# The Essential Music Library: Country & Western **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 16, 2005, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-music-library-country-western/335850 "2005-12-16T02:33:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![vl\_mungo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/bc8723/32.png) [@vl\_mungo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vl_mungo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2005, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-music-library-country-western/335850/21 "2005-12-16T23:27:16Z")
**Jimmie Dale Gilmour** , cult status or no, deserves to be on this list. Also worth mentioning is his old band **The Flatlanders** Some more… **Junior Brown** - 12 Shades of Brown **The Byrds** - Sweetheart of the Rodeo **Neko Case** - Furnace Room Lullaby **Vic Chesnutt** - Drunk **Alejandro Escovedo** - More Miles Than Money **The Flying Burrito Brothers** - Guilded Palace of Sin **The Knitters** - Poor Little Critter on the Road **Ennio Morricone** - The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Soundtrack **Uncle Tupelo** - No Depression ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-music-library-country-western/335850/22 "2005-12-16T23:56:27Z")
I’m kinda partial to Steve Earle with two of my favorite of his country stuff being, “Hillbilly Highway” “The Devil’s Right Hand” “I Feel Alright” is a good two CD compilation, IMHO. More country than some of his more recent albums. ---
**Author:** ![elelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@elelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elelle)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-music-library-country-western/335850/23 "2005-12-17T05:19:05Z")
To add a few more: **Ernest Tubb Maddox Brothers and Rose Patsy Montana Tammy Wynette The Louvin Brothers The Delmore Brothers Roy Acuff Gene Autry Uncle Dave Macon Charlie Poole Tex Ritter Vernon Oxford Johnny Paycheck Faron Young** and for those who cut the edge **Woodrow Wilson Guthrie Doug Sahm Freddy Fender Charlie Pride Gram Parsons Emmylou Harris Commander Cody David Allan Coe The Flatlanders KD Laing** For a great book on the subject: Bill C. Malone’s _Country Music USA_ is a very thorough tome. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-music-library-country-western/335850/24 "2005-12-17T06:35:44Z")
Don’t forget that folks who are unfamiliar with the genre would probably appreciate album recommendations, especially for the more prolific acts listed here. ---
**Author:** ![blackhobyah](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blackhobyah](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blackhobyah)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 12:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-music-library-country-western/335850/25 "2005-12-17T12:05:26Z")
Yeah for Dwight, Dolly and Steve Earle. And Patsy Cline. Actually, I’m a sucker for all of those “old” country female singers. K D Lang’s _Shadowland_ has a terrific medley duet with Loretta Lynn and a couple of others, which is worth buying the CD for alone, but the rest of it is excellent as well. I’ve listening to Dwight Yoakam’s \*Guitars, Cadillacs and Hillbilly Music \*in my car for the last couple of weeks. It’s an early album, but I’m loving the band so much I just keep listening to it over and over … the guitar is especially wonderful. Listen to the track "Twenty Years’. How about Lucinda Williams? And for an Australian flavour, Kasey Chambers, _Barricades and Brickwalls_. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-music-library-country-western/335850/26 "2005-12-17T14:40:32Z")
This thread is chock full of some really excellent recommendations. I think I’ll put on some Patsy Cline and relax a bit. ---
**Author:** ![SSG\_Schwartz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@SSG\_Schwartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SSG_Schwartz)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-music-library-country-western/335850/27 "2005-12-17T19:59:39Z")
Maria McKee has a beatutiful a voice as Patsy Cline and both must be included Classic Country must include Don Williams for his songwriting abilities And lets not leave out CowPunk–Drivin’ and Cryin’s Mystery Road ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-music-library-country-western/335850/28 "2005-12-17T23:43:30Z")
> [@Sgt Schwartz](#): > > Classic Country must include Don Williams for his songwriting abilities Agreed. [Have a look.](http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=ADFEAEE4781CDF49A97620C8852D1599E620D210DF4BF58150234558C0B73844810473FD0DA7C6CCB6E577B479AAB328AE5909D9CAED469CA1&uid=MIW040512171834&sql=11:2srb286c056a~T51) 17 #1 hits over the course of his career - 42 in the top ten. That’s a remarkable run! ---
**Author:** ![Labdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/439d5e/32.png) [@Labdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labdad)\ **Post date:** [December 17, 2005, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-music-library-country-western/335850/29 "2005-12-17T23:56:28Z")
> [@River Hippie](#): > > I’m kinda partial to Steve Earle…“I Feel Alright” is a good two CD compilation, IMHO. More country than some of his more recent albums. Steve Earle is one of my favorites. Slight nitpick: the two CD collection is “Ain’t Ever Satisfied.” “I Feel Alright” is a very good album, though! ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2005, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-music-library-country-western/335850/30 "2005-12-18T00:24:27Z")
> [@Labdad](#): > > Steve Earle is one of my favorites. Slight nitpick: the two CD collection is “Ain’t Ever Satisfied.” “I Feel Alright” is a very good album, though! Oh man, I can’t believe I got those mixed up! ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2005, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-music-library-country-western/335850/31 "2005-12-18T04:38:36Z")
Has Kitty Wells been mentioned? (My mind ain’t what it used to be) Also, Hank Locklin from the earlier days. Two individual songs that are great samples of honky-tonk music: Chris Hillman and Steve Earles’ version of _High Fashion Queen_ Emmylou Harris’s _I’ll Be Your San Antone Rose_ ---
**Author:** ![Aeschines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aeschines/32/16251_2.png) [@Aeschines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aeschines)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2005, 5:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-music-library-country-western/335850/32 "2005-12-18T05:03:01Z")
Lefty Frizzell, Moe Bandy (“It’s a Cheating Situation”), The Kendalls, Ray Price, Hank Snow, etc. ---
**Author:** ![Waterman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/b2d939/32.png) [@Waterman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waterman)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2005, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-music-library-country-western/335850/33 "2005-12-18T05:04:32Z")
> [@Labdad](#): > > …Country music on the pop charts would have never happened without Chet Atkins. In which case we, and the music, would have benefitted immensely if Chet would have stuck to guitar pickin and kept out of production. Thus the formulaic crap that has been spewed out of Nashville in the last thirty years. It has taken the work of the non-Nashville artists such as Yoakam, Nelson, Jimmie Dale, Butch Hancock, Steve Earle, etc to bring the music back. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-essential-music-library-country-western/335850.md?page=1)