Country Songs for Disco Lovers

Here at the Holler offices, we’re all too familiar with hearing the same old “Anything but country” response when it comes to people talking about what sort of music they’re into. But we’re making it our mission to go out into the world and change that.

With its origins in Philadelphia’s R&B scene and the dance parties thrown in New York City's underground gay community in the late 60s and early 70s, disco might seem like an unlikely bedfellow for the relative conservatism of country music, but country's also never been afraid of hitting the dancefloor and kicking up its heels either.

From the barn dances of the 1930s through to western swing dances in the 50s and on to the line dancing craze of the 80s, country music has always been one-stepping and two-stepping out into the spotlight whenever the opportunity comes around.

Although it predates the modern pop age by a good 30 years or more, country has always ensured its continued popularity and relevance by absorbing whatever genre comes along to try to usurp it. In the 60s black soul music and lushly orchestrated teen pop had encouraged country to shape-shift into Countrypolitan and the Nashville Sound, and by the early-70s it was folk music and West Coast rock that was causing it to switch it up again. Soon the newest perceived threat was coming from disco, and it was time for country to soak it all up.

Beginning as celebration of sexuality and outsider culture in clubs like Studio 54 and Paradise Garage in New York City - which became safe spaces for self-expression for marginalised Black, queer and Latino communities - by the mid-1970s, disco had moved beyond the clubs and onto the airwaves, making stars out of Gloria Gaynor and Donna Summer in the process, until it peaked with the release of Saturday Night Fever and its soundtrack in 1977.

It was around this time that Dolly Parton left Nashville behind and took off for LA in search of pop crossover stardom. “I’m not leaving country behind, I’m just taking it with me,” she famously quipped to her detractors - and that’s exactly what she did.

Never a stranger to the dancefloor – Jerry Carrigan’s disco-ready four-on-the-floor rhythm on Dolly’s 1974 classic ‘Jolene’ had already proved she was more than capable of cutting it in the club – in 1977 Dolly released the pop country classic Here You Come Again, followed a year later by Heartbreaker, and brought the Smoky Mountains all the way down into the sweat-soaked nightclubs of urban America.

Country music was finally having its moment with disco, and it’s been having it on and off again ever since. From Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton’s ‘Islands in the Stream’ to Kacey Musgraves’ ‘High Horse’, there’s always been something incredibly unique about the way disco uses camp to turns its tragedy into empowerment, which taps so perfectly into the storytelling lyricism of country.

So, for those of you who dig Donna Summer but didn't think you could boogie to Bill Anderson, we’ve got a playlist that will send your disco fingers wild. It's mirror balls and neon lights, sequinned tops and sparkly rhinestone suits, it’s country and it’s disco and it’s the greatest night out you’ll ever have.

Check out the full tracklist below:

Kacey Musgraves

High Horse

Millie Jackson

Kiss You All Over

Glen Campbell

Southern Nights

Dolly Parton and Kenny Rogers

Islands in the Stream

Conway Twitty

Tight Fittin' Jeans

Bill Anderson

I Can't Wait Any Longer

Barbara Mandrell

Sometime, Somewhere, Somehow

Dolly Parton

Potential New Boyfriend

Ronnie Milsap

Get It Up

George Jones

I Ain't Got No Business Doin' Business Today

Connie Smith

If It Ain't Love (Let's Leave It Alone)

Olivia Newton-John

Jolene

Don Williams

Tulsa Time

Tony Joe White

Alone At Last

Eddie Rabbitt

One and Only One

Dottie West

A Lesson in Leavin'

Kenny Rogers

In and Out of Your Heart

The Bellamy Brothers

Let Your Love Flow

Dolly Parton

Baby I'm Burnin' Disco Mix

Reba McEntire

You Keep Me Hangin' On

Hailey Whitters

Dream, Girl

Kylie Minogue

Dancing

Thomas Rhett

VHS

Pearl Charles

Sweet Sunshine Wine

Brett Eldredge and Thomas Rhett

You Can't Stop Me

Diplo

So Long (feat. Cam)

Paul Cauthen

Cocaine Country Dancing

Glen Campbell and Tanya Tucker

Why Don't We Just Sleep On It Tonight

Crystal Gayle

We Should Be Together

Mel McDaniel

Baby's Got Her Blue Jeans On

Sylvia

Drifter

Dolly Parton

Two Doors Down

Mac Davis

Midnight Crazy

Charley Pride

Night Games

George Strait

Friday Night Fever

The Oak Ridge Boys

Trying to Love Two Women

Waylon Jennings

I've Always Been Crazy

Terri Gibbs

Somebody's Knockin'

The Bellamy Brothers

Dancin' Cowboys

Charly McClain

Who's Cheatin' Who

Randy Travis

Diggin' Up Bones

Alabama

Gonna Have A Party

Johnny Paycheck

Friend, Lover, Wife

Steve Young

I Got The Same Old blues

Jerry Reed

Amos Moses

The Charlie Daniels Band

Trudy

Steven Soles

Shake the Dust

Kenny Rogers

She's A Mystery

Emmylou Harris

On The Radio

Merle Haggard

That's the Way Love Goes

Subscribe and Listen to Holler's Country Songs for Disco Lovers playlist Above.