Features

Five albums. Seven women. Fourteen million copies sold. The latest list comes to an end as I said it would in the beginning, dominated by the female artists who have been such a potent creative

#10 Tough All Over Gary Allan 2005 An explosion of anger, regret and grief, Allan made the strongest album of his career in the aftermath of his wife’s suicide. “Best I Ever Had” may have

#20 Wild Angels Martina McBride 1995 She’s been screaming her head off for so long now, it’s easy to forget that Martina McBride once seemed destined to make albums like Emmylou Harris rather than Mariah

#30 Lead On George Strait 1994 While a parade of nineties stars grabbed the headlines around him, Strait was quietly making fantastic music. Lead On was one of the strongest studio albums of his career,

#40 Girl of Your Dreams Bobbie Cryner 1996 Cryner’s achingly honest writing on the best of this album’s tracks rivals the greatest music to come out of Nashville during this era. Her nuanced portraits of

#50 Seminole Wind John Anderson 1992 The comeback album to end all comeback albums. Anderson resurfaced with a new label and suddenly hit the top of the charts again, despite all of the competition surrounding

#60 Songs for the Daily Planet Todd Snider 1994 Snark hit country music in full-force when Snider made his kick-ass debut album. Produced by the usually timid Tony Brown, Snider’s sharp wit tackled everything from