, “Pearl Snaps,” anything by Robbie Fulks, Junior Brown, Dale Watson.
Donna Fargo - “Superman”
I love her happy voice, and the lyrics to this song are hysterical:
" ...well just 'cause you can walk on water,
that ain't no sign that I can.
You know your momma shoulda named you Superman."As a kid in the '70’s, I had to listen to WMZQ, a country station in the DC area, every morning as my family ate breakfast. I absorbed it all as a little kid, hated it as a teen (It was what my *parents * liked) and now enjoy it. I bought the time-life queens of country CDs for my mom and really regretted giving them to her. I think I’ll get another set for myself.
I like the older stuff now because it was so natural and heartfelt. Todays “Hot, New Country” reeks of shallow shiny-ness. It has taken on the worst aspects of pop-rock.
Now, I really hate country music (at least today’s crap), but there is some that I really like of the older stuff.
One of my favorite songs of all time is “Good Time Charlie’s Got The Blues”, by Danny O’Keefe.
**Patsy Cline ** is a perennial favorite, as is Eddy Arnold.
**Chet Atkins ** transcends the genre.
**Vaughn Monroe ** for “Ghost Riders”.
**Hank Williams’ ** music was a reflection of his life and times.
Aaaahh. WMZQ. That station was at the heart of the Urban Cowboy mania. My parents listened every day, too, and to this day if I hear a random old country song I’ll know all the words but not really remember how I know them. I went through the same feelings too – knew all the songs as a kid, thought I was too cool for it in teenage years, then returned to respecting the music as an adult.
She’s a good hearted woman in love with a good timin’ man
She loves him in spite of his wicked ways she don’t understand
With teardrops & laughter they pass through this world hand in hand
A good hearted woman, lovin’ a good timin’ man
Love ya, Waylon 
Love This! More from the vault.
Johnny Cash - Gry, Cry, Cry
Merle Haggard - Big City, Rainbow Stew
Webb Pierce - Pick Me Up On Your Way Down
Porter Wagoner - Carroll County Accident
Stonewall Jackson - Waterloo
Ricky Skaggs - Heartbroke
George Jones - Who Shot Sam
Claude King - Wolverton Mountain
It’s nice to revisit the past and happy memories associated with certai songs.
I’m gonna third (I think) Western Swing.
Besides Bob Wills:
Milt Brown and his Brownies
Spade Cooley
The Tune Wranglers
And for something different, Adolph Hofner
For an overview, try this site.
Johnny Cash and his Tennessee Three: “One Piece at a Time”
Johnny Horton: “Sink the Bismarck”, “Jambalaya”, “The Battle of New Orleans”, and “Rock Island Line”.
Bill Monroe: “Heavy Traffic Ahead”
Hank Williams: “Lost Highway”
Ronnie Milsap: “Lost in the Fifties Tonight”
The Flying Burrito Brothers: “Wheels”
Amen!
A few posts listed “Harper Valley P.T.A.” but no mention that Tom T. Hall wrote it.
During his fling at singing Tom T. Hall and the Storytellers put out some great songs, among them:
The Year Clayton Delaney Died
Homecoming
Old Dogs, Children & Watermelon Wine
Ballad of Forty Dollars
Many songs buried in his albums were far deeper than the stuff that charted.