Today’s Top Five: What are five “deep cuts” of a favorite artist that you recommend to those who might only know that artist’s hits?
Here’s my list for Tim McGraw:
- Why We Said Goodbye
- Tickin’ Away
- Open Season on My Heart
- Between the River and Me
- Still on the Line
Carrie Underwood
1. Wine After Whiskey
2. Forever Changed
3. Good In Goodbye
4. What Can I Say
5. Someday When I Stop Loving You
Gloriana (duh!)
Lead Me On
Where My Heart Belongs
It’s On Tonight
Lighters
Gold Rush
I’m going to spread my five out over various artists:
1. “First Time Feeling”: Dan + Shay
2. “I Heard Goodbye”: Dan + Shay
3. “I Am A Town”: Mary Chapin Carpenter
4. “That’s How I’ll Remember You”: David Nail
5. “Rainin’ You”: Brad Paisley
Miranda Lambert
Virginia bluebell
Time To Get A Gun
Me & Your Cigarette
Another Sunday In The South
Old Sh*t
Tim McGraw
1. Still On The Line
2. Train #10
3. Kill Myself
4. One Of These Days
5. Blank Sheet of Paper
Dierks Bentley
1. Hurt Somebody
2. Soon As You Can
3. Sweet and Wild
4. Gonna Get There Someday
5. My Love Will Follow You
Gary Allan
1. A Showman’s Life
2. The Devil’s Candy
3. I Just Got Back From Hell
4. Along The Way
5. Sand In My Soul
Brad Paisley
1. A Man Don’t Have To Die
2. Time Well Wasted
3. Out In The Parking Lot
4. Moonshine In The Trunk
5. The Cigar Song
Joe Nichols
1. Somebody’s Mama
2. It’s Me I’m Worried About
3. She’s All Lady
4. Talk Me Out of Tampa
5. Old Things New
for one song per artists:
Edens Edge – Feels So Real
Miranda Lambert – Desperation
Rascal Flatts – Words I Couldn’t Say
Danielle Bradbery – I Will Never Forget You
Tim McGraw – Number 37405
Crystal Gayle:
1. You Were There For Me
2. Someday Soon
3. Hopeless Romantic
4. You’ve Almost Got Me Believin’
5. Dancing The Night Away
Anne Murray
1. I’ll Always Love You
2. What’s Forever For (a big hit for Michael Martin Murphy but Anne cut it first)
3. You’re A Part Of Me
4. It Should Have Been Easy
5. For No Reason At All
Eli Young Band
1. Jet Black and Jealous
2. Recover
3. My Old Man’s Son
4. Everything Is You
5. Get In The Car And Drive
David Nail
1. I’m A Fire
2. She Rides Away
3. Easy Love
4. That’s How I’ll Remember You
5. Missouri
Despite what the critics have said about Linda Ronstadt over the years, that she’s just a singles artist or known only for “remakes”, the truth of the matter is that she was arguably the first female artist in any genre, country, rock, or otherwise, whose career was defined by the complete albums she made. As such, she has plenty of deep cuts on all of them.
Here are five:
1. TRY ME AGAIN (she co-wrote this with her long time backing musician Andrew Gold for her 1976 album Hasten Down The Wind; her spiritual follower Trisha Yearwood covered it quite honorably in 2000)
2. WILLING (a song about driving trucks with eighteen, as opposed to four, wheels, written by the late Lowell George, and done by Linda on her landmark 1974 album Heart Like A Wheel)
3. COLORADO (from her 1973 album Don’t Cry Now, written by Rick Roberts, about being wanting to come back home after being so long away from it. Linda’s from Arizona and not Colorado, but the heartfelt way she sings this song is authentic all the same, befitting someone who grew up in the Intermountain West)
4. A RIVER FOR HIM (from Linda’s 1993 album Winter Light; she invests a true low-key but heartfelt poignancy on this song, which was written by her good pal Emmylou Harris)
5. HEARTBREAK KIND (a kind of honky-tonk C&W/rock toe-tapping track from 1998’s We Ran that I feel is one of Linda’s most underrated single tracks. Marty Stuart and Paul Kennerley co-wrote it, and Linda got her long-time sideman Bernie Leadon to sing harmony and do his trademark Telecaster stringbending electric guitar thing).
Trisha Yearwood
1. Hello, I’m Gone (From Everybody Knows )
2. Here Comes Temptation (From The Song Remembers When )
3. End of The World (From PrizeFighter: Hit After Hit )
4. Woman Walk The Line (From Hearts In Armor )
5. There’s A New Kid In Town (From The Sweetest Gift )
This is going to be difficult
Dolly Parton:
1. Falling Out of Love With Me
2. Somebody’s Everything
3. Shattered Image
4. Smoky Mountain Memories
5. Robert (This one is VERY old, but such a great story song)
Bonus: for her more pop sounding music:
1. Nickels and Dimes
2.Almost In Love
3. Say Goodnight
Miranda Lambert
1. Guilty In Here
2. Dry Town
3. Mama I’m Alright
4. Nobody’s Fool
5. Take It Out On Me
1. “The Car in Front of Me” (I’ll Stay Me)
2. “You Don’t Know Jack” (Tailgates & Tanlines)
3. “Dirt Road Diary” (Crash My Party)
4. “I Knew You That Way” (Tailgates & Tanlines)
5. “Too Damn Young” (Tailgates & Tanlines)
And it would be remiss of me not to mention Mo Pitney’s album cut “Clean Up on Aisle Five” even though the album isn’t out yet I don’t think. Guarantee nothing close comes out by a new ‘country’ artist the rest of this year. Maybe they’ll even play it on the radio (yeah, right…)
Taylor Swift
1. Dear John
2. Sad Beautiful Tragic
3. Come In With the Rain
4. Never Grow Up
5. Last Kiss
Most of Charlie Daniels best stuff was played by AOR stations in the 1970s before “The Devil Went Down To Georgia” came out.
We used to play a short version of “Saddle Tramp” which was as good as anything from country artists (I like the long version too) at the time.
CHARLIE DANIELS
1. Saddle Tramp
2. The South’s Gonna Do It
3. Dixie On My Mind
4. Long Haired Country Boy (original pot-smoking version)
5. Uneasy Rider
EAGLES
Until Hotel California, The Eagles used to tour in cowboy hats.
1. Train Leaves Here This Morning
2. Bitter Creek
3. Doolin’ Dalton
4. Ol’ 55
5. Doolin’ Dalton\Desperado Reprise (which will turn heads for those who know Deperado but never heard the album)
Garth Brooks
1. Learning To Live Again
2. In Lonesome Dove
3. Night Rider’s Lament
4. Victim of The Game
5. You Move Me
Reba, picking 5 will be hard….. So I’m gonna have to go by decade!
90s
1. If I Had Only Known(For My Broken Heart)
2. Now You Tell Me(Rumor Has It)
3. He Wants To Get Married (It’s Your Call)
4. Read My Mind (Read My Mind)
5. Lonely Alone (If You See Him)
80’s
1. You Really Better Love Me After This (Behind The Scene)
2. Don’t Touch Me There (Whoever’s In New England)
3. The Stairs (The Last One To Know)
4. My Mind Is On You ( What Am I Gonna Do About You)
5. I’ve Still Got The Love That We Made ( The Last One To Know)
00s
1. Myself Without You (Greatest Hits Volume 3)
2. Maggie Creek Road (Keep On Loving You)
3. Love Land ( Love Somebody)
4. She Cant Save Him (Reba Duets)
5. That’s When I Knew. ( Love Somebody)
Love My Reba!
Travis, that was a great idea going by decade for someone like Reba. I should have done that for Dolly. There are so few people like Reba & Dolly, where picking 5 is just impossible.
It’s hard enough picking just one artist, let alone just five songs by them!
I have to go with George Strait
1. He Must Have Really Hurt You Bad
2. He Took the Wind From Her Sails
3. I Ain’t Her Cowboy Anymore
4. Without Me Around
5. Her Goodbye Hit Me in the Heart
But since Kevin picked Tim McGraw, I’ll add a few he didn’t mention:
1. Don’t Mention Memphis
2. Blank Sheet of Paper
3. Portland, Maine
4. Telluride
5. You Had to Be There
The Mavericks
1. Mr. Jones
2. From Hell to Paradise
3. Come Unto Me
4. In Another’s Arms
5. Pardon Me
Some of my favorite artists. I wanted to list a few that I hadn’t yet brought up in other threads. Willie Nelson and EmmyLou are two of my top-5 favorites and so I felt inclined to include them yet again.
EmmyLou Harris . . .
1. Spanish is a Loving Tongue
2. Red Dirt Girl
3. Rosewood Casket with Dolly Parton & Linda Ronstadt
4. Wheels of Love
5. My Father’s House
Willie Nelson . . .
1. The Scientist
2. Every Time He Drinks, He Thinks of Her with Lukas Nelson
3. Graceland
4. I’ve Got A Lot of Traveling To Do
5. Gravedigger
Tom T. Hall . . .
1. Hello Vietnam
2. Faster Horses (The Cowboy and The Poet)
3. America The Ugly
4. Second Handed Flowers
5. Ballad of Forty Dollars
Loretta Lynn . . .
1. Dear Uncle Sam
2. Wings of a Dove with Dolly Parton & Tammy Wynette (Honky Tonk Angels)
3. Peace In The Valley
4. The Letter with Conway Twitty
5. Let Her Fly with Dolly Parton & Tammy Wynette (Honky Tonk Angels)
Brooks & Dunn . . .
1. South of Santa Fe
2. Tequila Town
3. Hurt Train
4. Texas Women (Don’t Stay Lonely Long)
5. A Few Good Rides Away
The Mavericks
1. Children
2. Neon Blue
3. Forgive Me
4. This Broken Heart
5. Things I Cannot Change
George Strait
1. You’re Dancing This Dance All Wrong
2. Just Look At Me
3. I’d Just As Soon Go
4. A Better Rain
5. A Showman’s Life
Dwight Yoakam
1. Since I Started Drinking Again
2. Sad, Sad Music
3. Two Doors Down
4. Home For Sale
5. Lonesome Roads
Tim McGraw
1. Old Town New
2. You Don’t Love Me Anymore
3. Telluride
4. You Get Used To Somebody
5. She’ll Have You Back
Keith Whitley
1. I’m Losing You All Over Again
2. Somewhere Between
3. Another Town (possibly my favorite Keith Whitley song)
4. Wherever You Are Tonight
5. She Never Got Me Over You (never appeared on a Whitley album but Mark Chesnutt covered it. Whitley’s version is around the net)
Tim McGraw
01 Blank Sheet of Paper
02 Tinted Windows
03 Between the River and Me
04 You Had to Be There
05 Why We Said Goodbye
David Nail
01 The Secret
02 Brand New Day
03 Missouri
04 Clouds
05 Desiree
Gary Allan
01 I Think I’ve Had Enough
02 No Regrets
03 Don’t Tell Mama
04 Hungover Heart
05 Yesterday’s Rain
Hal Ketchum
1. Daddy’s Oldsmobile
2. I Miss My Mary
3. Softer Than a Whisper
4. She’s Still in Dallas
5. Old Soldiers
I see that 3 others mentioned one of my favorite Tim McGraw songs, “Blank Sheet of Paper”, written by Don Schlitz and the Warren Brothers.
and Brian mentioned one of my favorite new songs, Mo Pitney’s “Clean Up On Aisle Five”.
Sara Evans (in no particular order)
1. “I Learned That From You”
2. “Tell Me”
3. “What That Drink Cost Me”
4. “Otis Redding”
5. “Better Off” (still hoping that one is released as a single)
These vary wildly depending on the mood I’m in, but these were the first to come to mind.