Songs That Made You A Country Music Fan

[sabre14]

I was listening to The Highway today and they said they would ask people tomorrow what songs turned them into country music? So that made me think of a couple that I can vividly remember listening to when I was little that got me into country music. List 1 or maybe a few like me. Stories would be awesome as well.

*Livin' On Love - Alan Jackson (This song might be the reason I love the fiddle so much with that open. WYRK played this frequently has a recurrent which helped me discover this song in the late 90's)

*The Car - Jeff Carson (One of my all-time favorite songs. I didn't know who sang this when I was a kid but all I know is I would stop everything if it came on the radio)

*Too Much Fun - Daryle Singletary (My favorite fun song growing up. You could say this was my jam...)

*Jacobs Ladder - Mark Wills (Still one of my top 3 favorites from Mark. I destinctly remember my dad coming home one summer day from work and this song was blaring out the window. Funny how some memories never leave your head)

*I'm Alright - Jo Dee Messina (My favorite song from a female artist growing up. I knew every word to this song at age 10)

Those were the 5 that instantly popped in my head.

[onebuffalo]

Seeing since my first memories of country music involve Marty Robbins, I will say El Paso.

[bjer127]

I grew up in the 90's, so I was heavily influenced by 90's country. My dad was a big Dwight Yoakam fan, so that helped too. I always come back to the big 3...George Strait, Alan Jackson and Brooks & Dunn. That is the playlist of my life it seems

When I was 14 or 15, I discovered the likes of Johnny Cash, Merle, Waylon, Willie, Don Williams and was absolutely hooked. Been a walking country-music jukebox since then

[.indulgecountry]

This is the song that started it all:



I'd heard some country growing up but my dad hated it and my mom was only a mild fan of it. But my nana would watch GAC and they'd play music videos and stuff like that all day and I remember seeing a live performance of Sara Evans singing this song live. I was hooked, and then when the "Perfect" video started circulating it led to me getting the album and then it just went from there.

[sabre14]

^ My favorite Sara song (and that's saying something). That's a great one to get you into country. :)

[.indulgecountry]

Apr 17, 2014 14:34:12 GMT -5 sabre14 said:

^ My favorite Sara song (and that's saying something). That's a great one to get you into country. :)

It certainly did the trick! 11 years later and Sara Evans is my favorite singer and country my favorite musical genre. ;)

[Deleted]

"I Hope You Dance."

My Grandma loves Country music, and she had CMT on when the video was playing.

I bought the album, and subsequently got into Toby Keith, Alan Jackson, The Dixie Chicks and Shania, and started expanding from there.

Then I saw Rascal Flatts open for Toby around 2002-2003 and instantly fell in love with "These Days," which basically cemented my love for the genre and continuing to explore it.

Great memories. <3

[gonecountry]

After 9/11, I heard all the controversy about Toby Keith and "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (the Angry American)" and i listened to it to hear what all the media attention was about. After that I went to the library and checked out his "Pull My Chain" CD, loved it and have been listening to country exclusively ever since. Prior to that the only country I knew/liked was whatever made the Top 40 stations in the 80's (e.g. Alabama, Oak Ridge Boys, Kenny/Dolly, Ronnie Milsap, Sylvia, Restless Heart).

I still love "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue" - not necessarily because it's jingoistic but because it was written and sung with intense passion and strong beliefs. And it is a hell of a song to hear in concert!

[Andy]

"Papa Loved Mama" by Garth Brooks (one of the first songs I can recall hearing... although I didn't fully understand the song until I was older)

"Man of Me" and "Right Where I Need to Be" by Gary Allan (I remember seeing the videos for these two songs a lot on CMT and being obsessed with them at the time)

"Man of Constant Sorrow" by The Soggy Bottom Boys from the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack (CMT played this a ton, and I absolutely loved it, partly because it was very different from anything else they were playing at the time. Later I realized it was my first exposure to bluegrass and roots music.)

"Lost Highway" by Hank Williams (up until I was about 17, I never paid much attention to country music that was before my time, and this is one of the first "classic" songs I ever heard, and it led to a love of traditional country)

[gonecountry]

Apr 17, 2014 16:22:35 GMT -5 Andy said:

"Man of Me" and "Right Where I Need to Be" by Gary Allan (I remember seeing the videos for these two songs a lot on CMT and being obsessed with them at the time)

Man of Me was probably my first video obsession as well. Same thing with Right Where I Need to Be

[Steven]

"Life Ain't Always Beautiful" by Gary Allan and "You're Gonna Miss This" by Trace Adkins are the two songs that got me into the genre. I'm sure there are others but these two are the only ones I can remember right now.

[sbp17]

I was primarily a rock n roll fan in the 80s, obsessed with GnR's Appetite For Destruction singles in 1988/1989. I then heard this song about a girl who lived in a one-room rundown shack on the outskirts of New Orleans and I was hooked.

[onebuffalo]

Apr 17, 2014 18:18:30 GMT -5 @brian said:

Apr 17, 2014 15:08:21 GMT -5 gonecountry said:

After that I went to the library and checked out his "Pull My Chain" CD, loved it and have been listening to country exclusively ever since.  

Since when do libraries carry CDs? I never heard that before.

In 2004, Toby Keith's "Whiskey Girl" and "Shockin' Y'all" album brought me to country music.

I left in 2007/2008 and then Jason Aldean's "My Kinda Party" brought me back.

When CD stores started carrying books!

[Andy]

Apr 17, 2014 18:18:30 GMT -5 @brian said:

Apr 17, 2014 15:08:21 GMT -5 gonecountry said:

After that I went to the library and checked out his "Pull My Chain" CD, loved it and have been listening to country exclusively ever since.  

Since when do libraries carry CDs? I never heard that before.

I live in a large city and my local library carries thousands of country CDs. It's pretty awesome.

[McCreerian]

I discovered Country music when I was 7 in 1987 when Dolly Parton had her weekly variety series on ABC. She had on all the stars of the day...Randy, Holly Dunn, Emmylou, Merle, Glen, Tammy, Barbara, Loretta, pretty much everyone. But Dolly appealed to me so much as a kid. My dad bought me her Greatest Hits plus a few of her 70s & 80s albums and that's all I listened to for years. Then in 1990 we got CMT and I started watching it just to see Dolly...but then I discovered Reba when "Fancy" was just coming out. That just did me in, I got all her music. I fell in love with Country women very fast. KT Oslin, The Judds, Pam Tillis, Tanya Tucker were the first albums I bought after Dolly and Reba. Soon after Shania, Leann Rimes, Faith, Deana, Mindy, Jo Dee. I didn't buy a male's album til Garth Brooks put out his Greatest Hits. But I soon got into George Jones, George Strait, Brad, Alan, Trace Adkins, Clay Walker, and so many of the great hat acts of the 90s. Ultimately the women of Country in the 80s/90s are what turned me on to the genre, and women of Country being rejected is what his now turning me off to listening to it on the radio. There are even only a handful of guys I like now in Country...Scotty, Hunter, Easton being the main 3.

It wasn't the songs that turned me onto the genre as much as the artists and the sounds itself. The songs of Dolly and Reba would count though. As a kid I hated rap, rock, and even the pop of the day. Country was the only genre that appealed to my ears. So much has changed though now. I love today's Pop more than I like today's Country. Even the 2 genres are so mashed together. If I listen to Country it better have some steel guitar in it. That's getting hard to find.



One song that does stick out to me from my childhood is "Feed Jake." As a kid the song and video killed me and even now I can't get through it.

[Deleted]

Oh man...I couldn't even tell you on this one.

The first country song I really remember taking a big liking to was Alan Jackson's "Little Bitty". I would've been 6 years old at the time. But I remember we had his 3rd album A Lot About Livin' (And A Little 'Bout Love) too and I used to pop that into the cassette player all the time :) We added other Alan Jackson albums too but the one I remember really playing non-stop was Everything I Love (which "Little Bitty" was the first single from)...I played that album over and over again. It's probably still my favorite AJ album.

But it was the 90's and I listened to everything country and I loved it all. I remember becoming a Kenny fan in 97 when "She's Got It All" came out. When I was even younger we listened to a lot of Tim McGraw. "Don't Take The Girl" was really popular but my favorite was definitely "I Like It, I Love It" and then the Everywhere album really solidified me as a McGraw fan.

Garth, George, Brooks & Dunn...they were all favorites too, though not quite as much as Alan and Tim. And like sabre14, I was in love with Jo Dee Messina. I can remember riding in the car for hours with the radio on and whenever Jo Dee would come on, well, that was my jam! Even though I was only 7 or 8 when most of her big hits were out. Jo Dee always had a 'big 4' to me and those were "Heads Carolina, Tails California", "Bye Bye", "I'm Alright", and "Lesson In Leavin'".

Other 90's country songs that I have early memories of: most of Trisha's big hits...by the time I was 8 I was in love with "How Do I Live" and "Perfect Love". Definitely LeAnn Rimes' "One Way Ticket" and "Big Deal". Those were HUGE on the radio when I was young. Shania was everywhere and I liked most of her singles. Deana Carter's three #1's...I have fond memories of listening to them on the radio. I loved them all. I don't recall ever hearing any of her other singles (besides the 3 #1's) on the radio other than 2002's "There's No Limit" which I also really liked. It's crazy how quickly Deana faded at radio.

Also Blake Shelton's "Austin". That song is still one of my favorite songs of all time and it will always have a special place in my heart/memories. I still like some of Blake's music but I don't think he'll ever be able to top that one. Same goes for Billy Currington and his debut..."Walk A Little Straighter" brings me back to my favorite campground, it seemed to be on the radio all the time that summer.

Whenever I look back, I always found that a lot of male acts from the 90's just kinda blurred together in my mind...unless they were Alan or Tim, George or Garth or B & D, I could never really distinguish a lot of them from one another (that's not to say I didn't like a lot of them).

I could go on and on, but I think I'll stop there. I really need to expand my 90's music library...I've got pretty much all the music from the big stars but there are tons and tons of songs I'm missing that I haven't heard for years, a lot of them from "B" or "C" listers from back then, others were 1-hit wonders or had a few hits but not really anything else. What I really need is a list of every single 90's country artist that charted at least one song in the top 20, and then I could just go down their discographies and download all the songs I want. And after that I could expand the list to all those that charted in the top 40...unfortunately I just don't have time for such a project, but some day! :)

Mostly we just listened to the radio back then. I was a kid so I never bought albums. My parents might buy a couple and they basically became mine. But I didn't start really buying albums until I was 16 when I had my first job. So as a result, I have a ton of music from the 2000's and to the present, but my 90's library is still far from complete.

[carriekins]

"All My Exes Live in Texas."

I was 8. My friend Katie's mom was a big country fan, and I was always at her house, and they were always listening to KNIX, and I just fell in love with the song. I remember reading a quote from George where he said that particular song had always been popular with kids because they're learning their ABC's and they think it's all my X's like the LETTER X and yeah, that was me. But I was hooked. To this day, I'm the only person in my family who cares at all about country music. I haven't listened my whole life, but the majority, and it's always been where I feel most at "home." (I love me some good old pop, though.) And King George has been my longest relationship. ;)

[Deleted]

"He Gets That From Me."

I saw the music video play once, started looking for other songs by this magnificent redheaded country singer I discovered, and never looked back.

[Ten Pound Hammer]

I was surrounded by country music all my life, so there wasn't really a single song that converted me. It was just always there. But some of my earliest musical memories are from 1990, when I was 3. The first song I remember really getting into even then was "Jukebox in My Mind" by Alabama.

[Markus Meyer]

Kenny Chesney - "When The Sun Goes Down" and Jason Aldean - "Amarillo Sky" are 2 that come to mind for me.

[tim]

One of my first early memories had to be seeing Mark Chesnutt perform "Brother Jukebox" at the 1991 CMA telecast. I believe he was nominated for the Horizon Award (which he would go onto win two years later!).

I've mentioned this story before, but George's Chill of an Early Fall album had a huge impact on introducing me to country music. This album was played nonstop during the month of December 1991 while helping my mom put up Christmas decorations.

George continued to have an influence on me, although when I first heard this song I didn't even know it was him. I was going in-between the house and our detached garage doing whatever little boys do, and while the radio was on I heard a song come on the radio that hit me like a ton of bricks. I had just lost my dad the previous summer and the words "So Much Like My Dad" just made me stop in my tracks. Still get chills listening to that song.

From there the movie Pure Country had a huge impact on my early influences. Here I was not but a 9 year old boy with his mom and grandmother at the movie theater watching this movie, albeit I was a couple of rows in front of them. I can for sure quote this movie word by word to this day. "Heartland" and "Where the Sidewalk Ends" were both my favorites as a boy. By the summer of 1993 I got to see George in concert for the first time, and almost 20 concerts in I'm still hoping to make it to Dallas!

Alan Jackson also had a major influence on me at an early age, especially with "Here In the Real World" and "Midnight In Montgomery."

Other early influences include "Seein' My Father In Me" by Paul Overstreet; "Keep It Between the Lines" by Ricky Van Shelton; "He Walked on Water" by Randy Travis; "The Dance" by Garth Brooks; "(Without You) What Do I Do With Me" by Tanya Tucker.

My early influences in country music were no doubt due in part to a major family tragedy, but that tragedy led me on a journey that'll I've always looked back on with such fond memories.

[Tylerjamesnerd]

wow! i remember first loving country with the song 'somebody' from reba!! thats all i listened to as a kid!

[bluedog6]

LOL, bunch a youngin's around here! :) :)

I've been listening to country music since I was knee high to a grasshopper. My cousin and I spent many summer days at my grandparents house and they listened to country music. I spent a brief period of time listening to rock while I was in high school because nobody at my high school listened to country music (although I would secretly listen to the likes of Crystal Gayle, Kenny Rogers, Anne Murray and Don Williams). Queen is probably my favorite rock band to this day. When I went to college, it morphed into a mix of rock and country as I was around a more diverse mixture of musical tastes.

But from my childhood at my grandparents, these are the songs I remember the most:

"Ballad of Ira Hayes" Johnny Cash ( I think my cousin and I wore out the album "Bitter Tears" Love the "Talking Leaves" track too)
"The One on the Right is on the Left" Johnny Cash (I think we wore out "Everybody Loves a Nut" second)
"Abilene" George Hamilton IV
"One Day at a Time" Connie Smith
"Saginaw Michigan" Lefty Frizzell
"Running Bear" Johnny Preston
"D I V O R C E" Tammy Wynette
"King of the Road" and "Dang Me" Roger Miller
many, many more but those are the ones that stand out. Many of them are classics today so maybe that's why they are so ingrained in my memory

[someguy]

"Why Haven't I Heard From You". I was pretty young, about 10 I guess, and my parents were painting the house. They had the radio on pretty much nonstop all weekend, and were trying to find a new station to switch to. They eventually settled on a new country station that had recently launched. This one song caught my attention, and I heard it a few times throughout the weekend. I tried to find out who was singing, and what the song was called. I eventually did, and then went out later that week to buy the cassette tape (my first one at the time), which I ended up wearing out. From there, I listened to country all of the time, and became a fan of a lot of other artists and songs.

[zaclord 🌈]

"There Goes My Life", Kenny Chesney
"Live Like You Were Dying", Tim McGraw
"I Want To Live", Josh Gracin
"Mayberry" Rascal Flatts
"Girls Lie Too", Terri Clark
"Mr. Mom", Lonestar
"Days Go By", Keith Urban
"In A Real Love", Phil Vassar
"Paint Me A Birmingham", Tracy Lawrence
"I Love You This Much", Jimmy Wayne


2004 was a great year for country music, which led me to rooting hardcore for Carrie Underwood on American Idol in 2005 and the rest is history! :)

[Kentucky25]

"Papa Bear" and "I'm Coming Back for You" Keith Harling
"Time Marches On" Tracy Lawrence
"I Lost it" and "That's Why I'm Here" Kenny Chesney
"She's More" Andy Griggs
And every George Strait song I heard on the radio growing up.

Then about 4 years ago I found one of my Dad's old Keith Whitley CDs and after "Somebody's Doin' Me Right" and "I'm Over You" I was hooked.

[straitfan87]

Apr 21, 2014 12:26:15 GMT -5 Kentucky25 said:

And every George Strait song I heard on the radio growing up.

^This

[Hunter]

Sara Evans - Saints & Angels.

This song sealed the deal for me. Like @.indulgecountry, Sara turned into my favorite singer with Country being my favorite genre.

I stumbled upon this song by flipping channels through CMT.

[Kris]

Drunk on You - Luke Bryan
Angel Eyes - Love and Theft
Summer Nights - Rascal Flatts

edit: yes I only started liking country a couple years ago

[onebuffalo]

Apr 27, 2014 6:59:34 GMT -5 Kris said:

Drunk on You - Luke Bryan
Angel Eyes - Love and Theft
Summer Nights - Rascal Flatts

edit: yes I only started liking country a couple years ago

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