Greatest Country Song

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Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi
My answer is "Amarillo By Morning"...a spare, elegant, sad song with just enough hope to be uplifting in the end ("I ain't got a dime but what I got is mine,
I ain't rich but Lord I'm free"). The original recording by Terry Stafford was just a big schmaltzy for me, but George Srait perfected it.

What say you??


"Amarillo by Morning" popped into my head as soon as I read your title. As hard as I tried to hate country music when I was a kid, that one hung on like a tick. When I finally got an iTunes account years later, that's the first song I bought. My tastes run toward Americana/Alt country (like the Turnpike Troubadours mentioned earlier), and I can listen to just about anything by Willie or Johnny Cash, but that song is hard to top.

"I Can Still Make Cheyenne" is another gem in a similar vein, sort of an earnest, rodeo version of that Brad Paisley fishin' song.
 
Today I started loving you again.
I'm so lonesome I could cry.
Grand Tour.
Angel flying to close to the ground.
Farewell Party.
Walking the floor.
Honky Tonkin.
Her first mistake.
Lovin, touchin, squeezin.
 
I am going through the songs posted here in response now that I can turn the volume up and have learned some things.
1. Young Merle Haggard looked a lot like Warren Beatty...and "Mama Tried" is a great song.
2. Dawn Sears was absolutely incredible!
3. I remember "Wichita Lineman" from TV when I was a kid and loved it then, it has to be way up there on the list of great country songs.
A have a lot to go through here!
 
Lots of great songs listed in this thread, but I'm sticking with "Amarillo By Morning" as my top choice. I have to admit that my opinion isn't worth much as I don't know the genre well enough.
Questions for the true country fans out there...do you think "Wagon Wheel" should be considered a country song? I'd say it's closer to folk...it's sort of a Bob Dylan song, but the bulk of it was written by the singer from Old Crow Medicine Show after listening to a Dylan bootleg tape.
What about "Lay Lady Lay"? It's on Dylan's "country" album, but I'm not sure what to call it...it's so spare that it's hard for me to classify.
 
There are so many but one has always stuck in my mind, Ray Price "For The Good Times " ... it can melt your problems away.
smile.gif
 
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Originally Posted By: Click
There are so many but one has always stuck in my mind, Ray Price "For The Good Times " ... it can melt your problems away.
smile.gif





That is a great song as well. Ray Price sure had a voice.
 
Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi
Lots of great songs listed in this thread, but I'm sticking with "Amarillo By Morning" as my top choice. I have to admit that my opinion isn't worth much as I don't know the genre well enough.
Questions for the true country fans out there...do you think "Wagon Wheel" should be considered a country song? I'd say it's closer to folk...it's sort of a Bob Dylan song, but the bulk of it was written by the singer from Old Crow Medicine Show after listening to a Dylan bootleg tape.
What about "Lay Lady Lay"? It's on Dylan's "country" album, but I'm not sure what to call it...it's so spare that it's hard for me to classify.


Wagon Wheel is absolutely a country song. Country music itself evolved from traditional folk and blues. Basically, "country" covers a very wide variety of specific music types. Much like the term "rock music". Then you have stuff that crosses over. This brings in "country rock" and the currently popular (but widely disliked) "hick hop".

And while many (like myself) tend to say that the bro-country stuff heard on the radio today isn't actually country, the truth is, it is an evolution of the style and therefore falls under the country genre.
 
Originally Posted By: Pike51
Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi
Lots of great songs listed in this thread, but I'm sticking with "Amarillo By Morning" as my top choice. I have to admit that my opinion isn't worth much as I don't know the genre well enough.
Questions for the true country fans out there...do you think "Wagon Wheel" should be considered a country song? I'd say it's closer to folk...it's sort of a Bob Dylan song, but the bulk of it was written by the singer from Old Crow Medicine Show after listening to a Dylan bootleg tape.
What about "Lay Lady Lay"? It's on Dylan's "country" album, but I'm not sure what to call it...it's so spare that it's hard for me to classify.

Wagon Wheel is absolutely a country song. Country music itself evolved from traditional folk and blues. Basically, "country" covers a very wide variety of specific music types. Much like the term "rock music". Then you have stuff that crosses over. This brings in "country rock" and the currently popular (but widely disliked) "hick hop".
And while many (like myself) tend to say that the bro-country stuff heard on the radio today isn't actually country, the truth is, it is an evolution of the style and therefore falls under the country genre.


Hick Hop!! Hadn't heard that one...my wife showed me a video of PA polka king Jan Lewan doing polka rap after we watched the Jack Black movie about him.

One of my favorite bands of all time, Uncle Tupelo, started out as a sort of blend of country and punk...I saw one of their last shows when they passed through Chicago before returning to the St Louis area to finish up and move one. One of the two songwriters in the group formed Wilco, the other one formed a much less prominent band called Son Volt that I liked more.
 
Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi

One of my favorite bands of all time, Uncle Tupelo, started out as a sort of blend of country and punk...I saw one of their last shows when they passed through Chicago before returning to the St Louis area to finish up and move one. One of the two songwriters in the group formed Wilco, the other one formed a much less prominent band called Son Volt that I liked more.


Blue Mountain was another great band in that vein, out of Oxford, MS. Their bass player was the twin sister of Wilco's bassist.
 
Poor Poor Pitiful Me
Memphis
Silver Threads and Golden Needles
Foggy Mtn Breakdown
I can't stop loving you
Ode to Billy Joe
Me an Bobby McGee incl j.joplin version
anything by Duane Eddy
Being from British Isles stock back into the Dark Ages, Country, folk and rockabilly gets a thrill going that is visceral. Bag pipes too
 
It’s hard to pick one, since there are so many eras of country from the ‘20s until today. They’re all good (except for today
grin.gif
), IMHO. “Your Cheatin’ Heart” would probably be the textbook “best”.

I have to listen to the new stuff at work and it drives me up the wall. If I’m lucky, something like Stapleton will come on. I can say the best album is “Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison”. It’s the best Iive album ever, too. It’s all the country eras, and some blues and folk thrown in for good measure. I still have my parents’ worn out copy from 1968.
 
Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi
Originally Posted By: Pike51
Originally Posted By: Virtus_Probi
Lots of great songs listed in this thread, but I'm sticking with "Amarillo By Morning" as my top choice. I have to admit that my opinion isn't worth much as I don't know the genre well enough.
Questions for the true country fans out there...do you think "Wagon Wheel" should be considered a country song? I'd say it's closer to folk...it's sort of a Bob Dylan song, but the bulk of it was written by the singer from Old Crow Medicine Show after listening to a Dylan bootleg tape.
What about "Lay Lady Lay"? It's on Dylan's "country" album, but I'm not sure what to call it...it's so spare that it's hard for me to classify.

Wagon Wheel is absolutely a country song. Country music itself evolved from traditional folk and blues. Basically, "country" covers a very wide variety of specific music types. Much like the term "rock music". Then you have stuff that crosses over. This brings in "country rock" and the currently popular (but widely disliked) "hick hop".
And while many (like myself) tend to say that the bro-country stuff heard on the radio today isn't actually country, the truth is, it is an evolution of the style and therefore falls under the country genre.


Hick Hop!! Hadn't heard that one...my wife showed me a video of PA polka king Jan Lewan doing polka rap after we watched the Jack Black movie about him.

One of my favorite bands of all time, Uncle Tupelo, started out as a sort of blend of country and punk...I saw one of their last shows when they passed through Chicago before returning to the St Louis area to finish up and move one. One of the two songwriters in the group formed Wilco, the other one formed a much less prominent band called Son Volt that I liked more.


I think we just became best friends!! Ha ha!

You would like Hot Rod Walt and the Psycho Devills. Rockabilly with a little bit of country twang. They even did a "country" album. Local to Georgia, they play all over and Walt is on the Outlaw Country Cruise right now.
 
I will definitely check out Blue Mountain and the Psycho DeVilles this evening...maybe you guys would like a little sermon from the Rev Horton Heat?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3sVRTF8-gtk

I was so bummed when I heard that Uncle Tupelo broke up like a week after I saw them...I find a new favorite band and they're gone in a flash? I remember that things were very awkward at their Lounge Ax show, Farrar and Tweedy did not speak between songs and each seemed to be pretending the other guy wasn't there.
 
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