These days, folks are often disdainful of "the current state of Country". I believe that is mostly based on hearing a few minutes of radio and going no farther...
In a recent thread I mentioned to TuneMonger that there was a bunch of good Country out there (if you stay away from the radio). He said "Gimme some names" (kinda)
So...here is a small sampling.
Here are 5 damngood songs from one of my favorite records from the last few years... Jameson Rodgers - Bet You're From A Small Town
Missin One - Bet You're From A Small Town - Merle Haggard - One Day - Good Dogs -
If you get done with those and don't want to hear the rest of the album, then we (you) are headed down the wrong path.
Morgan Wallen's Dangerous album would land in my list of top 5 albums of all time. I highly recommend calling the record up, put on the headphones/earbuds, close your eyes and LISTEN. (over and over and over) The productions are astounding. (And So varied). If you learn just one thing (production-wise) from 5 songs, you will be upping your game. And there are 33 songs - that you could learn 5 things each.
From Wikipedia: In March 2022, the album established the all-time record for longest duration in the number one spot (97 weeks) on Billboard's Country Albums chart. In December 2022, the album became the first album ever by a solo artist to spend 100 weeks inside the top-ten of the Billboard 200. As of July 2025, the album has spent 165 weeks inside the top-ten of the Billboard 200, the second most weeks spent in the charts uppermost region in history.
The album was ranked top album of the 21st century by Billboard.
There is a reason for that.
Dangerous
And the follow up is almost as good (36 more songs)
One Thing At A Time
Here is a random listing of some folks I've added to my library (Apple Music) over the last few years. There are "singer-songwriters", 90's Country throwbacks, Hard Rock guys (even Metal), "new" Country ("beats"-kinda-stuff). And. like I said, this is a small, random sampling...
jordan davis https://www.youtube.com/@jordandavisofficial
That's gonna take a while to sort through and digest.
There is some really good, well written and performed songs on the radio these days. It's often skipped or put down as junk, or radio crap, because it doesn't fit neatly into our perception of what we consider to be "good music".
I'll work through the list you provided later
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Wow, amazing amount of work you put into this country compendium, thank you so much for the most detailed reply in the history of the internet! I am retired, so I had time to listen to every song. You're right, I will be listening to the whole albums from Jameson Rodgers and Morgan Wallen (33 songs!). "What I thank when I drank" gave me a good laugh. It's all good stuff. But I will always be a blues guy at heart. I grew up in poor, black neighborhoods of DC, and I guess that had too much influence on me. My interest in country has always been peripheral, and it will likely remain that way. I do think you should be one of these guys with double-record albums full of songs like Mister Wallen, if there's any justice in the world. I'm still hoping for that.
I'm going to go back through these songs again with an ear toward production. You said I could learn some things from them, and god knows I need to do that. Thanks again for taking the time to do this.
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No. Ears and an open mind - one that doesn't immediately lock onto stereotypes and cliches - are all that are required.
I don't know if your intent is to insult me or the artists on the list I've provided or just the entire industry, but you might want to try using a little imagination and originality when doing so.
I highly recommend calling the record up, put on the headphones/earbuds, close your eyes and LISTEN. (over and over and over) The productions are astounding. (And So varied). If you learn just one thing (production-wise) from 5 songs, you will be upping your game. And there are 33 songs - that you could learn 5 things each.
Even though Country isn't exactly my favorite genre , you've listed a lot of REALLY good songs that everyone can learn a lot from. Bookmarked Jameson Rodgers (amazing!), Morgan Wallen, Ryan Hurd, Lily Rose and Lainey Wilson. Great stuff. Thanks, Floyd I didn't know any of them.
No. Ears and an open mind - one that doesn't immediately lock onto stereotypes and cliches - are all that are required.
I don't know if your intent is to insult me or the artists on the list I've provided or just the entire industry, but you might want to try using a little imagination and originality when doing so.
So your response is to insult things I didn't say?
Ok, I'll say it, then. Every one of the things you posted–and I listened to them all—is formulaic crap, IMO. Creaking voice intro over chunks-chunka rhythm guitars or odd fingerpicked arpeggios—just like on country radio. Then the singer reminisces about booze-laden lost adventures or lost loves that just don't ring true. The only thing missing is Mark O'Connor's fiddle sawing away like in the 1990s.
I'm glad it provides employment and sells to somebody but never to me. Why? It's boring as hell, over and over and over and over and...
I stopped playing lead in country bands in the late 1980s after 20 years because I picked up touring gigs playing other types of music. When I started listening in again in the mid 1990s, "Hot Country" was in vogue and I never went back, The Urban Cowboy craze produced some interesting songs but that spark of creativity had disappeared. There's just nothing interesting there anymore that I can hear.
No thanks
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I highly recommend calling the record up, put on the headphones/earbuds, close your eyes and LISTEN. (over and over and over) The productions are astounding. (And So varied). If you learn just one thing (production-wise) from 5 songs, you will be upping your game. And there are 33 songs - that you could learn 5 things each.
Even though Country isn't exactly my favorite genre , you've listed a lot of REALLY good songs that everyone can learn a lot from. Bookmarked Jameson Rodgers (amazing!), Morgan Wallen, Ryan Hurd, Lily Rose and Lainey Wilson. Great stuff. Thanks, Floyd I didn't know any of them.
Ryan Hurd and Lily Rose are favorites. Josh Kerr lands about where they are. too.
And keep in mind the videos that popped up are usually the first cut on an album... not necessarily a favorite/best song (I tried to post the album playlist)... So digging a little will reveal some gems. Go to the artist channel and start poking around. Some of the choices were simply to show the variety available. The 2 Morgan Wallen records are enough to keep ya busy for a while....
Hi Floyd! Thanks for posting this summary - a bit of an education for me. I have to admit I’ve not listened to much country, so anything I say will come with quite a lot of ignorance - naïveté might be a better word.
I listened to a sample of these songs - mainly the ones with YouTube displaying inline - and it made me ask the question ‘What defines the genre country music?’ I think this is the same point you are making in a way. For reference, I don’t know examples of where radio country has gone rubbish because I don’t listen to it, so I am assuming your list you consider to be good country.
To my ears, these are the elements that jump out of a song to make me think it’s country:
The accent or vocal stylings of the singer - a certain twang and emphasis on rhotic pronunciation - the latter not exclusively.
The choice of instrumentation - put in a steel guitar, resonator, double stopped guitar or fiddle and it yells country.
The rhythm - something like train e.g. Lainey Wilson ‘Keep up with Jones’
For the first two points, you could swap out the singer and drop an instrument or two and you’d have indie, rock, folk rock or alternative. To illustrate in reverse, if you put Jameson Rodgers’ vocal on Blur - Tender would it become country?
Without wanting to go on a tangent, I have the same dilemma about rock and pop. What is it that defines these?
I just did a quick check of 3 Australian country artists (not current but very popular) to see if these elements are present, and sure enough! Lee Kernaghan ‘Boys from the bush’ Boys from the bush Troy Casserole-Daly ‘Born to survive’ Born to survive In this live performance, contrast the way he speaks to the way he sings. Kasey Chambers ‘The captain’ The captain
For clarity, the above is genuinely not to be critical of country or of the songs listed or of the issue at hand. I think we are all seeing our favourite genres being diluted.
Thanx Floyd for post this songs. Yes they are very good songs and yes there are a number of them on the Internet. The problem with looking for good country songs, old style country songs, rock songs, jazz songs, etc, is that you have to wade through a lot of, as Notes would say, "not for my ears" songs. I did enjoy each of these.
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, you've listed a lot of REALLY good songs that everyone can learn a lot from.![[Linked Image - Only viewable when logged in]](https://www.pgmusic.com/forums/images/icons/default/thumbs_up.gif){kind=icon}
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