43 Albums for the 43 Days Until the Election to Make America Cosmic Again and Unfuck Your Mind (Musically)

#8 Randy Travis Storms of Life

Easily the top vocal talent of his generation, and of the generations that have followed, Randy Travis brought the honky tonk stylings of George Jones, Lefty Frizzell, and Merle Haggard back into country at a time when bland pop was running rampant. Country fans immediately embraced him, and he became the genre's biggest star until the rise of Garth Brooks. Travis' debut might have come sooner had he not been repeatedly rejected by Nashville for being "too country". 

When Warner Bros. finally got around to releasing Storms of Life, it went on to sell over four million copies, proving that there was still an audience for authentic country music--and a sizable one. Though his reign of the charts was later usurped by the scores of hat acts following in the wake of Garth Brooks, Travis kept making straight-up country--with a long string of gospel albums thrown in for good measure--never deviating from the traditions that influenced him. Storms of Life was an instant classic when it was released, and still gets bottles pourin' and boots stompin' whenever its played.

43 Albums for the 43 Days Until the Election to Make America Cosmic Again and Unfuck Your Mind (Musically)

#9 Ronnie Milsap 20/20 Vision

Ronnie Milsap combined 1950's rock 'n' roll, honky tonk and a keen ear for pop to become one of country music's biggest stars of the 1970's and 80's. 1976, the year 20/20 Vision was released, ushered in the era of his biggest success--including two singles ("What Goes On When the Sun Goes Down" and "(I'm A) Stand by Your Woman Man")--that began a streak of seven consecutive number ones. 

 But it wasn't just the hits (forty number ones over the course of his career) that defined Milsap--as 20/20 Vision proves. He transforms the Hank Williams classic "Lovesick Blues" into a four-on-the-floor rock song, gives Cindy Walker's "Not That I Care" a tangible sadness and delivers one of the ultimate country cheatin' songs with "Looking Out My Window Through the Pain".  

In a genre that contains very few perfect--and fewer groundbreaking--albums, 20/20 Vision is a milestone not only of Milsap's career, but of country music; where country and pop collided to make music that was both commercial and compelling.

43 Albums for the 43 Days Until the Election to Make America Cosmic Again and Unfuck Your Mind (Musically)

#10 Charley Pride Charley Pride Sings Heart Songs

Culturally Charley Pride might have changed country music tradition by becoming its first black star, but musically he held fast to its heritage, crafting countrypolitan and honky tonk songs that garnered him immense sales and multiple awards. Though Pride was riding a streak of seven number one singles, 1971 proved to elevate his success even higher.  

Pride won not only his first Grammy in '71, but the CMA Awards for "Male Vocalist of the Year" and "Entertainer of the Year". He also released Charlie Pride Sings Heart Songs, containing his biggest hit, "Kiss An Angel Good Mornin'," which became his first and only hit to reach the pop Top 40.  

The album itself was a triumph, also reaching the Top 40, winning him his second Grammy in 1972, and no doubt earning him his second straight CMA for "Male Vocalist". It contained his best collection of material, including such riveting performances as "Pretty Houses for Sale," "Anywhere (Just Inside Your Arms) and "You'll Still Be the One".  

Charley Pride Sings Heart Songs is the best place to hear Pride's classic blend of honky tonk ("I'm Starting to Believe My Own Lies"), ballads ("No One Could Ever Take Me From You") and countrypolitan ("Once Again"), and stands out in his excellent catalog as his finest album.

43 Albums for the 43 Days Until the Election to Make America Cosmic Again and Unfuck Your Mind (Musically)

#11 Red Simpson I'm a Truck

Red Simpson never received the recognition or chart success that his lengthy career should have afforded him, but he stands among the greatest of the truckin' country bards. Simpson rose to prominence in the late 60's courtesy of his truck driving odes, which he imbued with the Bakersfield Sound of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard (both of whom he collaborated with).  

By the time 1971's I'm a Truck was released, Simpson had transformed the songs from being mere novelties to genuine--and sometimes haunting--tales of truckers' toil. "I'm A Truck," written by Bakersfield Sound pioneer Tommy Collins, became his first (and only) single to reach the country Top 10. The entire album, though, is a triumph--featuring some of the hardest hard country music ever recorded. 

"Nitro Express," "Black Smoke A-Blowin' Over 18 Wheels," and "Runaway Truck" are exactly as their titles suggest; rip-roaring, exhaust-snorting anthems perfectly fitted for tearing up asphalt. Every country music fan should own a copy of I'm a Truck--even if they don't own a truck.

43 Albums for the 43 Days Until the Election to Make America Cosmic Again and Unfuck Your Mind (Musically)#12 Hank Williams, Jr. & Friends

By 1976 the 27-year-old Hank, Jr. had already spent 15 years in the music business, and--like his father--had already accumulated a lifetime of triumph and tragedy. He'd already been through the requisite booze and drug abuse, a suicide attempt, and another near-death experience from falling down a mountain. Probably the worst thing he had to endure, however, was an exploitative mother and a bunch of greedy corporate suits who were intent on parading him around parroting his father's songs. 

By his mid-20's, Jr. had had enough, and figured if he was never going to escape the ghost of Hank Sr., he'd at least talk to it man-to-man--and squarely on his own terms. He sent his mom packing, grew out his hair and a beard (partly to disguise the reconstructive surgery he underwent after his fall), embraced Southern rock, and planted himself firmly in the middle of the burgeoning Outlaw movement. 1976's Hank Williams, Jr. & Friends, featuring contributions by several of Southern rock's elite, introduced the world to the new Hank, Jr., and the blend of hardcore honky tonk and rock that he would ride to super stardom. 

The best--and most country--track on the album is "Stoned At The Jukebox," a late-night, whiskey-drunk weeper that captures Jr. listening to his dad on jukebox. He spends the song trying to figure out how not to feel alone in a crowd, and how to be alone without a crowd at the same time. Like all great honky tonk songs, it's mired in self-pity and self-realization, with the answer left lingering out there somewhere in space after the final note has died. 

43 Albums for the 43 Days Until the Election to Make America Cosmic Again and Unfuck Your Mind (Musically)

#13 David Alan Coe Once Upon A Rhyme

David Allan Coe is a man whose reputation precedes his talent. Since the start of his musical career, Coe has courted controversy--sometimes to the point of calling both his sincerity (and his sanity) into question. His life story is legendary, and--like all legends--separating what is fact from fiction is a daunting task (especially when Coe himself has been known to exaggerate the truth). 
This much is fact: his spent most of his young life behind bars (where Coe claims he killed a fellow inmate, though no actual record of this occurrence exists), he lived in a hearse outside the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, and at one time he performed regularly wearing a Lone Ranger mask. 

 
His first major hit came courtesy of Tanya Tucker's rendition of "Would You Lay With Me (In A Field Of Stone) which went to number one in 1974. The following year Coe released his second major label album, Once Upon a Rhyme, containing his own version of the song. The album cracked the country Top 10 and produced Coe's highest charting single, the Steve Goodman and John Prine-pinned "You Never Even Called Me by My Name," which--like the album--landed at the number eight spot. Coe's brilliant songwriting is on full display here, with "The Loneliness in Ruby's Eyes" and "Another Pretty Country Song" being two of the highlights--and noticeably lacking the bravado of his later work. 

As good as the songwriting is, it's really Coe's voice that steals the show. His versions of Richard Dobson's "Piece of Wood and Steal" and Lawton Williams' "Fraulein" sound as sincere as if he had written them himself, and demonstrate Coe's understated (and under-appreciated) vocal ability. The rest of the decade--and, in fact, his career--would be a wild ride, but on Once Upon a Rhyme Coe proved he was a talent that deserved to be taken seriously.

43 Albums for the 43 Days Until the Election to Make America Cosmic Again and Unfuck Your Mind (Musically)

#14 Faron Young Hello Walls

Faron Young was one of country music's brightest talents and darkest tragedies; an exceptionally gifted and successful singer, songwriter and performer who was cursed with depression, alcoholism and, before taking his own life, ill physical health. Young has the distinction of not only extending the sound, style and success of honky tonk into the 60's--while rock 'n' roll and countrypolitan were taking over--but of contemporizing it by adding pop and polish. 

As Hello Walls proves, Young was as good at spotting up and coming songwriting talent as he was at penning his own hits. The album contains contributions by Donny Young (who became known as Johnny Paycheck), Roger Miller, and two--including the title track--written by an up-and-comer from Texas named Willie Nelson.  Young's own "Forget the Past" and "There's Not Any Like You Left" both hit the country Top 40, but it was Nelson's "Hello Walls" that went to number one on the country charts and number twelve on the pop charts en route to becoming the biggest hit of Young's career and gave Nelson his first national recognition. 

The influence of Hello Walls hardly ends there, however. "There's Not Any Like You Left" and "Big Shoes" are prototypes for the Bakersfield Sound, and "Forget the Past" is country pop at its finest--even, and especially, without strings in the background. 

Young continued to have hits--though with increasing moderation--throughout the 1970's, but by the 80's his sound and style were clearly out of step with the times. As he became increasingly despondent--which many attribute to his decreasingly popularity--his health and drinking began to worsen. In 1996 Young committed suicide. Young was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame only four years later; proof that his talent and influence was not forgotten. There are numerous highlights of and testaments to Young's gifts throughout his lengthy career, but Hello Walls is perhaps the best place to find them in one package.

43 Albums for the 43 Days Until the Election to Make America Cosmic Again and Unfuck Your Mind (Musically)

#15 Waylon Jennings Waylon Live

Released at the apex of the Outlaw movement, Waylon Live more than lived up to the hype that was heaped on Waylon, Willie and company. If there was any doubt that the Outlaws could challenge their rock contemporaries in terms of urgency and electricity, the first note from Waylon's Telecaster on this recording dispelled those notions immediately. The performances stomp and crackle throughout, with Willie Nelson's "Me and Paul," Waylon's own "Bob Wills Is Still The King," and Kris Kristofferson's "The Taker" leading the stampede. This is as far as it gets from doing two dinner shows a night at a casino resort. The crowd is loud and thirsty--and so is the band. Waylon made a lot of great albums--and a couple as good as Waylon Live--but he never made a better record.

43 Albums for the 43 Days Until the Election to Make America Cosmic Again and Unfuck Your Mind (Musically)

#16 Willie Nelson Shotgun Willie

Willie Nelson's career has had so many phases and changes that it's difficult to pinpoint one definitive album. About the best one can do is examine each of the periods of his life and career, and try your damnedest to figure out where one begins and one ends. With such an immense and eclectic body of work, it's tempting to treat Willie like Picasso or Miles Davis, and assign him "periods," which is stretching his artistic merit (or is it?).

 
No one can dispute that Shotgun Willie marked a definite change in Willie's style and attitude (both personally and musically). Recorded after a bitter contract dispute with his former label, RCA, Shotgun Willie marked the first of two releases on Atlantic Records before a similar falling out (aided, no doubt, by poor sales). 

Shotgun Willie didn't sell, but it became one of the cornerstones for the Outlaw movement that would produce Country's first platinum albums. Gone was the slick Nashville production that always seemed out of place on his recordings, and in its place a warm and loose sound seldom--if ever--heard on a Country record (which actually highlights the dexterous musicianship). The arrangements and lyrics pointed the way toward the future (at least for the 70's), but with a boot heel dragging in the past courtesy of not just one, but two, Bob Wills standards. 

If all that wasn't enough for country fans to try to make sense of, Willie's Atlantic debut also premiered his new image--long hair and a beard (helping him make inroads with the counter culture). At 39, with precious little success outside of his songwriting, it was a daring move. It was also a move that didn't immediately pay off. The still stranger Phases & Stages followed, and also failed to break Willie into the mainstream or Nashville's good graces. Atlantic decided it had indulged enough of Willie's artistic whims and abruptly let him go--a year before he released his most defiant and brilliant creative gesture, Red Headed Stranger, which reached number one on the Country charts and crossed over to make him a pop success as well. 

Shotgun Willie is the pivotal point where an artist is out of every option except to follow his muse. And it's the album that made Willie Nelson "Willie". Other of his albums have sold more and produced more hits, but Shotgun Willie may be his most reckless and perfectly executed record.

43 Albums for the 43 Days Until the Election to Make America Cosmic Again and Unfuck Your Mind (Musically)#16 Ray Price Night Life

Ray Price made seemingly countless recordings, spanning over five decades; from his early honky tonk, to Western swing, gospel, and sophisticated country-edged pop. Amazingly, throughout the long course of his career, his immaculate voice never faltered; instead it developed warm and rustic hues that lent even greater depth to his heart songs. 

Built around a song written by the then-unknown Willie Nelson, Night Life is one of the last great honky tonk albums, presented solemnly and stoically by a man who had already lived through all the highs and lows the songs chronicle. It's far from a pleasure trip, but it's a trip worth taking--especially on those woeful nights alone.

There will never be another vocal talent quite like Ray Price. His voice transcended country music, and deserves to be enshrined alongside Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, and Ray Charles as the top song interpreters of American music.