COUNTRY CLASSICS•Nancy Sinatra & Lee Hazlewood - Nancy & Lee
The songs on Nancy & Lee helped both artists to shape their sounds at pivotal moments in their lives; creating a dark, complex and ethereal synergy that would inform generations that followed.
COUNTRY CLASSICS•The Black Crowes - The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion
Though Southern Harmony was followed by The Black Crowes’ slow descent from mainstream visibility, it marked the beginning of a vibrant creative streak that still resounds beautifully this many years later.
COUNTRY CLASSICS•Bobbie Gentry - Fancy
Put this record on and turn the volume up, this is our one chance to not let Gentry down any further.
COUNTRY CLASSICS•Willie Nelson - Always On My Mind
As with all of Willie’s albums, there are things to love here. It also remains a fascinating look at an artist trying to work out his place in the world.
COUNTRY CLASSICS•Gram Parsons - Grievous Angel
Grievous Angel is an extraordinary entry in the limited Gram Parsons catalog; a true milestone of Americana - or, more aptly, cosmic American music.
COUNTRY CLASSICS•Taylor Swift - Red
As with so much of Swift’s output, Red can be remembered as it should be: truly, gloriously singular. Just don’t say it’s her best album.
COUNTRY CLASSICS•Sam Hunt - Montevallo
It’s certainly not your momma’s taste of traditional country, yet Montevallo's honoring of storytelling roots makes it one of the great modern country classics.
COUNTRY CLASSICS•Steve Earle - Copperhead Road
After working within a standard country template for his first two albums, Steve Earle embraced hard rock with his third effort Copperhead Road, kicking off the doggedly nonconformist streak that’s defined his career ever since.
COUNTRY CLASSICS•Drive-By Truckers - Southern Rock Opera
There is never a moment throughout this saga when the playing, singing and vocals feel anything less than earthy, honest and pure. That’s quite an accomplishment for this expansive hour and a half listen, particularly one where lyrics are so crucial to its enjoyment.
COUNTRY CLASSICS•Dolly Parton - Coat of Many Colors
It's on 1971’s Coat Of Many Colors that Dolly Parton's Hall of Fame level talent as a creator and wordsmith emerged. As for the rest of the album, it’s a fascinating journey into how the foundations of her professional streak took shape.
COUNTRY CLASSICS•Deana Carter - Did I Shave My Legs For This?
Did I Shave My Legs For This? caught the fever that was tearing through country music in the 90s, as a new army of women spiced up tradition with a reinvigorated tone of feisty independence.
COUNTRY CLASSICS•Garth Brooks - Ropin' the Wind
It’s been exactly 30 years since Brooks released his pivotal third album and changed the way people heard country music. We take a look back on its legacy.
COUNTRY CLASSICS•Pistol Annies - Hell on Heels
To celebrate its 10-year "annieversary", we look back on the formation of the no-shit-taking trio, and the record's lasting effect on country music.
COUNTRY CLASSICS•Dwight Yoakam - Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc., Etc.
It’s impossible to overstate the importance of this debut. Not only did it introduce Yoakam as a fledgling yet seasoned talent with a voice that comes along once in a generation, but it presented pure country, amplified and energized, to a new, younger audience.
COUNTRY CLASSICS•Brooks & Dunn - Brand New Man
30 years on and Brand New Man still sounds as sparkling and fresh as it did when it first came out, its influence echoing back out from contemporary artists Midland to Jon Pardi.
COUNTRY CLASSICS•Eric Church - Chief
Chief took you away from the world for three, four, five minutes and then dropped you back where you began - only now somehow changed, in touch with a feeling that you didn’t know you already had, in exactly the way that The Boss' own records do.
COUNTRY CLASSICS•Kris Kristofferson - The Silver Tongued Devil and I
While far greater stardom and albums with bigger hits were to come, The Silver Tongued Devil and I was widely received as even better than Kristofferson's greatest hits of a debut.
