50 Greatest Country Artists of All-Time: Part Four (20–11)
We’re at the point now where it’s the best of the best. Let’s hop right back into the list!
20.) Patsy Cline
Patsy Cline is a legend who was taken much too young in a tragic plane crash at the age of just 30. Patsy, still to this day, is the gold standard for female vocalists. Any genre. Much like George Jones, a listener feels every single word that Pasty sung. The way she transmitted the simplest of emotions was profound, poignant, and simply beautiful.
Essential songs: “Crazy,” “I Fall to Pieces,” and “Walkin’ After Midnight”
Essential albums: Patsy Cline and Patsy Cline Showcase
19.) Marty Robbins
Marty Robbins, much like another Marty (Stuart) years later, was a country music renaissance man. His greatest contribution to country music is the epic Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs. The album proved to be one of the first ever concept albums in all of recorded music and proved a template for later albums by Willie Nelson and Johnny Cash. Marty also, in my opinion, possessed one of the most distinct singing styles in country music. It was smooth with just a hint of danger lurking with every note.
Essential songs: “The Hanging Tree,” “El Paso,” “Big Iron,” “They’re Hanging Me Tonight,” “Devil Woman,” “El Paso City,” and “Some Memories Just Won’t Die”
Essential albums: Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs, Return of the Gunfighter, and Drifter
18.) George Strait
King George Strait. A truly seminal and transformative figure in country music. When “Unwound” appeared on the charts in 1981, country music was at a crossroads. It was the post-outlaw period in which Waylon and Willie had grown tired of being pigeon-holed and labeled. The “Urban Cowboy Movement” was well under way as country music was learning how to exist in a world in which it was no longer just a defined, specific genre. Along came George Strait. With a hard *Texas* country sound, King George wasn’t playing games. He wasn’t going to compromise. And he went on to have a highly successful critical and commerical career, charting 60 number one hits and winning five combined CMA and ACM Entertainer of the Year Awards, all while laying the groundwork for what Randy Travis, Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam, and Alan Jackson would later accomplish for their various forms of country music.
Essential songs: “Unwound,” “Amarillo By Morning,” “The Cowboy Rides Away,” “The Fireman,” “The Chair,” “Ocean Front Property,” “The Chill of an Early Fall,” “Heartland,” “Easy Come, Easy Go,” “I Can Still Make Cheyenne,” “Today My World Slipped Away,” “I Hate Everything,” “Living For The Night,” and “Give It All We Got Tonight”
Essential albums: (Calling King George a singles artist would be selling him short, but the best way to listen to George is to listen to the hits). 50 Number Ones and 22 More Hits
17.) Bill Monroe
The man who essentially popularized bluegrass as an American art-form. And much like many of the artists included here in the top 20, Bill Monroe is a transformative figure in the genre’s history. Ricky Skaggs is a direct disciple of Monroe, and Monroe counted such future stars as Flatt and Scruggs, Mac Wiseman, Jimmy Martin, Del McCoury, and Buck Trent as members of his band at one point. Monroe exemplifies the spirit of American mountain music.
Essential songs: “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” “Kentucky Waltz,” “Mule Skinner Blues,” “Uncle Pen,” and “I’m Working on a Building”
Essential albums: Uncle Pen, Southern Flavor, and Live at the Opry
16.) Randy Travis
Where would country music today be without Randy Travis? He almost single-handedly preserved the *country gold* that artists like George Jones and Hank Williams gave us. Randy played stone-cold country music, and by releasing his highly successful debut album Storms of Life in 1986, he lit a fire in the genre that would burn for the next decade- a return to the genre’s roots and a whole slew of artists more than willing to record traditional kinds of country music. We owe Randy Travis so much.
Essential songs: “On the Other Hand,” “Diggin’ Up Bones,” “No Place Like Home,” “1982,” “Forever and Ever, Amen,” “Honky Tonk Moon,” “Hard Rock Bottom of Your Heart,” “Better Class of Losers,” and “Three Wooden Crosses”
Essential albums: Storms of Life, Old 8x10, High Lonesome, and Rise and Shine
15.) Tammy Wynette
Just as the aforementioned Randy Travis influenced so many of the neo-traditional stars of the 1990s, Tammy Wynette did the same for so many of the great country women like Reba, Faith Hill, and Lee Ann Womack. Tammy could sing country music any way she wished. Her producer Billy Sherrill gave some of her music a countrypolitan flavor, but Tammy could sing stone-cold country with the best of the best. Songs like “D-I-V-O-R-C-E” and “Stand By Your Man” are country standards, and Tammy’s duets with George Jones are up there with Conway and Loretta’s as the greatest the genre has to offer.
Essential songs: “D-I-V-O-R-C-E,” “Stand By Your Man,” “I Don’t Wanna Play House,” “He Loves Me All the Way,” “Womanhood,” and “Golden Ring” (with George Jones)
Essential albums: D-I-V-O-R-C-E, Stand By Your Man, and Tammy’s Touch
14.) Jimmie Rodgers
“The Singing Brakeman.” Along with the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers was one of the first American country stars of the 20th Century. Highly influential for a whole flock of country stars in the following decades, Jimmie Rodgers later received tribute albums from Merle Haggard, Hank Snow, and Lefty Frizzell…and Bob Dylan. If Dylan and The Hag are paying respect to someone’s music, well, it’s safe to say that artist really can’t get any better. Rodgers died at the age of just 35 after complications from tuberculosis. His death seriously affected the next man on the list…
Essential songs: “T For Texas (Blue Yodel Number 1),” “T.B. Blues,” “In the Jailhouse Now,” “Blue Yodel №9,” and “Mississippi Delta Blues”
Essential albums: Rough Guide to Jimmie Rodgers
13.) Ernest Tubb
Ernest Tubb can be credited for fathering the style of country known as honky tonk. He added serious twang to the genre with the addition of the electric guitar (angering the Opry) to what otherwise would be called a Texas shuffle. E.T., as he was affectionately known, left a poignant legacy thanks to his mentorship and friendship with futute stars like Cal Smith and Jack Greene, both of whom played in the Tubb’s Texas Troubadours at one point. I consider Ernest Tubb to be one of the most underappreciated stars in the genre’s history. He never had the best voice, but each word he sung had serious emotion and gave the beer drinkers in Texas something to lose their troubles to- an approach that would become more and more popular as country music grew.
Essential songs: “I’m Walking The Floor Over You,” “Soldier’s Last Letter,” “Drivin’ Nails in My Coffin,” “You Nearly Lose Your Mind,” “The Yellow Rose of Texas,” “Pass the Booze,” and “Waltz Across Texas”
Essential albums: Ernest Tubb Record Shop, Ernest Tubb and His Texas Troubadours, Midnight Jamboree, and The Definitive Collection
12.) Dolly Parton
Truly one of the biggest *stars* the country genre has ever had the privilege of calling its own. Dolly, though she starred in movies, played pop music, and can call many Hollywood celebrities her friends, has remained country to the core, becoming a fantastic ambassador for the genre- and an example of how inclusive country music can actually be. And we haven’t even mentioned her songs or her voice yet! Listening to a Dolly song is like hearing a choir of angels. Her voice, set often to her own words (she is a brilliant songwriter), results in magic.
Essential songs: “Jolene,” “Down on Music Row,” “9 to 5,” “Here You Come Again,” “I Will Always Love You,” “Highway Headin’ South,” “The Bargain Store,” “Coat of Many Colors,” and “Love is Like a Butterfly”
Essential albums: Hello, I’m Dolly, Just Because I’m a Woman, Coat of Many Colors, My Tennessee Mountain Home, Jolene, and Backwoods Barbie
11.) Conway Twitty
Conway Twitty could sing about cheating and broken hearts better than anyone with the exception of maybe George Jones. Each note is felt by the listener, and I’ve always felt I could hear Conway’s heart breaking every single time “Hello Darlin’” plays. Conway was one of the first of many artists from the rock world over the years to come to country music and respect its roots better than some already in the genre. Conway, for me, was such a great artist because of how he went about his business. It always seemed like he truly cared about wanting to be a country artist. Oh, and those 55 number one hits are pretty impressive too.
Essential songs: “Hello Darlin’,” “You’ve Never Been this Far Before,” “The Grandest Lady of Them All,” “To See My Angel Cry,” “Fifteen Years Ago,” “Cheatin’ Fire,” “Tight Fittin’ Jeans,” “Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man” (with Loretta Lynn), and “After the Fire is Gone” (with Loretta Lynn)
Essential albums: Mr. T, 25 Number Ones, and Louisiana Woman, Mississippi Man (with Loretta Lynn)
