Country Music

I'm not a big fan of most of the stuff that is being called country music these days, and spend most of my time listening to "classic country." As Linda hears what her students are listening to she will bring in different songs for them to hear. Last night she asked me what song or artist I would recommend if people wanted to know what classic country sounded like.

My first question was how she was defining classic country, to which she responded that it was however I wanted it to be defined. That didn’t really narrow it down, but the answer was easy. I would start with Hank Williams (the original, not Jr or the III) and then Patsy Cline.

Hank Williams – Lovesick Blues, Your Cheatin Heart, or I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry
Patsy Cline – Crazy, Walkin After Midnight, Back in My Baby’s Arms

While she agreed with that she said that on the spectrum of country music from classic to modern, they were on the “extreme” and might scare some people away, so who would I recommend that’s a little more to the “center.”

That was a little more difficult, and I think you would have to go into the 70’s or early 80’s. So I did a little thinking and looking through my collection and here’s what I came up with for places to start listening to classic country. These are not necessarily the best songs by these artists, but provide a jumping off point (they are also in no particular order):

Johnny Cash – Folsom Prison Blues
Kenny Rogers – Lucille
Dolly Parton – Coat of Many Colors
Loretta Lynn – Coal Miner’s Daughter
Roger Miller – King of the Road
Tammy Wynette – I Don’t Wanna Play House
Willie Nelson – Momma Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up To be Cowboys
Tom T. Hall – Faster Horses
Glen Campbell – Dreams of an Everday Housewife
Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings – Pancho and Lefty or Seven Spanish Angels
George Strait – Marina Del Rey, Amarillo by Morning, Ocean Front Property or All My Ex’s Live in Texas
Don Williams – I Believe in You, Good Ole Boys Like Me or If Hollywood Don’t Need You
Barbara Mandell – I Was Country When Country Wasn’t Cool