Your Favorite Time and/or Year in Country Music

[sabre14]

Thread title might be a bit clunky but the reason is that perhaps it's a certain time of year that you enjoyed in a specific year? 2005-2007 holds such a special place for me because of both song quality and nostalgia - they bring me back to my life back then.

1. 2005 (all-time favorite year)

January - April

Sugarland - "Baby Girl"
Josh Gracin - "Nothin' To Lose"
Jamie O'Neal - "Trying To Find Atlantis"
Big & Rich - "Holy Water"
Kenny Chesney - "Anything But Mine"
Amy Dalley - "I Would Cry"

May - August

Ryan Shupe & the Rubberband - "Dream Big"
Hanna-McEuen - "Something Like A Broken Heart"
Hot Apple Pie - "Hillbillies"
Sugarland - "Something More"
Big & Rich - "Big Time"
Bobby Pinson - "Don't Ask Me How I Know"

September - December

Joe Nichols - "Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off"
Jamie O'Neal - "Somebody's Hero"
Rascal Flatts - "Skin (Sarabeth)"
Steve Holy - "It's My Time (Waste It If I Want To)"
Terri Clark - "She Didn't Have Time"
Gary Allan - "Best I Ever Had"

(I could easily go 70 or 80 deep)

2. 2006

January - April highlights

Brad Paisley f/Dolly Parton - When I Get Where I'm Going"
Sugarland - "Just Might (Make Me Believe)"
Jamey Johnson - "The Dollar"
Keith Urban - "Tonight I Wanna Cry"
Rockie Lynn - "Lipstick"
Hot Apple Pie - "Easy Does It"

May - August highlights

Gary Allan - "Life Ain't Always Beautiful"
Megan Mullins - "Ain't What It Used To Be"
Big & Rich - "8th Of November"
Keith Anderson - "Every Time I Hear Your Name"
Matt Jenkins - "Bad As I Want To"
Carolina Rain - "Get Outta My Way"

September - December highlights

Sugarland - "Want To"
Eric Church - "Two Pink Lines"
Lost Trailers - "Why Me"
Chris Young - "Drinkin' Me Lonely"
Jason Aldean - "Amarillo Sky"
Lee Ann Womack - "Finding My Way Back Home"

3. 2007

January - April highlights

Joe Nichols - "I'll Wait For You"
Gary Allan - "A Feelin' Like That"
Sugarland - "Settlin'"
Blaine Larsen - "Spoken Like A Man"
Pat Green - "Dixie Lullaby"
Keith Urban - "Stupid Boy"

May - August highlights

Carolina Rain - "Isn't She"
Waycross - "Nineteen"
Tim McGraw - "If You're Reading This"
Trent Tomlinson - "Just Might Have Her Radio On"
Whiskey Falls - "Last Train Running"
George Strait - "Wrapped"

September - December highlights

Kenny Chesney - "Don't Blink"
Garth Brooks - "More Than A Memory"
Brad Paisley - "Online"
Sara Evans - "As If"
Eric Church - "Sinners Like Me"
Carrie Underwood - "So Small"

[Deleted]

2010 definently

My life changed a ton in the summer of 2010 and was really when I truly dug into country music. I was always a casual fan but I didn't pay attention to chart positions or who sang the song or anything like that. Up until then it was mostly just background noise. Anyway 2 albums I really remember loving at that time (and still do today) were Dierks Bentley's "Up On The Ridge" and Jamey Johnson's "The Guitar Song". I used to listen to those two on repeat a lot.

Anyway, here are some songs from that year that take me back:

Eric Church- "Smoke A Little Smoke"
Randy Montana- "Ain't Much Left Of Loving You"
Gary Allan- "Get Off On The Pain"
Jaron and The Long Road To Love- "Pray For You"
Jamey Johnson- "Heartache", "Playing The Part"
Dierks Bentley- "Up On The Ridge", "Draw Me A Map"
Keith Urban- "Long Hot Summer" (always prayed this would be a single when I first heard it)
Emily West- "Blue Sky" (she should have been a star I swear)
Tim McGraw- "Still"
Jason Aldean- "The Truth"
Sunny Sweeney- "From a Table Away"
David Nail- "Turning Home"
Toby Keith- "Bullets In The Gun"
Lady Antebellum- "Hello World" (sorry ;) )
Plus many many more


I wish I had been born in the 70's though, that way I would be old enough to appreciate what I consider the best decade of country music, the 80's

[Zeebz]

The late 90s to the early 00s bring back many great childhood memories, so that time frame would have to be my favorite. I still love most of the same songs that I loved back then.

[onebuffalo]

I wish I had been born in the 70's though, that way I would be old enough to appreciate what I consider the best decade of country music, the 80's

I was born in 1970, the last year of the 1960s and yes, the 1980s just ruled. I was in high school between 1984-1988 and the #1s ran from Dolly Parton's Tennessee Homesick Blues to If It Don't Come Easy by Tanya Tucker.

[someguy]

The 90s for sure, but if I had to pinpoint a year, I'd say 1998. All of my favourite artists were active with current projects, and I liked much of what was being realeased. Shania had just released Come On Over, and it was in full blown success mode. Trisha Yearwood was at the peak of her career, with Songbook singles still doing very well, and leading into Where Your Road Leads. Faith Hill released Faith, and "This Kiss" was massive for her. The Dixie Chicks were just breaking out, Martina McBride was riding a huge wave of success with Evolution, and Reba McEntire had one of the biggest hits of her career, and released another stellar album with If You See Him.

Some of my favourite singles from that year:

Reba McEntire - "If You See Him/If You See Her" (w/ Brooks & Dunn), "Forever Love"
Trisha Yearwood - "Perfect Love", "There Goes My Baby", "Where Your Road Leads" (w/ Garth Brooks)
Shania Twain - "Don't Be Stupid", "You're Still The One", "From This Moment On" (w/ Bryan White), "Honey, I'm Home"
Martina McBride - "Valentine", "Happy Girl", "Wrong Again"
Faith Hill - "This Kiss", "Just To Hear You Say That You Love Me" (w/ Tim McGraw), "Let Me Let Go"
Dixie Chicks - "There's Your Trouble", "Wide Open Spaces", "You Were Mine"
Garth Brooks - "She's Gonna Make It", "Two Pina Coladas", "To Make You Feel My Love", "You Move Me"
Tim McGraw - "Just To See You Smile", "One Of These Days", "Where The Green Grass Grows"
Jo Dee Messina - "Bye Bye", "I'm Alright"
Wynonna - "Come Some Rainy Day"
Brooks & Dunn - "How Long Gone"
The Wilkinsons - "26 Cents"
Collin Raye - "I Can Still Feel You"
Terri Clark - "Now That I Found You"
Clint Black - "Nothin' But The Taillights"
Linda Davis - "I Wanna Remember This"

[zebra71]

I would say that my favorite time period in country music would be the Outlaw Country era of the 1970s because Waylon, Willie, and Hank Jr. were releasing some truly great singles. Basically I like everything by these three.

[Andy]

I listen to country music from every decade, and while there is great and not-so-great music in every era, I'd say there are three eras that stand out to me as being my favorite. All three are my favorite in different ways; it'd be impossible for me to choose between them.

Country Music's Golden Age: Roughly the early '50s through the mid-late '60s. Artists like Hank Williams, Lefty Frizzell, Johnny Cash, George Jones, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, Hank Thompson, Hank Snow, Buck Owens, etc. in their creative primes. I realize that "'50s and '60s" is an extremely large timeframe and more like two eras but what the heck. I wasn't alive then so I don't know singles and album release dates that well, so it's hard to pinpoint exact years.

The '70s/the Outlaw Movement. What can I say? Willie, Waylon, Kris, Jerry Jeff, Emmylou, Haggard, Townes, Tom T., Coe, Shaver, Paycheck, all making brilliant albums that will stand the test of time. It's really hard to beat this era of country music to me.

The mid-'80s through the early '90s/the Neotraditional Movement. It seems that so many great artists sprung up in the mid to late eighties: George Strait, Randy Travis, Ricky Skaggs, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Keith Whitley, Suzy Boggus, Kathy Mattea, Vince Gill, Trisha Yearwood, Travis Tritt, Alan Jackson, Dwight Yoakam, Patty Loveless, I could go on forever. And, while not mainstream stars, you had artists like Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, and Nanci Griffith making killer records as well. I really don't like the direction mainstream country started going in the mid-to-late '90s (although that time is a golden era compared to now) and this period represents the last time mainstream country could truly be called great IMO. I'd give anything for another movement of this nature to happen again.