Unknown Contributor Roles: Nelson Larkin; Ron Reynolds. Personnel: Kelly Back (guitar); Bobby All (acoustic guitar); Buddy Emmons (steel guitar); Hoot Hester, Audrey Haney (fiddle); Dirk Johnson (piano, keyboards); David Smith (bass guitar); Jerry Kroon (drums). Liner Note Author: Chuck Young.

Old Crow Medicine Show sound like a prewar string band filtered through Uncle Tupelo via Nirvana, and if they aren't bluegrass by any stretch of the imagination, they are every bit as energetic as a breakneck bluegrass combo. They also ...

Fantastic 2007 UK compilation that features all 23 tracks found on Ronstadt's original Greatest Hits (1976) and Greatest Hits, Vol. Two (1980). Although often overlooked today, Ronstadt was one of the most popular female vocalists throughout the '70s and '80s, ...

The soundtrack to the Gwyneth Paltrow and Tim McGraw country music drama Country Strong is a collection of mainstream contemporary country that has a mild pop bent but stays just this side of country-pop. Instead, it follows the blueprint of ...

Somewhere between the bigger and richer Cowboy Troy and the more bar band-ish Rehab are the Lacs, a down-home "hick-hop" crew who earn their "average Joe" cred by skillfully dropping a Jimmie Johnson reference within the first minute of 190 ...

Beginning with the trippy backwards guitar of the First Edition classic "Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)," the collection offers a five-track sampling from Rogers's late-1960s/early-70's folk-rock years. The collection then delves into a broad ...

Colt Ford has a larger than life hillbilly redneck public image but he's also a sly, passionate, and multi-layered writer and businessman, and as a former drummer, he knows what to do in a recording studio. He may work and ...

Track Listing: I'll Fly Away; Whispering Hope; Evening Prayer, An; "Take My Hand, Precious Lord"; Where We'll Never Grow Old; Beautiful Life, A; In the Garden; God Be with You; Trouble in the Amen Corner; Scarlet Ribbons; May the Good ...

After the success of their first two singles -- "If I Die Young" and "Hip to My Heart," the Band Perry issued a self-titled teaser: a five-track EP that featured a different mix of the latter track. This is confusing, ...

Don Williams's mellow, amiable baritone and easygoing approach made him one of the biggest country stars of the 1970s. With simple arrangements, straightforward songs, and an emotionally honest but endearingly laconic delivery, Williams had an instantly appealing signature sound. He ...

After the double-platinum Taking the Long Way in 2006, the Dixie Chicks went on hiatus in 2007 after winning three Grammys; they had nothing left to prove. They'd successfully beat back the infamous country radio blacklisting they experienced in 2003 ...

Track Listing: Detroit City; Miller's Cave; Lincoln Park Inn; Come Sundown; ; Streets of Baltimore; Four Strong Winds; Daddy, What If; Five Hundred Miles Away from Home; Ride Me Down Easy; Tequila Sheila; Green, Green Grass of Home; Jogger, The; ...

When Streisand and Kristofferson, two very different '70s pop culture icons, united for the remake of the classic film A STAR IS BORN, few expected how well their distinctive styles would complement each other. Streisand was always the singers' singer, ...

Emerging in the early 1990s, the Mavericks were a new breed of country band. They were schooled in the Bakersfield verities of Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, but equally influenced by pop/rock and soul of the '60s, and never as ...

For the better part of two decades, Little Feat have been a touring band that occasionally records, surviving the rough and tumble of the road and of life itself. Founding member Richie Hayward passed in 2010, by which time Gabe ...

Coming two decades after the one-two punch of "Apartment #9" and "Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad," 1987's ANNIVERSARY is a fine summary of the highest points of Tammy Wynette's early career. For the casual fan that just wants a ...

A country performer who died just as his star was rising, Keith Whitley is well represented on this Legacy collection, which draws on the singer's popular latter-day recordings. Unlike many of his contemporaries in the late 1980s, the Kentucky-born singer ...

Recorded between 1971 & 1986. Includes liner notes by Johnny Whiteside. Those unacquainted with the world of country music, who think the Johnny Paycheck story begins and ends with the recession-era working-man's anthem "Take this Job and Shove It" are as ...

This is the sort of country music that could only be made by musicians who grew up listening to the Eagles instead of Hank Williams. Which is to say slick, tuneful, and gorgeously sung. These guys aren't, like some contemporary ...

In the early 2010s, serious country music fans often complained that too much of the contemporary music associated with the genre was too polished and poppy to be the real deal. Those looking for a bit of the old-school Waylon ...

Jamey Johnson is a successful songwriter on Nashville's Music Row, who has authored hits by George Strait and Trace Adkins. THAT LONESOME SONG, Johnson's debut album as a performer, is a happy throwback to the outlaw country of the 1970s, ...

There have been many collections of Roger Miller's hitmaking peak on Mercury over the years, but few have been as comprehensive or as good as Mercury/Chronicle's 2003 CD, All Time Greatest Hits. Spanning 20 tracks over the course of one ...

Toby Keith's newest studio album, Clancy's Tavern, was inspired by his grandmother's club, which he visited frequently as a child. Featuring Keith's signature sharp and bold songwriting, the deluxe edition adds four bonus tracks recorded live at New York's Fillmore ...

Yes, this 2012 release has the exact same 23 tracks as the 2003 anthology titled It Couldn't Have Been Any Better, the songs even playing in the same chronological order. But since the 2003 collection wasn't easy to find almost ...

Country purists may take offense at finding American Idol winner Carrie Underwood's debut album in the country section. An unabashedly manufactured commercial product, SOME HEARTS is the sound of mainstream country in the 2000s heavily steeped in glossy pop. There's ...