Best country song

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: pdq
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 12:03 PM

It seems quite fair to discuss Wanda Jackson and Brenda Lee at the same time, but perhaps you should add Patsy Cline. All three could rock when they wanted and all had hits that were played on Rock 'n' Roll stations. Wanda Jackson was the real rocker. Brenda Lee did better than Patsy Cline in that department. All did Country well also, but Cline was an alltime great in that field.

Use Mudcat's search box to find "On Top of Spaghetti", I believe the writer is considered a "folkie".

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 17 Feb 11 - 11:14 AM

Thank you all for the information about 'Silver Threads and Golden Needles' and interested to see Wanda Jackson's name mentioned. She performed on the recent New Year Jules Holland's Hootenanny program this year. I had a feeling she must have been around way back about then, was there any similarity to Brenda Lee out of interest?

Going back when I was little there was a song called 'On Top of Old Smokey' about a meatball that rolled off the table, it was one of those songs that children here in UK liked singing along to. I'm not sure if that is a country song or a novelty song but as children do we slightly altered the words.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,ed
Date: 16 Feb 11 - 11:50 PM

vern gosdin...chiseled in stone. if you're gonna do me wrong, do you believe me now, etc., etc.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,Clontarf83
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 06:11 PM

Dr Price and Kendall mentioned "Darcy Farrow". It used to be a favourite of mine until my friend steve rewrote it as follows

"Young Bandy in his gall
Put a bullet through his balls
They buried them together
When the snow began to fall"

For me, the ultimate weeper country song is "I gave my wedding dress away"

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Allen in Oz
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 05:37 PM

" Today I Started Loving You Again"

" Lonely Street"

" The Streets of Baltimore"

" Cold Cold Heart"

" I Walk the Line"

" Faded Love"

And all of the songs quoted on this thread so far

Allen in Oz

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: pdq
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 02:12 PM

"'Silver Threads and Golden Needles', a song written by Jack Rhodes and Dick Reynolds, was first recorded by Wanda Jackson in 1956. The original lyrics, as performed by Jackson, contain a verse not usually included in later versions, which also often differed in other minor details."

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: kendall
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 02:02 PM

I think it goes back even further.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,Larry Saidman
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 12:59 PM

I believe the Springfields (featuring Dusty Springfield) did it originally--before the Pozo Seco Singers--in the early 60's.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 10 Feb 11 - 09:34 AM

Thanks for letting me know Bobert I thought that there must have been an earlier version somewhere. That's interesting I will have to keep a look-out for it the next time I look around the record shops.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Bobert
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 07:45 PM

BTW, Patsy, first time I ever heard "Silver Threads and Golden Needles" was by the Pozo Seco Singers long before Linda Ronstadt's version and...

...love their version, as well...

B~

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: kendall
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 09:26 AM

My taste in country music runs to the old timey stuff...Roy Acuff, Wilma Lee Cooper,Hank Snow etc.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,Patsy
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 08:15 AM

I've never been a big fan of mainstream country but I do like Dolly Parton's 'Coat of Many Colours.' Linda Ronstadt singing 'Silver Threads and Golden Needles' and I am not sure of the correct title but it was a song that Crystal Gayle sang in the late 70s (on the Muppett show) 'I'm going down the Road' but I can't remember if it was with a suitacse or a guitar in hand.

It is hard to choose a Willie Nelson song because with his voice he makes most of his songs sound good 'On the Road Again' is a favourite of mine.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Max Johnson
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 07:12 AM

Sorry - posted that before I saw that there's already a recent thread on Mama Hated Diesels! Don't belieeeeeve it.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,Max Johnson
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 06:45 AM

My favourite Commander Cody song has always been 'Momma Hated Diesels'. Here's a part of the spoken bit:

"...one day the county sheriff come up to me
He said they found my mama wandering
All by herself in the middle of the highway crying
She was trying of all things Lord
To flag down one of those big old rigs with a pocket handkerchief
Well that left me on my own..."

And also today, I'm likin' The Stanley Brothers 'Rank Stranger'.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,ed childrey
Date: 09 Feb 11 - 04:05 AM

Chiseled in Stone....Vern Gosdin

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 11:16 AM

I was at the Birmingham (UK) Symphony Hall last night for 'Transatlantic Sessions Live', and I was absolutely blown away by Alison Moorer's beautiful singing of 'Carrickfergus'. I dunno if it qualifies as Country, but it certainly qualified as 'stunning' AFAIC!

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,bankley
Date: 31 Jan 11 - 10:13 AM

I'm not sure that there is a best...there are so many and a lot come close
but there are three I'd like to mention, and this can also be tied to the 'forgotten songwriter' thread

"Long Black Veil" sung by Lefty Frizzel written by Danny Dill/Marijohn Wilken

"I Never go Around Mirrors" covered by Lefty Frizzel, Keith Whitly, Merle Haggard, Gene Watson, Mark Chesnut.. written by Whitey Shafer

"Farewell Party" sung by Gene Watson, written by Lawton Williams

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: kendall
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 01:07 PM

Darcy Farrow is a very good choice.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,Gail
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 12:30 PM

This one's a bit of a guilty pleasure for me. I'm not usually a fan of what I (in the UK) think of as mainstream country but, this is such a great performance I love it.

Still Holding On

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Oremus
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 11:15 AM

Best Country song? Depends on which country.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Bobert
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 10:20 AM

"In some of my songs
I have casually mentioned
the fact that
I like to drink beer..."

Jus' funnin'... I mean, there have been so many great country songs written over the years that it's impossible to pick just one but...

...I kinda like alot of Don Willam's older stuff, "Amanda", "Silver Coins", "Storms Never Last", "Say it Again" (which I still perform on occasion).

...I kinda like Hanks old stuff like "Your Cheating Heart", "Cold, Cold, Heart"

...I kinda like a bunch of Waylon Jennings stuff like "Waymore's Blues", "Did Hank Really Do it this Way"...

... Willie's, "Angle Flying too Close to the Ground"...

...Montgomey Gentry's "Gone"...

...John Prine's "Paradise"

...Dolly Parton's "Coat of Many Colors"

etc., etc...

B~

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Mick Tems
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 10:01 AM

Long Black Veil is my much-loved country song, but how about honouring my favourite country songwriter, Mary-Chapin Carpenter? The Moon And St Christopher and Stones In The Road - absolutely exquisite!

And I have to thank Iain Matthews for pointing out the Steve Gillette song Darcy Farrow - a true, heart-breaking tale of two lovers whose lives were shattered when Darcy was thrown by a horse. All those who have not heard Steve Gillette and Sindy Mangsen playing - you must freakin' see them!

Mind you, my all-time favourite country title was: Take Your Tongue Out Of My Mouth, Babe, I'm Kissin' You Goodbye...

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Smedley
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 09:06 AM

Very strange (to me) that there are no Dolly Parton songs here. 'Jolene', 'Down From Dover', plenty more.

A few other favourites of mine:
'Bartender's Blues' - George Jones
'Dusty Skies' - Bob Wills
'Are You Sure Hank Done It That Way' - Waylon Jennings
'Rambling Man' - Hank Williams
'Silver Rings and Golden Wings' - Billie Jo Spears
'Someday Soon' - Suzy Boguss
'Wish I Were Only Lonely' - Reba McEntire

Purists might say not all of these are clasically country, but I don't like purists! So to wind them up even more I'll add:
'Powderfinger' - Neil Young

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: kendall
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 08:40 AM

I like to refer to folk music as "Heavy Mental".

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,Desi C
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 08:00 AM

Oh so many! Hank Williams has a few contenders, Cold Cold heart, I'm so Lonesome, Your cheatin Heart. Willie Nelson's, Crazy deserves a mention too. My personal favourite to sing is, Blue Side Of Lonesome,George Jones version, written by Leon Payne, a blind fiddler who also wrote the Jim Reeves htt, I Love you Because, I'll leave it at that or I'll go into hundreds of others

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 02:56 AM

Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain is a really good song therefore should NOT even be on this thread.

Whereas, An Okie From Muskogie, is absolute shite and should be number 1.

Dave H

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Slag
Date: 30 Jan 11 - 12:34 AM

Well, country gitars have 3 more strings than them little folk gitars! Let's see, ummm?, so that's at least half again times better!

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: J-boy
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 10:37 PM

Yeah. It's a really old joke. I can't even remember when I first heard it.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: EllenV
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 10:28 PM

@J-boy: I've heard that song. It's excruciatingly lame, but so true that it's hilarious.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: J-boy
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 10:20 PM

Do you know what happens when you play a country song backwards? You get your truck back.You get your dog back.You get your girl back and life is good.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: EllenV
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 10:08 PM

Thank God I'm A Country Boy - John Denver
Pledge Allegiance to the Hag - Eric Church (a.k.a. "Pledge Allegiance to the Flag")
Cowboys Like Us - George Strait
Heartland - George Strait
Three Wooden Crosses - Randy Travis

And my personal fave, which was written/sung by a country singer but is not really "country" at all: Ireland, by Garth Brooks.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: pdq
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 09:01 PM

In the last few months I replaced the old vinyl versions of "One Day at a Time" and "David's Album" with the new re-matered CDs, both have extra bonus tracks and are very well recorded.

It's amazing how timeless the expert backing by the Nashville regulars including Grady Martin, Hal Rugg, Jerry Reed, Norbert Putnam, Charlie McCoy, Junior Huskey and others is. Joan Baez is in superb voice and the musicians are having fun. The last song on "One Day at a Time" starts of with some outrageous chops by Hal Rugg, whereupon Jerry Reed stops the recording saying he got his fingers all caught up in the strings trying to keep with Rugg.

The people doing these recordings thought they were doing Country Music and so do I.
Not that Vern Gosdin doing heartbreak songs or drinking songs ain't Country. It is, but not all there is to Country Music.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Midchuck
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 08:47 PM

Someone in a discussion in another list, about the "Little Musgrave" ballad, said:

Seriously, though...that sort of nonsense is the reason why, although I have no more s*xual morals than an alley cat, I have a strict Rule I follow to the effect that someone actively in a relationship is Off Limits!

Someone responded:

Very good rule. But if everyone had followed it we would have muuuch less literature and no country music at all.

So I put in my two cents worth, saying:

Maybe no _country_, but _bluegrass_ would be fine. A women who wasn't in a relationship would still refuse to marry the guy who loved her madly, so he'd have to kill her; or she'd get pregnant and insist that he marry her, so he'd have to kill her. And bootleggers would still be harassed by revenoors, so they'd have to kill them. And guys' dogs would still get old and sick, so they'd have to kill them.

Plenty of bluegrass.

Peter

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: pdq
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 08:45 PM

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: kendall
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 08:21 PM

Don't know that one.
Maybe we should define country music. What is it anyway? Does it have to have broken hearts, dead dogs and swinging doors to qualify?

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Joe_F
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 06:07 PM

Does Stan Rogers's "Lies" count as country? I am hazy on genres.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: kendall
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 07:50 AM

Now I don't mean to say I don't like country music, it's fun to play with other folks who do. I was raised on it but switched to folk after learning two more chords.:-)(Old inside joke)
It's that type of country music that dwells on unrequited love that gets me. Usually, it's not love at all, but obsession.

Rick Fielding singing John Hartford's Old Time Riverman is neither pop nor folk but I love it. I really miss Rick.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: kendall
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 07:44 AM

I'm not a big country music fan; all that un returned love is boring.
I lean toward The Blizzard by Jim Reeves, and, The Faded Roses of December by Utah Phillips.Ashes on the sea, not sure how to categorize that one.

Tom T. Hall needs to be right up there in the country field too.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,Larry Saidman
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 03:21 AM

I'd vote for Irving Berlin is 100 Years Old Today by Ian Tyson.

But various Hank Williams songs are also in the running (I'll Never Get Out of This World Alive, Your Cheatin' Heart, I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Blow, I'm so Lonesome I Could Cry)

Oh....and maybe one of the greatest! Mickey Newbury's "She Even Woke Me Up to Say Goodbye".

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Slag
Date: 29 Jan 11 - 01:38 AM

correction: David Frizzell, Lefty's little brother and Shelly West, Dotty's daughter, with apologies all around. Still the quintessential Country and Western song, well written, superbly sung.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 30 Jan 07 - 02:07 AM

you don't have to call me Charley Pride

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: voyager
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 11:18 PM

It's a PREASURE and a PLIVILEGE to contribute the 100th entry to this
'never-ending thread' -

Well, I was drunk the day my Mom got outta 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.

CHORUS:

So I'll hang around as long as you will let me
And I never minded standin' in the rain. No,
You don't have to call me darlin', darlin'
You never even call me, I wonder why you don't call me
Why don't you ever call me by my name.

You Never Even Call Me By My Name

voyager

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: M.Ted
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 11:14 PM

We have our own class system, WLD--the Country audience walks, talks, and dresses different than the folk/rock audience, and God help the troubadour that walks through the wrong door by accident. In America, they play for keeps.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Scoville
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 09:52 PM

I'm listening to Eric Taylor right now. Folk-rock. Country overtones but little more country than most modern Nashville stuff.

We didn't say he wasn't good, we just suggested that he wasn't country.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: GUEST,Jeff
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 09:41 PM

That's DAVID Frizzell and SHELLY West not Lefty and Dottie. Too bad. Would've liked to have heard a pairing of those two.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 05:27 PM

One that's really bowled me over in the last few years is Happy Endings by Eric Taylor. Mind you if Jack Hudson isn't country, maybe Eric taylor isn't either. Fabulous song! Off his amazing album Scuffletown.

Whats wrong with you Americans? that bloke Eric Taylor should have some sort of medal for writing something as good as that. I thought you had a meritocracy over there where merit was rewarded.

Over in England we know we're shafted with our class system. Its only a matter of time before they let Prince Charles win the BBC radio 2young folksinger of the year on his first attempt. Might actually be an improvement.....

We expect better things from the New World. I bet some days the Pilgrim Fathers wish they'd settled for a bag of chips and shopping on Union Street, rather than setting sail from Plymouth.

Congressional medal of honour (whatever that is)....at least. Well he's got my vote.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: goodpony
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 08:58 AM

"Goodtime Charlies Got the Blues"-Charlie Rich does a great version.
You can sing this tune as slow and mornfull as you'd like,and is a great tune for those all-night sing alongs and jams

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: number 6
Date: 29 Jan 07 - 12:01 AM

Currently my favourite (my fav's are rather fluid and change like the daily tide) country song is "White Freightliner Blues" by Townes Van Zandt.

Tomorrow it could be back to .. "I'm Moving on" by Hank Snow.

biLL

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: Slag
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 11:27 PM

Opinions lead to consensus. Let's keep it going.

Subject: RE: Best country song
From: fumblefingers
Date: 28 Jan 07 - 11:25 PM

The size of this list is such that it's obvious that there is no Best Country Song. I know more country songs than I can count, and I can think of at least two hundred that I think are the best at various times and stages of intoxication.