Your First Country Album

[sabre14]

We've had "Your first concert" and "What's in your CD collection", but how about the very first country album you purchased. And how did that relate to you becoming a country music fan.

My first country album I ever purchased (or should I say my Father purchased for me ) was Come On Over by Shania Twain. I think it was either in 1999 or 2000, and it was at a now defunct Media Play store. To be honest I never took good care of it as it ended up being scratched up some, but I was like 10 so cut me some slack. I did play the living heck out of it though. To this day I still own it, but it's not in great shape - so I have another one I bought. ;)

Easily one of my all-time favorite albums and by the artist who was the first I saw in concert as well in 2003. Shania is definitely one of the biggest reasons I'm a country music fan today.

[Kanenrá:ke]

I grew up listening to country because my grandparents loved country. My mom was more of an anything goes type of listener while my father is more 70's rock, but they both liked country well enough. I know the first album I fell in love with was also Shania's Come On Over but it was a copy of my mother's that I wore out listening to so I don't count it as my first album. Once I worked my way through Shania's 3 albums I started exploring my dad's cd collection but nothing stuck with me all that much. I spent the next 3 years listening to the teen-pop scene at the time (Britney Spears, N'Sync, etc. etc.) until our cable provider got CMT and then I was fascinated by the music videos (we never had internet or MTV so I hadn't ever seen a music video until like 2001 ). I spent 2001, 2002, & 2003 falling in love with all the videos and I finally asked my parents for a cd for christmas. Brad's Mud On The Tires was what they bought me since I loved "Celebrity" so much.

11 years later and I still feel a special connection to that album, even among my 2000+ album collection.

[.indulgecountry]

I believe it was Restless. After falling in love with "Backseat of a Greyhound Bus" when I saw Sara Evans perform it live on TV and then being completely sold once I saw the "Perfect" music video come on GAC later that year, I was just completely taken in with her and had to have the album. I'm not sure exactly what it was about her, but I routinely watched GAC while at my grandma's and while I liked it, I never really cared enough to truly invest in any of the music I was exposed to until I was made aware of Sara Evans' existence. It was like love at first sight.

[Markus Meyer]

\
I was obsessed with "Wild at Heart" at the time and desperately wanted this album. My aunt got it for me for Christmas :)

My first albums I ever purchased were Miranda Lambert's Revolution and David Nail's I'm About to Come Alive (same trip).
I also bought Jason Aldean's Wide Open that day.

I think I was like 8 or 9 when I got them haha.

[ky24941]

Aside from the several CDs my parents bought that I later took as my own (including albums by Lari White, Mindy McCready, Patty Loveless, Shania Twain, and Terri Clark), one of the first CD I can remember getting was Deana Carter's Everything's Gonna Be Alright when I was 4 or 5. I would spend hours listening to "Angels Working Overtime" and "You Still Shake Me" while reading the booklet to learn the lyrics. 

[urbanscot]

The first country album I had was Come On Over but it was my parents not mine, I was only four when it was released. I have now claimed their album as my own and I still regularly listen to it. The first album I bought myself was probably Keith Urban's Greatest Hits.

[Andy]

I have a pretty terrible memory, so I can't really point to a single country album and say definitively that it was my first. My parents owned a few random country CDs that I "adopted", but the first album I remember buying for myself might have been Cledus T. Judd's Just Another Day in Parodies, which I distinctly remember purchasing at Best Buy around 2000. However, what is probably the first album I remember hearing (which was likely one of my parents' albums because I have no recollection of ever buying it) is Garth Brooks' Double Live



which doesn't seem to be the most well-regarded live album, mostly because it's a mishmash of recordings taken from different shows instead of being a representation of a single night. But at the time, I didn't know this and thought the whole thing was awesome. My parents probably had the album because it was the only Brooks compilation available at the time (The Hits was taken out of print), and I still quite like it, even if it's mostly out of nostalgia. I still make it a point to listen to it once a year, and there are a few songs on this album, like "Callin' Baton Rouge", that I actually like better than the studio version.

[George Strait Junkie]

My first album ever was George Strait's 1999 Album "Always Never the Same"

i heard Write This Down on the Radio and was obsessed with it had it recorded on a cassette but it wasnt good quality so i had to find it on a album.

[Deleted]

The amazing "Songbook: A Collection of Hits" by Trisha Yearwood.

[Deleted]

I once loathed country, like loathed country. I started flipping through channels one morning, and "He Gets That From Me" was playing. I don't know what made me stop, because I would never usually watch country videos, but I did stop that day. I really loved "He Gets That From Me," and went onto the internet (so slow back then!) to hear more from this Reba lady. "Somebody" was the one that sold me, and I asked for the album for Christmas that year. I started watching her sitcom, I started actually enjoying country, and I have never looked back. I never liked someone like this before, and I have now seen her seven times and met her twice.

[Uncle Lumpy]

Ah geez here y'all are makin' me feel old and stuff. The first album I bought with my own money was Tanya Tucker / Changes. And by album , I mean actual vinyl. I bought it at the local K-Mart in 1982 and used my allowance. A little tid bit of trivia , but it was the first country album (to my knowledge) that was on the Arista label. Long before they came to Nashville and launched that Jackson fella's career. Like everybody else I had kinda taken over my parents (and brothers) record collections and had literally turned my dads copy of George Jones I Am What I Am completely white because I was obsessed with "He Stopped Loving Her Today".

[YourFaveIsAFlop]

I could be mistaken, but the first one that really remember was Rocking with the Rhythm by the Judds.

[Ten Pound Hammer]

My dad bought me Pickin' on Nashville by the Kentucky Headhunters when I was about 3. Don't know where he bought it, though. Probably Kmart, since we were a Kmart family.

The second album I remember buying was All I Can Be by Collin Raye. He was playing at a local bar (now closed) right around the time "Love, Me" came out, so before we went to the concert, Mom ran up to (you guessed it) Kmart and bought the cassette.

[tim]

I've shared this story before, but it always brings back good memories when I do. My mom decided she needed some more Christmas decorations and took me to Wal-Mart one cold Nebraska night in December 1991. Every young boy just loves shopping with their mothers ;) so she was happy to leave me in the electronics department looking at music. She mentioned I could pick out any tape (remember those?) I wanted and that she would be back in a bit. I'm not quite sure how much time elapsed (back then I could easily spend an hour happily browsing the cassette/cd section), but upon her return she asked what I had picked out and I was holding George Strait's Chill of An Early Fall in my hand. I can't remember any specific reason why I picked it out, but I must've remembered seeing him on the CMA Awards at some point in 1990 or 1991. "Are you sure that's what you want?" mom asked. Once home I started helping my mom with the Christmas decorations and we listened to that album over and over. 1992 brought Pure Country and I was hooked. I must've seen that movie five times in the theater (I can probably still quote each line). My first concert was in 1993 in Lincoln, Nebraska and some twenty concerts later the rest is history :)

[trebor]

Garth Brooks: "Ropin' The Wind"

A couple of years after release, I fell completely for "Shameless" which I happened to hear on the radio (some Top 40 station) unaware of who was singing. When they announced it was a country song by Garth Brooks I was mesmerized. 

However, it took me another couple of years to really appreciate the genre, about around the turn of the century (again some pop cross-overs did the trick). :)   
 
  

[jesster]

Oh my.

Hard to recall but the Judds, Why Not Me, and Willie Nelson Red Headed Stranger were among my earliest ones that I bought on my own.

[Deleted]

Reba #1's. I loved her TV show and knew she was a singer so decided to start listening to her and immediately loved her and then discovered more country.

[ClevelandRox]

Also was my first CD ever! I still remember it was one of my first times in a Best Buy and my dad was buying me a "boom box" too.

If we go waaaaay back, my first would be a Lorrie Morgan cassette with Five Minutes on it.

[McCreerian]

My first 2 cassettes I ever got was when I was 9. Dolly's "Collector's Series" and Dolly's "White Limousine." My parents bought them for me to listen to on our road trip from NC to TX and we listened to them over and over. Dolly is still my favorite artist of all time and I have everything she has ever put out on Vinyl, Cassette, and CD.

[onebuffalo]

First cassette:



First CD:

[Deleted]

My first Country album was "I Hope You Dance" by LeAnn Womack (I mentioned in another thread the tittle track was the song that made me fall in love with Country).

My parents weren't really Country fans when I was young, but I have vivid memories of listening to Shania's " Come On Over," Keith Whitley's Greatest Hits, and ESPECIALLY
the Dixie Chicks debut album, which my Mom and I both love.

[straitfan87]

Great thread idea Sabre14! Always have listened to country and first cd I bought myself was George Strait's self titled album, released in 2000.


Three singles were released from this album
"Go On" - #2
"Don't Make Me Come over There and Love You" - #17
"If You Can Do Anything Else" - #5

to quote tim, the rest is history
I now own all 45 of George's albums and greatest hits cds

[kw9461]

My first cassette was Randy Travis's Old 8x10.



I wore that thing out on my fisher price cassette player. I imagine I was the only 3 year old in town that knew what a whippoorwill was

[someguy]

I actually bought this on cassette tape, but it was my first country album. I was pretty young and I remember that my parents were painting the house all weekend, and listening to a new country station that had opened up in the area. This one song kept coming on and really grabbing my attention. I found out that it was "Why Haven't I Heard From You" by Reba McEntire, and from the Read My Mind album. I saved my allowance, went to HMV and bought the cassette tape. It remains my favourite album of all time to this day.

[recjus85]

I believe the first CD I bought was Tim McGraw's Greatest Hits CD. Remember buying Eminem's first CD at the same time lol. Was 16 at the time. It was at Kmart, and my mom was so pissed at me and my dad for him letting me buy Eminem lol.

[sbp17]

[onebuffalo]

Aug 11, 2014 18:12:00 GMT -5 straitfan87 said:

Great thread idea Sabre14! Always have listened to country and first cd I bought myself was George Strait's self titled album, released in 2000.


Three singles were released from this album
"Go On" - #2
"Don't Make Me Come over There and Love You" - #17
"If You Can Do Anything Else" - #5

to quote tim, the rest is history
I now own all 45 of George's albums and greatest hits cds

You're eligible to post that in this thread:

pulsemusic.proboards.com/thread/142188/artists-own-album

I would be eligible to post in that thread for all the Randy Travis and Garth Brooks CDs I have in my collection (I do not have EVERY George Strait CD).

[bluedog6]

Do you really expect me to remember that far back? LOL! I know I have several that I pilfered from my grandparents and older brother's collection. But the first that I bought? Does John Denver count as country because I have 5 or 6 of his albums from the 1970's. OK, I'll leave him out for now because I was obsessed with his music. I can think of three that I bought in the 70's but not sure which one was the first. I guess I'll post all 3 since it is a toss up. In order of release date.

[Steven]

Pretty sure it was Gary Allan's "Tough All Over'' album. Fantastic record!

[sabre14]

Aug 17, 2014 13:10:29 GMT -5 Steven said:

Pretty sure it was Gary Allan's "Tough All Over'' album. Fantastic record!

Unfortunately it probably was all downhill from there. ;)

What a great first album. Still in my top 5 or 6 ever in country music. Stellar lyrics, goose bump production, and unmatched emotion from Gary's vocals.