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
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.
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.
Don’t forget that folks who are unfamiliar with the genre would probably appreciate album recommendations, especially for the more prolific acts listed here.
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.
This thread is chock full of some really excellent recommendations. I think I’ll put on some Patsy Cline and relax a bit.
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
Agreed. Have a look. 17 #1 hits over the course of his career - 42 in the top ten. That’s a remarkable run!
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!
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
Lefty Frizzell, Moe Bandy (“It’s a Cheating Situation”), The Kendalls, Ray Price, Hank Snow, etc.
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.