Since we’ve made it to Page 3 of the thread, I’m wondering if we need a new thread for the sub-topic of Country Instrumentals. Just to test that idea, let’s focus on them for as little while.
I can’t name a single one from recent times, but Steel Guitar Rag (which I mentioned early on) is quintessential Country for me. Orange Blossom Special. What else?
Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Yakety Sax/Yakety Axe, Last Date.
Note that there are words to Orange Blossom Special. I only recall hearing it sung by Johnny Cash.
Cash’s recollection of recording it, and the lyrics.
From liner notes on the RCA album “60 Years of Country Music”:
A novelty fiddle instrumental originally known as “South Florida Blues,” the song was re-titled in the mid-1930s by the manager of the Rouse Brothers in conjunction with the christening of the Seaboard Railroad’s New York-to-Miami train called the “Orange Blossom Special.” Ervin Rouse later added lyrics to the tune for a 1939 Rouse Brothers recording.
Cool link, Gary T, and the mention of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” makes me think of “Duelin’ Banjos” which Is almost TOO Country. 
I decided to look around at YouTube for some instrumentals. See if these make you think of better ones:
Tommy Emmanuel - Guitar Boogie
Chet Atkins & Jerry Reed - “The Claw”
Earl Scruggs And Lester Flatt - Cripple Creek
MERLE TRAVIS Cannonball Rag
Great song…until he trashed it during the '08 presidential campaign by substituting “McCain/Palin tradition” for “family tradition.”
I doubt I’ll be able to ever enjoy the original version again. :mad:
I like just about everything by David Allan Coe but he was a huge disappointment at the concert I went to of his a couple of years ago. He played for 30-35 minutes tops and was probably drunk - at any rate, I could barely understand the words to the songs he was singing, even the ones I would normally be able to sing along with. Someone, who was closer to the stage than I was, told me it looked like he had puke down the front of his shirt.
I really don’t like any of the current country music but there was a lot of good stuff in the early 80’s. Songs like, “CC, Water Back” (George Jones) and “Jose Quervo (I Had Too Much Tequila Last Night)” by Shelly West. Yes, there is a pattern there with bar songs. 
Charlie Daniels name-checks a bunch of instrumental fiddle tunes in The Devil Went Down to Georgia:
Granny Does Your Dog Bite?
Fire on the Mountain
(I can’t find Chicken in the Bread Pan, though.)
My favorite bluegrass instrumental is Jerusalem Ridge.
Wait! You’re playing George Jones songs, solo, on a piano at cocktail hour. Is this in a country bar? If in a mainstream bar, what do your customer’s think(or do they even know?)
(non-instrumentals)
Lots of my favorites already mentioned. I skimmed the thread and may have missed some, but didn’t notice these:
Don Williams - I Believe In You
Waylon Jennings - Luckenbach, Texas
Conway Twitty - I Don’t Know A Thing About Love
George Strait - Fool Hearted Memory, and Blame It On Mexico, and like 50 other songs.
Kenny Rogers - Lucille
Tanya Tucker - Texas (When I Die)
B.J. Thomas - Another Somebody Done Somebody Wrong Song
Eddie Rabbitt - I Love A Rainy Night, and On Second Thought
Alabama - If You’re Gonna Play In Texas (You Gotta Have A Fiddle In The Band)
Bellamy Brothers - More of You
Hal Ketchum - Small Town Saturday Night
I could keep going all night.
So what’s with David Allen Coe and mentioning his name in every single fucking song of his?
He has some great songs though.
Here’s some more great bluegrass tunes:
Stone Walls and Steel Bars, How Mountain Girls Can Love, and The Fields Have Turned Brown, by Carter & Ralph Stanley.
Foggy Mountain Breakdown, Salty Dog, Cora Is Gone, and My Little Girl In Tennessee by Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs.
Blue Moon Of Kentucky, Orange Blossom Special, Wayfaring Stranger, and Muleskinner Blues by Bill Monroe and The Blue Grass Boys
Take Me In Your Lifeboat by Del McCoury
My Little Georgia Rose by Travis Tritt & Ricky Skaggs
Pretty Polly by Ralph Stanley & Patty Loveless
Dooley by The Dillards (the Darlings from The Andy Griffith Show)
and many more. Bluegrass is a great part of country music that doesn’t get a lot of respect because of the perception that it’s for hillbillies. ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’ did a lot to undo the stigma put on bluegrass that was largely because of its use in ‘Deliverance’.
He may have written 280 songs. How many did he mention himself in?
Yeah, I know he did in his most famous–"You don’t have to call me darlin,’ darlin.’ But it rhymed, at least, with the rest of the verse. Sometime a rhyme is just a rhyme. Or not.
Long Haired Redneck is an other one.
I’m loving this thread!
I haven’t finished reading (and listening!) yet, but had to add my contribution.
“Chicken in the Bread Pan” (or “Chicken in the Bread Tray”) is sometimes just an alternate title for “Granny Will Your Dog Bite.” It can go like this, for example:
Chicken in the bread pan
Scratching out dough
Granny, will your dog bite?
No, child, no.
Granny, will your hen peck?
No, child, no.
Pappy cut her bill off
A long time ago.
But these are not quite titles (or “lyrics”) in the same sense as in other kinds of music; many of these phrases started as square dance patter (chosen for rhythm), and were only later adopted for separate instrumental music. Sometimes they were actually nursery rhymes first, then dance patter. Sometimes the same music is known by multiple titles, or the same title used for different pieces of music.
It doesn’t matter who’s in the car, if that song is on, everybody’s singing along.
And also, Willie, Waylon and Me.
“My name is David Allen Coe and I’m from Dallas Texas”
Well, it’s really all just a question of who’s runner-up after “I’m so Lonesome I Could Cry” of course.
Most of my immediate runner-up suggestions have been mentioned; I’ll throw in one written by a non-country band: “Lodi” by Creedence Clearwater Revival. It’s certainly on the short-short-short list of ‘essential songs for a country bar band’. (Assuming male vocalist, it’s probably #4 or so, behind “So Lonesome I Could Cry”, “Mama Tried”, and at least one JC song)
Way less classic, and at best ‘alt-country’, but a great song, is “Tear Stained Eye” by Son Volt. Relately, does Neil Young’s “Powderfinger” count as country?
More in the ‘particular performance’ than timeless song category, I’d also nominate Gillian Welch (and David Rawlings), maybe “By the Mark” or “Acony Bell”. There’s some classic performances on the Trios albums, too (Dolly Parton, EmmyLou Harris, and, yes, Linda Ronstadt)
Being reminded of him a few days ago on this thread, I stuck on a CD today after lunch and my four-year-old said, ‘That’s like the Spongebob Squarepants song!’
Lord, that’s a tough one. A sampling would include:
You Just Can’t See Him From the Road - Chris Ledoux
Good Hearted Woman - Waylon & Willie
Flowers on the Wall - Statler Brothers
Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way - Waylon Jennings
So You Think You’re a Cowboy - Emmylou Harris
Great Day to be Alive - Travis Tritt
Sure – it’s just a little microbrewery at happy hour with a thin crowd. I don’t even think most people recognize the tunes. I also like to do “Holly Wants to Go to California” by Funkadelic – like someone once said, nobody ever got fired for playing a pretty song. My proudest moment was a Dennis Hopper tribute after he died “Blue Velvet,” “In Dreams,” and a little Danny Boy (Bill Evans arrangement) → When the Saints (2nd-line New Orleans style). I don’t think anybody noticed. 