Hall to Taylor Swift, from Bob Wills to Brandy Clark. You’ll find honky-tonk, western swing, neo-traditionalism, pop country, countrypolitan, and more, from Tom T. Instead we assembled a more varied list that represents the development of country album-making over the decades. We also tried not to include too many items from any one artist (Dolly, Willie, and Merle have tons of albums, many of which are excellent). A handful of other performers are also represented by anthology packages, but we’ve done our best to steer clear of those and choose proper studio albums. Though Rodgers and the Carters only released sides in their heyday, any country list feels incomplete without them. This list aims to correct that idea by looking for the finest full-length listens in history. Even today, there remains a persistent idea that Nashville doesn’t really make albums, just singles surrounded by filler. There are exceptions, but the genre’s album era didn’t get fully into swing until the late Sixties and then began to flourish in the Seventies with a host of classic releases. That means it’s older than rock & roll, older than soul, and still going strong in 2022 with branches that have spread far and wide.īut where the recording of albums was concerned, country often lagged behind its popular peers in adopting the format. As a commercial entity, country music has existed for nearly a century following the 1927 Bristol Sessions with the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers.

Soft country rock