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[Stwonga]

Well, an old friend here in Brasil gave me a stack of records a few months ago, turns out he had most of Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, a stack of singles from Juice Newton all the way to the Dixie Chicks.

So seeing as how I am new to this genre, can any of you recommend something?

[Caiphana]

My biggest recommendation is to stick with the old country music. It's more fun, for one, and you get a better feel for how the genre was meant to be: namely, really good stories. You need to add Jimmie Rodgers to your list, that's for sure.

[Thrillho]

Mike Nesmith's solo albums are actually pretty good as far as country. If you can stand his voice getting even more annoying, there's Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan - and if you don't mind a little punk mixed into your country, check out some Uncle Tupelo. The ideal starting point is the Anthology.

[SeanBateman]

If you are gonna get Gram Parsons, get the Flying Burrito Brothers stuff too. Also the International Submarine Band had some righteous songs.

For more Honky Tonkey stuff, I really like Wayne "The Train" Hancock and Hank Williams III. Both of them have a ridiculous amount of twang, but they make really good records if you can handle that.

John Prine is great, funnier than a lot of country, but his songs are really heartfelt and often quite touching.

Gillian Welch is great, she's more Folk/Bluegrass than straight country, but definitely look into her, she has a beautiful voice.

For older stuff, pretty much anything released by Acuff-Rose will be good songs. I happen to really like Roy Acuff as a musician, but when you get far enough back a lot of the songs are about Jesus. If you can't handle that you could be in trouble. If you can handle that, The Louvin Brothers are amazing. So is Roy Acuff, and the Carter Family. I also have a soft spot for Waylon Jennings. Charlie Louvin, the surviving half of the Louvin Bro's put out a record this year that's amazing.

For women, Loretta Lynn is obvious. Get Coal Miners Daughter, and work from there, but don't overlook Van Lear Rose. It's newer, but damn its a good record. Also good are her duet albums with Conway Twitty. If you ever played GTA San Andreas and heard that song about a louisiana woman and a mississippi man? That's them. Melba Montgomery is pretty amazing as well, and so is Patsy Cline, shit the haters.

Ummm. Alt country is really good too, but that's for another day.

[SeanBateman]

Mike Nesmith's solo albums are actually pretty good as far as country. If you can stand his voice getting even more annoying, there's Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan - and if you don't mind a little punk mixed into your country, check out some Uncle Tupelo. The ideal starting point is the Anthology.

If you start with the Anthology with this band you're an idiot. All of their records are amazing, and all of them give you a comprehensive feel for the music they're trying to make. Still Feel Gone is probably the easiest, Anodyne is probably the best, and March... is definitely my favorite. Getting the anthology is stupid, don't do it.

[Johnny C]

Steve Earle

[Thrillho]

Mike Nesmith's solo albums are actually pretty good as far as country. If you can stand his voice getting even more annoying, there's Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan - and if you don't mind a little punk mixed into your country, check out some Uncle Tupelo. The ideal starting point is the Anthology.

If you start with the Anthology with this band you're an idiot. All of their records are amazing, and all of them give you a comprehensive feel for the music they're trying to make. Still Feel Gone is probably the easiest, Anodyne is probably the best, and March... is definitely my favorite. Getting the anthology is stupid, don't do it.

Jesus Christ, I don't think that was necessary.

[IronOxide]

He is right though, very few artists are done justice by an anthology collection, and much fewer of them are any good.

[Lazer]

This was news to me the other day I heard it but apparently The Eagles qualify as country, so why the hell not?

[Johnny C]

Because they're shit.

[Orbert]

Mike Nesmith's solo albums are actually pretty good as far as country. If you can stand his voice getting even more annoying, there's Nashville Skyline by Bob Dylan - and if you don't mind a little punk mixed into your country, check out some Uncle Tupelo. The ideal starting point is the Anthology.

If you start with the Anthology with this band you're an idiot. All of their records are amazing, and all of them give you a comprehensive feel for the music they're trying to make. Still Feel Gone is probably the easiest, Anodyne is probably the best, and March... is definitely my favorite. Getting the anthology is stupid, don't do it.

Jesus Christ, I don't think that was necessary.

Dirk Hopeless is not exactly known for his tact.

Anthologies can be a great way to get an overview of an artist, but all the fanboys hate them because "you need to hear xxxx album to really understand them" or "you must get all 18 albums and listen to them all at least five times or you'll never get it" or some shit. Some anthologies really do suck, because all they have are the more mainstream tunes which, again, the fanboys hate. But it's not like a rule or anything.

[E. Spaceman]

While anthologies can be a good way to get into bands, especially those with a lot of back catalogue or non album tracks (NO's Substance, YLT's Prisoners of Love, a number of Beatles singles collections to name a few), i would say that you'd be better off just getting any Uncle Tupelo album. The anthology does have I Wanna Be your Dog, which is unavailable elsewhere, however, there could be other means to obtain it which again makes the anthology useless.

[Johnny C]

Mike Nesmith's solo stuff is really fantastic, though. "Beyond The Blue Horizon" is one of my favourite country songs of all time.

[Mnementh]

I'd add to this Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Don Walser, and Jimmie Dale Gilmore (as well as The Flatlanders, Gilmore's band).

[Johnny C]

I'd add to this... Steve Earle

Steve Earle

[SeanBateman]

Anthologies can be a great way to get an overview of an artist, but all the fanboys hate them because "you need to hear xxxx album to really understand them" or "you must get all 18 albums and listen to them all at least five times or you'll never get it" or some shit. Some anthologies really do suck, because all they have are the more mainstream tunes which, again, the fanboys hate. But it's not like a rule or anything.

The band only has four records. It's not hard.

Also, e, Now I wanna Be Your Dog is a bonus track on the reissue of March 16-20, 1992. No need to get the antholgy at all!

[Mnementh]

Johnny, I saw that, I just figured I could re-emphasize him.

[rhinohelicopter]

I'm going to second two suggestions. One that you stick with mostly older country and, two that you pick up some Gram Parsons.  I prefer GP to Grievous Angel.  There's also always Buck Owens (another Bakersfeild Sound pioneer) Hank Wiliams, Emylou Harris, and Patsy Cline.  If you don't mind branching some and checking out newer countryish artists, there's a band from Long Island called The Two Man Gentlemen Band who are amazing and Old Crow Medicine Show is also good.  The last two are more old timey string band though. 

www.two-man-gentlemen-band.com

[Mnementh]

Well, if we're going to send him down the string band route we'd be remiss to not recommend guys like Doc Watson, Ricky Skaggs, Earl Scruggs, and Merle Watson.

[Johnny C]

Johnny, I saw that, I just figured I could re-emphasize him.

Re-emphasize who?

Steve Earle?

[SleeperCylon]

Basically you want to go with the classic standards.  Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, etc.

If you want something newer, maybe Lucinda Williams, Miranda Lambert.  Most of the country people today get their songs from the record company who buys them from aspiring songwriters who move to Nashville right after graduating from Berklee School of Music, never write any of their own stuff, and are only hired because they look cute in a cowboy hat.

[humanoftheyear]

i think my favorite country song right now is "you never even called me by my name" by david allen coe. he gives his formula for a perfect country song in it:

Well, a friend of mine named Steve Goodman wrote this song and he told me it was the perfect Country and Western song. I wrote him back a letter and I told him it was not the perfect Country and Western song because he hadn't said anything at all about mama, or trains, or trucks, or prison, or gettin' drunk. Well he sat down and wrote another verse to the song and he sent it to me, and after reading it, I realized that my friend had written the perfect Country & Western song. I felt obliged to include it on this album. The last verse goes like this here:

Well, I was drunk the day my mom got out of prison
And I went to pick her up in the rain
But before I could get to the station in my pickup truck
She got runned over by a damned old train

i've also really started to love hank williams jr's "all my rowdy friends have settled down"... it's about how all the old country stars like johnny cash, george jones and waylon jennings have gone soft in their old age and don't like to get jacked up on pills and booze any more.

roger miller's king of the road" has always been my favorite since i was little, but i'm sure that had something to do with the fact that he was the voice of the rooster in robin hood.

the statler brothers are awesome. my favorites of theirs are "do you remember these," "flowers on the wall," "more than a name on a wall," and "ruby, don't take your love to town"... i don't really know if they did originally did all of these, but i came to know those songs through them.

i don't think anyone has mentioned charlie pride yet?

i agree with what most people have said and would stick to older stuff. i like some of the country from when i was like 8, but that's probably because i grew up in texas and you couldn't go to pizzahut without hearing "friends in low places" and "chatahoochie" 12 times in one meal.

[BrittanyMarie]

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON!! He's easily the best songwriter of all the Highwaymen, but I think kind of underrated as a performer in his own right.

These might be more bluegrass BUT Ralph Stanley is amazing, as is the Del McCoury Band (though they like to sing about Jesus a lot) and Allison Krause has the pertiest voice in music, I think.

Oh yeah, and Townes Van Zant.

[Stwonga]

I really liked Gram Parsons, and some of the bluegrass ones are great. I'm getting 'March' tommorow by mail/

Thank you all, you've been great help.

[SeanBateman]

KRIS KRISTOFFERSON!! He's easily the best songwriter of all the Highwaymen, but I think kind of underrated as a performer in his own right.

These might be more bluegrass BUT Ralph Stanley is amazing, as is the Del McCoury Band (though they like to sing about Jesus a lot) and Allison Krause has the pertiest voice in music, I think.

Oh yeah, and Townes Van Zant.

My dad did cocaine with Townes Van Zant in Nashville in the 70s.

[Emaline]

For women, Loretta Lynn is obvious. Get Coal Miners Daughter, and work from there, but don't overlook Van Lear Rose. It's newer, but damn its a good record. Also good are her duet albums with Conway Twitty. If you ever played GTA San Andreas and heard that song about a louisiana woman and a mississippi man? That's them. Melba Montgomery is pretty amazing as well, and so is Patsy Cline, shit the haters.

Thank god somebody said it. I was going to die if no one mentioned either of these ladies. Especially, Loretta Lynn.

[Johnny C]

<3 "Rated X."