Learning To Love My Country: A Playlist to Prepare Rock Newbies Watching the CMA Awards

I grew up in Northern New Jersey, which last time I looked is slightly north of the Mason-Dixon Line. Yet thanks to my late great dad -- an early and vocal proponent of Jewgrass -- my first ever concert was seeing the still brilliant Nitty Gritty Dirt Band at Carnegie Hall. Thanks to Mom and Dad, there were also a few Johnny Cash 8-tracks laying around our house for me to discover and treasure alongside those of the Beatles and Neil Diamond. So I suppose I come by my lifelong love of country music pretty naturally.

For the past seven years, I've spent a few weeks a year in Nashville writing the script for the CMA Awards, also known for good reason as Country Music's Biggest Night. And while I hate being away from home so long, I love Nashville and its music community with all my heart. Nashville is my kind of town because in the end, my life has been shaped and graced by songs. And Nashville is all about songs -- and the people who sing them, write them and play on them.

This year I had time to attend and stand onstage during the Grand Ole Opry show, thanks to Vince Gill, who performed along with Keith Urban and too many other great artists to mention. And I got a personal tour of the amazing Musicians Hall of Fame and Museum by its founder Joe Chambers. The place is a glorious labor of love that any true music fan should visit - and soon.

As I write these words, I am watching rehearsals, and making last minute changes to the script for our fantastic and lovely hosts, Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood, and our presenters. I'm sitting here thinking about other people like me who grew up in rock territory, but might be tempted to tune in due to the fact that Taylor Swift -- probably the biggest star in music right now -- is opening up our show.

So do yourself a favor, and check out this playlist to get a better sense of the surprisingly wide world of country music today. No, it's not your mother's and father's country, but that's okay. Times change, and so too should music. Country music radio today goes from Taylor Swift to Jamey Johnson, from Zac Brown Band to Sugarland -- and I'm right at home with that kind of range.

"Welcome To The Future" - Brad Paisley
"In Color" - Jamey Johnson
"I Run To You" - Lady Antebellum
"Toes" - Zac Brown Band
"Footsteps Of Our Father" - Pat Green
"White Liar" - Miranda Lambert
"Joey" - Sugarland
"She's Country" - Jason Aldean
"Sooner Or Later" - Michelle Branch
"Standing Right In Front Of You" - Keith Urban
"Cowboy Casanova" - Carrie Underwood
"You Had To Be There" - Tim McGraw
""Cheater, Cheater" - Jory + Rory
"Solitary Thinkin'" - Lee Ann Womack
"White Horse" - Taylor Swift

So please tune in to see Taylor Swift kick off the show Wednesday night, then kick back relax a while and see Brad and Carrie, Jamey Johnson sing with Kid Rock and Kenny Chesney sing with Dave Matthews and Vince Gill sing with Daughtry. Bless all of your liberal, Huffington Post hearts, I think you'll have a good time.

While we're talking, what country songs today speak to you?

 

Follow David Wild on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Wildaboutmusic

Comments

[Genius]

I used to hate country music. I don't know if it's just growing up and being exposed to so much of an eclectic mix, but I love so much of what I hear now. My list will start with some of my Country Favorite tunes and follow up with some more of what I listen to. I will note that I consider myself an agnostic so I just like the songs for the melodies and the feel good message.
Here goes:

Country artists:
Billy Currington - God is great, beer is good, and people are CRAZY! Great videos too.
Must be doing something right.
Why, why, why?
Randy Travis - Forever and ever, amen.
Garth Brooks - Friends in low places.
Terri Clark - Girls lie too.

Alt Artists:
Alice in Chains - Man in the Box
Marc Broussard - Home
Pink - Anything she does is great.
Michael Buble` - I wanna go Home
Feeling good
Everything
Haven't met you yet.
Robert Randolph - Ain't nothin wrong with that. Awesome Discovery Channel Commercial!!
& the Family Band YouTube it, it is soo cool.
The thrill of it
OutKast - Idlewild blues
Amos Lee _ Colors w/ Nora Jones

Too many others to mention.

[noralou]

"Crazy"
authored by Willie Nelson
made famous by Patsy Cline
"Fairytale
written and performed by the Pointer Sisters (look it up on youtube, it is great!)
"The Dance"
Garth Brooks
"Dirty Work"
Steely Dan

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

"Dirty Work" -- love it. Country?

[Sportswoman]

Oh, and I love everythingthe Dixie Chicks have done--great music!

[Sportswoman]

Tenacious D scripting the CMAs! I'll be watching and listening for that Jersey humor!
I grew up with Rock & Roll ; rock grew up with me--alongside country. Bruce's Atlantic City is country. as is I'm On Fire, along with much of Nebraska. James Burton's guitar was on so many--from Elvis & Ricky Nelson to Dave Mathews' Band's I'm Alive." Country rock & that slide guitar!
My personal faves include;
Bluebirds Over the Mountain--Ritchie Valens
True Love Ways--Buddy Holly
He'll Have to Go-Jim Reeves
Hello Walls-Willy Nelson
He Thinks I Still Care--Patsy Cline/Leann Rhimes
Sunday Morning Comin Down--Kris Kristofferson
Walkin After Midnight--Patsy Cline
Stood Up-- Rick Nelson
Love Has No Pride--(Erik Kaz ) Linda Ronstadt
Faithless Love--J.D. Souther
Battle of New Orleans: Johnny Horton
If I Didn't Have a Dime (To Play the Jukebox)--Gene Pitney
Wings of a Nightingale--Everly Bros.
A Lot of Things Differently--Kenny Chesney
Still--Tim McGraw
This Kiss-Faith Hill
Sold American/ Get Your Biscuits in the Oven and Your Buns in the Bed--Kink Friedman and His Texas Jewboys
Fire On the Mountain--Marshall Tucker
Still-Bill Anderson
All American Boy--Bill Parsons (Bobby Bare)
Daddy Sang Bass-Carl Perkins
If I Were a Carpenter--Bobby Darin / Tim Hardin
The End of the World--Skeeter Davis (closed the Mad Men shocker the other week)
Sail Away--Randy Newman
Foggy Mt. Breakdown--Flatt and Scruggs
Folsom Prison Blues--Johnny Cash

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

Did you see the show? Hope you like it.

[Sportswoman]

I loved it! I am not trying to be obsequious here, but that show was one of the best awards shows I have seen in a long while Darius Rucker is an artist I definitely would like to hear more of. Taylor Swift was so unassumingly charming--had to love the line when she thanked the entire audience for not rushing the stage> Great line! The music was wonderful. I heard some profundity in lyrics that I haven't heard in awhile in several genres. I was never a Reba fan, but she gave a terrific performance last night.
Crisply written show that moved very well. Great job, David!

[BlackJAC]

Forget country music; every other month it's Country Music's Time To Shine once again. Toby Keith and Daryl Worley used 9/11 to sell albums and denounce any and all blue staters as terrorist sympathizers for not wanting to hit Iraq even through three 9/11 casualties came from this blue-stater's town alone. Everyone affiliated with that genre also seems to think that the country began at Fort Sumpter rather than Lexington Green. No, I'll keep my rock & roll and continue to designate all of my music-playing devices a country-free zone.

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

I am here in the middle of country music and I lean Left and blog here, and I say what I think and am treated with respect. So my advice is don't be a hardliner assuming everyone who owns a cowboy hat is a hardliner.

[BlackJAC]

I seem to remember one of Toby Keith's songs saying something about having to draw a hard line.

They seem to assume that a Massachusetts driver's license serves double-duty as an al-Qaeda lifetime membership card even though it was our friends, neighbors and relatives on those planes, so why do they get the special right of immunity from reciprocity?

[Milash]

I, like you, was introduced to country music by my Dad. He loved Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings, Larry Gatlin and the Gatlin Brothers, so I have a soft spot for those artists. I sat with my parents and my sister in the nosebleeds seats at the Oakland Arena many, many years ago, just to see Willie (and a bunch of Hell's Angels).

I have liked a few country artists over the years...Mary Chapin Carpenter, Trisha Yearwood, Lucinda Williams, The Judds, The Dixie Chicks

[mattwg440]

I grew up in MS and AL listening to George Jones, Alabama, and Hank Jr.
I think I stopped listening "officially" when I heard what was basically a country rap song a few years ago, I do not remember the artist or song title "i wanna talk about you, i wanna talk about me ......"

It' not a country music prejudice though, I do not listen to the radio at all now. If anyone who is honest has been paying attention they should have noticed the same thing has happened to most other music on the radio now, it stinks.

I started listening to the Avett Brothers a few months ago, they are my favorite "band" now, and a great example of what country could be.

[BobSacomano]

Paisley = great guitarist

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

Amazing. I just passed on your compliment backstage and he says thank you

[Tommy]

The CMA Awards show is a great introduction to today's country music. I saw it live in '97 and it was like watching all of Nashville in concert all at once.

Keith Urban is an amazing performer and musician, If he comes to your town, buy a ticket. Sugarland are very talented as well.

Someone mentioned Zac Brown's "Chicken Fried." The Lost Trailers did a more up-tempo version that was never released as a single. Interesting take on the song if you can find it.

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you Tommy I am responding from dress rehearsal and the show looks GREAT
Please check it out tonight

[balloonloon]

Lucinda Williams; Dierks Bentley; Zac Brown Band; Darius Rucker

BTW My good friend, legendary bassist and producer Norbert Putnam
will be honored at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum on
Saturday, November 14, as part of the popular quarterly series Nashville
Cats: A Celebration of Music City Musicians. The program begins
at 1:30 p.m. in the Museum’s Ford Theater.

As you may know, Norbert is a successful producer--Joan Baez, Jimmy Buffett, Dan
Fogelberg, Kris Kristofferson), publisher (Danor Music), and business
owner (Quadrafonic Sound Studios, Bennett House, Georgetown Mastering).

NP recorded pop and R&B hits for Tommy Roe, the Tams and Arthur
Alexander in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, he also helped create classic
country and pop records in Nashville for nearly three decades. His
R&B-style bass lines can be heard on classic hits such as Joan Baez’s
“The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down,” Bobby Goldsboro’s “Honey,”
Dave Loggins’ “Please Come to Boston,” Elvis Presley’s “Promised Land,”
Linda Ronstadt’s “Long Long Time,” and Tony Joe White’s “Polk Salad Annie,”
among others.

[Sportswoman]

"Long Long Time "was written by an old friend Gary White. Tommy Roe's "Sheila "was just "Peggy Sue" redux, IMO.

[balloonloon]

I hear ya--sorta like the Romantic's, 'What I Like About You' borrowing
from Neil Diamond's, 'Cherry Cherry'...IMO

[Fred Graver - Huffpost Blogger]

I love David Wild's Country Music list... And the fact that he's writing the CMA's tonight is reason enough to watch the show. Take off the blinders and listen to country music now.

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you Fred!
We're in dress rehearsal and the show should be a blast wherever you live.

[expatstudent]

The greatest display of musical virtuosity in a live performance that I've ever seen of any genre was Alison Krauss & Union Station. I love their music.

I consider myself a huge country music fan, but the stuff I like isn't necessarily featured on mainstream radio, but rather public radio. Dwight Yoakam, Dixie Chicks, newer Dolly Parton (who really is an amazing songwriter and musician), Steve Earle, Bluegrass, etc. I also think the American Recordings albums were a real template that Johnny Cash set for how older artists can re-invent themselves and attract a new audience with wisdom and mastery. Merle Haggard got signed to a punk label, Loretta Lynn put out Van Lear Rose, Dolly did her bluegrass albums... Sadly, I don't feel like I heard much of this on country radio.

I like 2 Montgomery Gentry songs, "Cold One Comin' On" and "If You Ever Stop Loving Me," but the rest are just corny to me. And I like "Somebody Like You" by Keith Urban, but these are all a few years old now.

I don't know... I think great country music is great but bad country music is BAD. And I don't find much in-between. Kind of like Rap lol. And Pop for that matter. And Heavy Metal.

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

Well said!

[BoiseLib]

I've always liked good country music, but until The Dixie Chicks receive an apology from the ignorant hicks--F'em.

[Gasparilla]

Mainly a classic rock guy, but will listen to anything, including Ella, Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman. I like the old country. Patsy Cline ["Three Cigarettes in an Ashtray"], George Jones, and the king of all, Hank Williams Sr. How can anyone listen to "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry" and not be affected. Brilliant lyrics.

[redbridge]

What a surprise to see this here on HP - thanks. I was listening to Lady Antebellum's "Love Don't Live Here" when I opened your article. Kickin' song.

I often find 'debut' albums to my liking - especially when the artists are the writers as well. They carry these songs along with them until their big break. Maybe unlike their future albums, the songs on that first album have been worked for years prior to release.Seems to me like these debut albums run deeper - more quality writing - than later attempts.

That said, I want to add ... Country Music - Without Prejudice! Big and Rich's debut 'Horse of a Different Color'. What a wild mix - rap, cello, banjo and the unusual but ever-present male 2 part harmony. Many good songs from this really wild west show that's probably 4 years old now. My faves are 'Ballad of Big/Rich', 'Holy Water' and 'Live My Life'.

Thanks for a fun piece.

[David Wild - Huffpost Blogger]

Thank you redbridge.
I think there are a fair number of people out there who are close-minded when it comes to country -- because they see country as close-minded. I prefer to follow the good songs wherever they are -- in rock, rap and country.

[redbridge]

Maybe a few of them commenting here? ;)

At times it tests me, to live up to my vow that ' I'd never disrespect MY KIDS' music when I became a parent.'

As an early teen, I had to get rid of Alice Cooper and Black Oak Arkansas albums because we 'just didn't need to be playing that kind of music in our home'. So I try to keep an open mind about the selections of my 12 & 13 year old daughters. I am having trouble warming to Justin Bieber.

One thing different from the 70s - and maybe this is just my personal experience - but I don't see any 'stigma' attached to a tween or teen listening to Country today. Has that changed?

Here in Southern Minnesota, Taylor rules. And as a father, my girls could certainly find a worse role model. Man that kid has handled the past couple months very well. There will be outrage on the couches if she doesn't have a big night tonight.

I envy your opportunity at the CMAs - the perfect gig, IMHO. Have fun.