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50 Country Albums Every Rock Fan Should Own

Johnny Cash’s ‘American Recordings,’ Loretta Lynn’s ‘Van Lear Rose,’ and more essential country LPs

Late-period albums by Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn are among the 50 essential country LPs for rock fans.

(from left) Michael Putland/Getty Images; Robert Gauthier/"Los Angeles Times"/Getty Images

For decades, rockers have looked to country music when they grew tired of brash flash or deafening volume — or they simply heard a George Jones record that blew their hair back with its sheer devastation. Country’s core strengths — intimate storytelling, realistic adult emotion, accomplished musicianship — have appealed to artists from the Rolling Stones to Elvis Costello to Bruce Springsteen, who’ve created their own convincing versions.

So, here are 50 country albums for any rock fan looking to explore the genre’s vast library of sorrow, rebellion, monster chops, and whiskey-drinking attitude.

[This list was originally published in 2014.]

5

Patsy Cline, ‘The Definitive Collection’ (2004)

Before she died in a plane crash in 1963, Cline established herself as arguably the greatest female singer in the history of country music, reaching beyond country’s core audience and crossing over into pop with a voice that was rich, sophisticated and deeply soulful. “Even though her style is considered country, her delivery is more like a classic pop singer,” Lucinda Williams told Rolling Stone. “That’s what set her apart from Loretta Lynn or Tammy Wynette. You’d almost think she was classically trained.” The emotive elegance of songs like “Crazy” and the Top 20 pop hit “Walking After Midnight” has been echoed by artists such as Linda Ronstadt and Norah Jones. But it’s shown up in less obvious places as well, like the coolly forlorn trip-hop torch songs of Portishead and the goth-folk ballads of Mazzy Star. J.D.

4

Willie Nelson, ‘Red Headed Stranger’ (1975)

In the early Seventies, Willie Nelson blazed an outlaw trail that led to classics like 1975’s Red Headed Stranger, an ambitious concept album about murder and infidelity that plays like a John Ford western. The music is relaxed and stripped down, and the lyrics paint a vivid picture rooted in the essential loneliness at the core of America’s frontier mythos. (The idea for the album came from Nelson’s wife, who helped him compose the lyrics). Bob Dylan, Neil Young and the Band, among many others, were rooting around the same territory at the time, but there’s something about the matter-of-fact clarity, as well as the intimacy and warmth, that makes Red Headed Stranger feel especially lived in and natural. Plus, it has “Blues Eyes Crying in the Rain,” one of the greatest flood songs ever written. J.D.

3

Ray Charles, ‘Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music’ (1962)

Inventing soul music as a combination of blues sensuality and gospel fervor, as Ray Charles did, would be enough to put him in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s inaugural class. But Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music is even more audacious, quite possibly the ultimate crossover move. Running country standards by the likes of Hank Williams and Eddy Arnold through his inimitable soul-man filter, Charles won over both audiences — and even beat Frank Sinatra at his own big-band game. That’s a mighty big tent, but they didn’t call Charles “the Genius” for nothing. Astoundingly, Modern Sounds and its Volume Two follow up (the rare sequel that’s just as good as its predecessor) took a grand total of five days in the studio. Even more astoundingly, Charles’ label tried to talk him out of doing it. As Charles remembered it in Rolling Stone a decade later, ABC-Paramount’s brass told him, “You can’t do no country-western things. . .You’re gonna lose all your fans!” Instead, Modern Sounds became ABC-Paramount’s first million-selling album.

2

Hank Williams, ’40 Greatest Hits’ (1978)

At this point, the greatest country artist of all time holds an equally important place in the rock canon too. “The words, the melodies and the sentiment are all there, clear and true,” Beck wrote when Williams was included in Rolling Stone‘s list of 100 Greatest Artists. “It takes economy and simplicity to get to an idea or emotion in a song, and there’s no better example of that than Hank Williams.” Williams fused hillbilly music with elements of blues and gospel to become country’s first superstar, directly influencing Elvis Presley and Bob Dylan, among scores of other artists in many genres. The songs on 40 Greatest Hits have been covered by artists from Al Green to the Breeders, and run the gamut from the class-conscious angst of “Mansion on the Hill” to the bottomless desolation of “Lost Highway” and “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry” to the lit-up giddiness of “Hey, Good Lookin'” and “Settin’ the Woods on Fire.” The last 60 years of American music are unthinkable without this music. J.D.

1

Johnny Cash, ‘At Folsom Prison’ (1968)

“I just wanna tell ya that this show is being recorded for an album release on Columbia Records and you can’t say ‘hell’ or ‘shit’ or anything like that,” Johnny Cash said to the inmates assembled for At Folsom Prison. Having curbed his bad behavior IRL, on this night the Man in Black became a smirking, good-for-nothing rapscallion. A chorus of whistles and cheers cascade from the crowd as he and a cracking country band bashed out proto-gangsta rap tales like “Cocaine Blues,” “Busted,” and the one about shooting a man in Reno just to watch him die. Then his soon-to-be-wife June Carter put the cuffs on for the duet “Jackson.” The un-manicured album documented the longtime couple’s budding love — “I like to watch you talk,” a smitten Cash blurted at one point — and jump-started his career after a commercial lull. “I knew this was it, my chance to make up for all the times when I had messed up,” he told Los Angeles Times‘ Robert Hilburn. “I kept hoping my voice wouldn’t give out again. Then I suddenly felt calm. I could see the men looking over at me. There was something in their eyes that made me realize everything was going to be okay. I felt I had something they needed.”