I was thinking the other day that a lot of music that I love has clearly been influenced by country, and I do love the way that country songs tell often really fucked up stories, their sense of narrative is often excellent.

I'm not a total country neophyte, I love Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton and have liked what I've heard of Willie Nelson and so on, but I know I'm missing out on a lot of good stuff.

Now obviously I'm not talking about shitty country songs about how the singer has his Confederate Flag on his pickup truck, and he's going to the derby with his buds to drink beer and America is the best y'all! I'm also not talking about pop songs or rock songs that have a country twang to them. I'm talking about real, dyed in the wool country songs about life and love and death and crime and passion, etc.

What have you got for me?

Try Sturgill Simpson's "Metamodern Sounds in Country Music".

Mudcrutch

Hank III

There are several styles from different eras. Depending on what you're looking for.
Swing and Bluegrass- 1930s thru early 50s
Honky Tonk and Rockabilly- This is the primo stuff IMO. Postwar jump/boogie woogie blues heavy on piano and sax. Country dropped the sax but kept the piano. Then the piano was replaced with electric guitar and we got rockabilly.
This is the Sun Records era. Bear Records (expen$ive) have a cd series called "Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight" where they ferret out all the upbeat, honky tonk, rockabilly, R&R songs from an artist on one cd.
Proper records have box sets(cheap) of this stuff. Search "proper box"
Also investigate Sun Records, the various artists and what's available.
The 60s and 70s-Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens and Waylon Jennings. And Marty Robbins. His gunfighter albums are great.

Back in the day Time Life would produce massive sets with 20-40 discs per set. You would subscribe and get a cd in the mail every 4 weeks.
The Classic Country set is a virtual encyclopedia of popular country from 1940s-1980s. Every hit song you can imagine. Don't know what the after market prices are on these. You could search for a listing of the discs in the set and track listings and sample them somewhere.

http://www.bsnpubs.com/warner/time-l...iccountry.html

This is a link to Time Life's Classic Country discography

Proof that most songs sound the same.

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Fan of country by the way!

Johnny Cash is the only country I need.

I'm a punk/new wave guy who backtracked into country via its influence on my favorite artists.

For more recent artists (relatively speaking), Dwight Yoakam is my favorite.

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Thanks guys! Keep the recommendations coming! And thanks for the primer on the different eras as well!

I'm going to start with artists available on Spotify out of the recs in this thread.

I came into country during the Neo-traditional movement in the 80s and 90s, so that's my go-to country to listen to. At the time: Keith Whitley, Ricky Skaggs, George Strait, the aforementioned Dwight Yoakam, Steve Earle, Earl Thomas Conley, etc etc. Now days: Jamey Johnson, Tim McGraw, Craig Campbell, etc etc.

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Closest to country I like is Drive By Truckers, Wilco, and Lucero.

You can't go wrong with Yoakam. Not really a Country fan. Got into it for a couple years when I first moved here. All the old stalwarts, Possum, Hank, etc.. 90s and on it really starts becoming pop.

This is a good one. Be very, very careful with the rest of this rednecks discography. This is the only song of his I have in my collection.
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This one may be a little too mainstream, but I love to turn it to 11 while while opening up the 6.4 on the back roads.
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Always liked this one
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This list is pretty good (a bit overly commercial)

http://countrymusic.about.com/od/art...ry-Singers.htm

I like "Old School" country music. Out of that list:
Johnny Cash
Merle Haggard
Waylon Jennings
Dolly Parton
Loretta Lynn
Willie Nelson
Lefty Frizzell
Glen Campbell
Patsy Cline
Chet Atkins

Along with Merle Travis & Bob Wills make up most of the "Country" artists I like.

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Here is some twangy fiddle.
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LOL at the "tech" in this video. It has OJ's Bronco and a flying eagle with fireworks and a waving flag behind it too.
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Was looking for this song when I found the above.
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Dwight Yoakam is the best option I've found for somebody looking for something not pandering to the country hit radio audience, but also not you grandfather's favorite country artist.