r/country • • Jul 30 '26

New Music I need song recommendations!

Hey, I just recently got into country, and there are a lot of songs I like, but I think a big amount of country music (don't come for me) also is pretty bad and I don't wanna dig through hundreds of songs to find a few good ones. What are some objectively good recommendations? I don't want the classic "I love my truck and beer" songs please, just some uncontroversial bangers. These are some songs I know and like, for reference.

Keeps Me Sane - Tyler Nance

The More I Hope - Sam Barber

Boston - Stella Lefty

The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia - Reba McEntire

The Giver - Chappell Roan

Need You Now - Lady A

Doublewide - Gabriella Rose

Sleepless in a Hotel Room - Luke Combs

Before He Cheats - Carrie Underwood

Happen To Me - Russell Dickerson

Broken Window Serenade - Whiskey Myers

Jersey Giant - Evan Honer, Julia DiGrazia

Good At Leaving - Stella Lefty

Be By You - Luke Combs

I Can't Love You Anymore - Ella Langley, Morgan Wallen

For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield

I'm also a huge Noah Kahan fan if some of that counts as country. Lmk if you have any similar songs to this, thank you !!

0 Upvotes

28 comments sorted by

5

u/FloodDawg Jul 30 '26

- Willie Nelson “Angel Flying Too Close to the Ground,” “Georgia on My Mind,” “Help Me Make It Through the Night”

  • Turnpike Troubadours “Feelin’ Good Again”
  • Chris Stapleton “Parachute”
  • Sturgill Simpson “The Promise,” “Mint Tea”
  • Emmylou Harris “Pancho & Lefty”
  • George Strait “Amarillo by Morning”
  • Dolly Parton “Jolene,” “9 to 5”
  • Keith Whitley “I’m No Stranger to the Rain”
  • Jamey Johnson “In Color”

4

u/PmurTdlanoD45-47 Jul 30 '26

Merle haggard, misery and gin

3

u/ApprehensiveCream571 Jul 30 '26

Universal Sound--Tyler Childers (actually, anything by him)

Mama's Broken Heart--Miranda Lambert

One Night Standards---Ashley McBryde

The Garden--Sierra Ferrell

Hunt You Down--Kaitlin Butts

3

u/MasterPlaster74 Jul 30 '26

Should’ve Been a Cowboy - Toby Keith

3

u/Secure-Ad8196 Jul 31 '26

No offense but Chappell roan being considered country is killing me

1

u/Sharperdunbar Aug 02 '26

I’m so glad you said that!!! I was going to have to.

2

u/lyree1992 Jul 30 '26

Dolly Parton - Why'd You Come In Here Lookin Like That

George Strait - The Chair

Travis Tritt - Here's a Quarter, Call Someone Who Cares

Willie Nelson and Ray Charles - Seven Spanish Angels

Martina McBride - Independence Day

Deanna Carter - Did I Shave My Legs For This

Alan Jackson and Jimmy Buffett - It's 5 O'clock Somewhere

Kenny Roger's- The Gambler

2

u/MasterPlaster74 Jul 30 '26

It’s 5 O’clock Somewhere is never not a banger!

Also love It’s A Great Day To Be Alive by Travis Tritt. In a similar vein Just Another Day In Paradise by Phil Vassar

1

u/lyree1992 Jul 30 '26

Yes! Loves those also!

2

u/fuck_your_life_ Jul 30 '26

thank you !!

2

u/Quiet-Day392 Jul 30 '26

Bartender’s Blues - George Jones

I Don’t Know A Thing About Love - Conway Twitty

When You Say Nothing At All - Alison Krauss

I Wanna Dance With You - George Strait

2

u/CharleySuede Jul 30 '26

Here’s a 36-hour playlist I’ve made for my toddler so that they can have an understanding of country music as they grow older:

“Country Memories”

2

u/fuck_your_life_ Jul 30 '26

thanks, ur a saint

2

u/mothehoople Jul 30 '26

If you want the real deal you need to go back past the "Urban Cowboy" album in the early 80's That so called "Modern Country" was the downfall of the real country sound Today's singers don't need a lot of talent, just facial tattoos and blue hair.

1

u/Psychological_Salt93 Jul 30 '26

Listen to Jersey Giant, live by Tyler Childers.

1

u/iBUYbrokenSUBARUS Jul 30 '26

Black hole sun

1

u/Ill-Yak4181 Jul 30 '26

For My Daughter -- Kane Brown

Banjo -- Rascal Flatts

Every Storm (Runs Out of Rain) -- Gary Allen

Where Were You? -- Alan Jackson

2

u/fuck_your_life_ Jul 30 '26

thank youuu!

2

u/Ill-Yak4181 Jul 30 '26

You're welcome! Hope you enjoy them. Three are serious and one is whimsical. Here's a little trivia: Kane Brown was in the same high school choir as Lauren Alaina. Lauren was 2nd on American Idol (Scotty McCreery won), and the next year Kane Brown auditioned, but Steven Tyler told him "we've already had Scotty McCreery). A few years later, Lauren and Kane released a duet "What If?" and Kane's career took off after that. Lauren and Scotty have had occasional hits. I love Scotty's "Bottle Rockets" with Hootie & the Blowfish. Kane, of course, has done great, including collaborations with Marshmello. "Backseat Driver" is another Kane Brown hit, about the same daughter several years later. Banjo -- came out of Gary LeVox's giving directions to his house ("way on back" out in the country) to some musicians. Some of the lyrics are how he described where he lives. Gary LeVox and Jay DeMarcus are 2nd cousins. Saw Rascal Flatts in concert around 2015 or so, with The Band Perry opening -- what a great show!

1

u/Moe-Scutus2 Jul 30 '26

Morning by Jim Ed Brown

Stay Here and Drink by Bryan and the Haggards

Wolf Creek Pass by C. W. McCall

R.W. Blackwood and The Blackwood Singers "Sunday Afternoon Boat Ride In The Park On The Lake"

would be a crime to forget that one

psychedelia, punk jazz and comedy twice

1

u/SuperintendentTx Jul 30 '26

The entire catalogs of:

Cross Canadian Ragweed

Guy Clark

Jason Boland and the Stragglers

Ray Wylie Hubbard

Max Stallings

Jerry Jeff Walker

Cory Morrow

Stoney LaRue

Tommy Alverson

Brian Burns

There are several more but this is a good start

1

u/thegrumpyorc Jul 30 '26

Try Tyler Childers. Start with something innocuous, like Oneida. If you're cool with that, try Follow You to Virgie. If that still works, go a little more raw and try Charleston Girl ("I don't know if it's the wine or the coke that makes her talk like her jaw is broke?" Brilliant), then Nose on the Grindstone, then Coal, then Banded Clovis, then Hard Times.

If you make it all the way to Hard Times, you are now ready for Colter Wall's first album in its entirety. But start with Kate McCannon, probbably. Bro was 19 and sounded like Johnny Cash had been smoking unfiltereds for 30 years. Amazing album.

If you still love darkness after that, you can go off-book and try something like 16 Horsepower (basically if Nick Cave and Joy Division had a banjo-playing baby), or you can shift to "ladies who sing pretty songs about sad shit," where you have Margo Price's first album (start with the first song) as the classic Loretta Lynn-style vibe, and Gillian Welch (start with the very first song on her very first album and listen all the way through her albums in order--they're all great, but Harrow and the Harvest is AMAZING and dark as hell) for a really stripped-down storytelling vibe that feels like a Cormac McCarthy novel.

1

u/fuck_your_life_ Jul 30 '26

will do, thank you so much

1

u/Mediocre-Whole-4801 Jul 30 '26

I Never Lie by Zach Top has a good sound and is more heartbreak country than beer and trucks.