Music » Country Indie Music

20 classic hits released by United Artists, Reprise and Warner Bros. From 1965 to 1987. features the hits 'Sundown', 'If You Could read My Mind', 'The Wreck Of The Edmund Fitzgerald', 'Carefree Highway' and many more!

Less successful when it's sentimental (Waylon Jennings' "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys") than when it's wry (Willie Nelson's myth-puncturing "Me and Paul"), this cash-in compilation of previously released cuts was just in time to grab the first platinum record ever awarded a country album. It's not bad, but both Jennings' contemporaneous Dreaming My Dreams and Nelson's Red Headed Stranger are more nuanced tastes of the good-bad-but-not-evil-ol'-boy lifestyle. (Not to mention much of Tompall Glaser's own Outlaw compilation.) This 1996 CD reissue adds nine more tracks from the era as well as a new Jennings-and-Nelson version of Steve Earle's "Nowhere Road." --Rickey Wright

No Description AvailableNo Track Information AvailableMedia Type: CDArtist: EARLE,STEVETitle: GUITAR TOWNStreet Release Date: 01/29/2002

East Tennessee-born singer Kenny Chesney has, in the course of his relatively brief career, proven to be an unremarkable but thoroughly competent singer who shows occasional flashes of brilliance when teamed with the right song. That happens roughly half the time on this 17-cut compilation disc, which, despite its title, actually includes four new songs, one rerecording, and a remix. Amid soppy country-pop chart fodder ("Me and You," "When I Close My Eyes") and second-rate ditties ("How Forever Feels," "She Thinks My Tractor's Sexy"), Chesney hits his stride on robust country ballads like "You Had Me from Hello" and the lead single "I Lost It." On other gems--like "That's Why I'm Here," a heartfelt tribute to the Alcoholics Anonymous 12-step program that topped the charts a while back; "Baptism," a great duet with Randy Travis; and his fine rerecording of "Tin Man," the song that launched his career in the mid '90s--Chesney even manages to attain an ephemeral but utterly moving transcendence over his vocal limitations and sometimes questionable song choices. --Bob Allen

Riding the wave of the renewed interest in traditional American music, Classic Mountain Songs From Smithsonian Folkways Recordings showcases a handful of the greatest mountain ballads as performed by some of the most influential folk singers and songwriters of the 20th century. This collection features many classic performances from a wide variety of regional instrumental and song styles. These diverse styles and songs types from the mountain communities of North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee include old-time fiddle and banjo pieces, early bluegrass, and traditional ballads, with a special emphasis on Appalachian vocal traditions. Doc and Merle Watson, Roscoe Holcomb, Clarence Ashley, and Dock Boggs are just a few of the revered roots artists who appear on this stellar compilation. This is an essential album for both old and new fans of American mountain music. Compiled and annotated by Jeff Place.

Artists like Iris DeMent aren't supposed to exist anymore in this cynical world. Singing unironically about family, forgiveness, and other real-life mysteries, DeMent is accompanied on this great debut by little more than acoustic guitar, upright bass, piano, and an occasional fiddle. But the songs (especially the bittersweet "Our Town" and the grand dreams of "Mama's Opry") are more than smart and honest enough to bear standing so naked. And her singing--highlighting a sweet Ozark twang--is that rarest of gifts: a wise, friendly voice that can break your heart even as it's making it swell with a reason to love again. --David Cantwell

Prompted by the success Ken Burns's popular Civil War documentary (which spawned its own soundtrack), Songs of the Civil War presents an eclectic assortment of contemporary performers tackling period pieces that date back to the War Between the States. Here's Sweet Honey in the Rock tackling the slave lament "No More Auction Block for Me," Judy Collins singing "Battle Hymn of the Republic," and Kate and Anna McGarrigle essaying the lovely (and very suitable) "Hard Times Come Again No More." Between performances by name artists (Kathy Mattea, Waylon Jennings, and Richie Havens among them), instrumentals performed by the U.S. Military Academy Band provide a sense of time and place. --Steven Stolder

It happens to every hard partier--your lifestyle eventually catches up to you. For Steve Earle, this third so-so effort from the then-rou?-ish troubadour was a pretty glaring rehab-ahead warning light. The sloppiness was beginning to show: half the disc bogs down in throwaways, cheap echoes of Guitar Town and Exit 0's country-rock acumen. The rest, fortunately, is prime, focused Earle: the Vietnam-vet title track, the Wild West-themed "Snake Oil," and the oft-covered classic "The Devil's Right Hand," in which the composer achieves that perfect balance of city-slick pop and hillbilly twang. Earle would hit that one-two combo again, but not until he shook that party monkey a few albums later. --Tom Lanham

Release Date: 1995-09-26, Audio CD, Asylum Records

Release Date: 1991-09-24, Audio CD, Oh Boy