DZ Top100 Country Artists of the 90s (Reba Wins!)

[Kanenrá:ke]

7. Trisha Yearwood

Bio: Yearwood was born in Monticello, Georgia, the daughter of Gwendolyn (née Paulk), a schoolteacher, and Jack Howard Yearwood, a local banker.[8] As a child, she grew accustomed to listening to country artists Patsy Cline, Kitty Wells, and Hank Williams. In elementary school, Yearwood sang in musicals, choir groups and talent shows. In high school, Yearwood and her sister Beth were A students, and Yearwood took a strong interest in becoming an accountant. Yearwood was also a member of the National Beta Club. After graduating, she enrolled at Young Harris College, where she received her associate degree and became a member of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society. She then attended the University of Georgia, however grew unhappy with the school's large campus, and transferred in 1985 to Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee. At Belmont, Yearwood majored in the school's music business program, and graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in business administration in 1987.
While in school at Belmont, Yearwood gained an internship with MTM Records, and was eventually hired as a full-time employee following her graduation. With the help of the record label's resources, she recorded a series of demo tapes and also sang background vocals for new artists. One of the new artists Yearwood recorded with was Garth Brooks in 1989. The pair developed a friendship and Brooks promised to help Yearwood sign a recording contract, if his career succeeded. Brooks brought her to his producer, Allen Reynolds, who then brought her to Garth Fundis. Fundis and Yearwood soon began working together, and together they created a demo tape. In 1990, she sang background vocals on Brooks' second album, No Fences, and performed live at a label showcase. MCA record producer, Tony Brown was impressed by her vocal ability at the concert, and helped her sign a recording contract with MCA Nashville Records shortly afterwards. Following her signing with the label, she served as the opening act on Brooks' 1991 nationwide tour.

Biggest Hits:
"She's In Love With The Boy" #1
"XXX's And OOO's (An American Girl)" #1
"Thinkin' About You" #1
"Believe Me Baby (I Lied)" #1
"Perfect Love" #1
"Walkaway Joe (Feat. Don Henley)" #2
"The Song Remembers When" #2
"How Do I Live" #2
"In Another's Eyes (Feat. Garth Brooks)" #2
"There Goes My Baby" #2
"Everybody Knows" #3
"Like We Never Had A Broken Heart" #4
"The Woman Before Me" #4
"I Would've Loved You Anyway" #4
"Wrong Side Of Memphis" #5

Albums:


Random Music Video!:


Live!:

[Kanenrá:ke]

6. Terri Clark

Bio: Terri Clark was born on August 5, 1968 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Clark's family eventually settled in Medicine Hat, Alberta, where she was raised. Clark's grandparents, Ray and Betty Gauthier, were both noted Canadian country musicians, having opened artists such as George Jones and Johnny Cash.[1] Clark's mother, Linda, had belonged to the Canadian folk scene. Her parents divorced when she was young and her mother remarried. Clark's last name was taken from the man whom her mother had married.
By high school, Clark had grown to love country music and worked at a local Chinese restaurant to save money to move to Nashville, Tennessee.[1] In 1987, after graduating high school at Crescent Heights High School in Medicine Hat, Alberta, she moved from there to Nashville, where she got her start playing at Tootsie's Orchid Lounge, a honky-tonk bar across the alley from the Nashville's Ryman Auditorium. At the time, country music executives were interested in traditional country, but record producer and singer Keith Stegall gave her advice to not give up.[1] Then in 1994, Stegall became an executive at PolyGram/Mercury Records in Nashville and signed Clark to a record deal.

Biggest Hits:
"You're Easy On The Eyes" #1
"Girls Lie Too" #1
"Now That I Found You" #2
"I Just Wanna Be Mad" #2
"Better Things To Do" #3
"When Boy Meets Girl" #3
"I Wanna Do It All" #3
"Poor Poor Pitiful Me" #5
"If I Were You" #8
"Emotional Girl" #10
"Everytime I Cry" #12
"A Little Gasoline" #13
"She Didn't Have Time" #25
"The World Needs A Drink" #25
"No Fear" #27

Albums:



Random Music Video!:


Live!:

[.indulgecountry]

5. Sara Evans


Bio: Evans was born in Boonville, Missouri, in 1971, and is of Welsh, English, Irish, and Native American descent. She was raised on a farm near New Franklin, Missouri, the eldest girl of seven children. By five, she was singing weekends in her family's band. At the age of eight, she was struck by an automobile in front of the family home, and her legs suffered multiple fractures. Recuperating for months in a wheelchair, she continued singing to help pay her medical bills. When she was 16, she began performing at a nightclub near Columbia, Missouri, a gig that lasted two years.
Evans moved to Nashville, Tennessee, in 1991 to be a country music artist. She met fellow musician Craig Schelske and left Nashville with him in 1992, moving to Oregon. They married in 1993. She returned to Nashville in 1995 and began recording demos. Nashville songwriter Harlan Howard was impressed by her demo of his song "Tiger by the Tail". He decided to help her music career, leading to a signed contract with RCA Nashville.

Biggest Hits:
"No Place That Far" #1
"Born To Fly" #1
"Suds In The Bucket" #1
"A Real Fine Place To Start" #1
"A Little Bit Stronger" #1
"I Could Not Ask For More" #2
"Perfect" #2
"I Keep Looking" #5
"Cheatin'" #9
"As If" #11
"You'll Always Be My Baby" #13
"Saints & Angels" #16
"Backseat Of A Greyhound Bus" #16
"Slow Me Down" #17
"My Heart Can't Tell You No" #21

Albums:


Random Music Video!:


Live!:

[popstop]

She's so pretty.

[Kanenrá:ke]

4. Alan Jackson

Bio: Jackson was born to Joseph Eugene Jackson (Daddy Gene) and Ruth Musick Jackson (Mama Ruth) in Newnan, Georgia, and has four older sisters. He, his father, mother, and sisters lived in a small home built around his grandfather's old toolshed.[4] At one point, his bed was in the hallway for lack of room. His mother lives in the home to this day. Jackson sang in church as a child. His first job, at 12, was in a shoe store. He wrote his first song in 1983.
As a youth, Jackson listened primarily to gospel music. Otherwise he was not a major music fan. Then a friend introduced him to the music of Gene Watson, John Anderson, and Hank Williams Jr. Jackson attended the local Elm Street Elementary and Newnan High School. He started a band after high school. At the age of 27, Jackson and his wife of six years, Denise, moved from Newnan to Nashville, where he hoped to pursue music full-time.
In Tennessee, Jackson got his first job in The Nashville Network's mailroom.[5] Denise Jackson connected him with Glen Campbell, who helped jumpstart his career.[6] Jackson eventually signed with Arista.[5] By 1989, he became the first signee to the newly formed Arista Nashville branch of Arista Records.

#1's:
"I'd Love You All Over Again"
"Don't Rock The Jukebox"
"Someday"
"Dallas"
"Love's Got A Hold On You"
"She's Got The Rhythm (And I Got The Blues)"
"Chattahoochee"
"Summertime Blues"
"Livin' On Love"
"Gone Country"
"I Don't Even Know Your Name"
"Tall, Tall Trees"
"I'll Try"
"Little Bitty"
"There Goes"
"Right On The Money"
"It Must Be Love"
"Where I Come From"
"Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)"
"Drive (For Daddy Gene)"
"It's Five O'Clock Somewhere (Feat. Jimmy Buffett)"
"Remember When"
"Small Town Southern Man"
"Good Time"
"Country Boy"

Albums:


Random Music Video!:


Live!:

[Kanenrá:ke]

3. George Strait

Bio: George Harvey Strait was born on May 18, 1952, in Poteet, in Atascosa County, south of San Antonio, Texas, to John Byron Strait, Sr. (January 11, 1922 - died June 4, 2013),[7] and Doris Couser. (June 26, 1930 - died January 30, 2010), He grew up in Pearsall, in Frio County, where his father was a junior high school mathematics teacher and the owner of a 2,000-acre (8 km²) cattle ranch outside of Big Wells, Texas. The family worked at the ranch on the weekends and in the summers. When George was in the fourth grade, his father and mother were divorced, and his mother moved away with his sister, Pency. George and his brother John, Jr., or "Buddy" (1950-2009), were raised by their father.[8]
Strait began his musical interest while attending Pearsall High School, where he played in a rock and roll garage band. The Beatles were popular when Strait was in high school. "The Beatles were big", Strait confirmed. "I listened to them a lot and that whole bunch of groups that were popular then". His musical preference soon turned to country with singers Hank Thompson, Lefty Frizzell, Merle Haggard, George Jones, Bob Wills, Hank Williams, and Frank Sinatra influencing his style. Strait did not tune to the country music radio often as a youth, usually listening to the news and the farmer's report. His introduction to country music came mostly by way of live performances, which, according to Strait, could be heard in every town in Texas.[9] He eloped with his high school sweetheart, Norma. The couple initially married in Mexico on December 4, 1971. That same year, he enlisted in the United States Army. While stationed at Schofield Barracks in Hawaii as a part of the 25th Infantry Division, Strait began performing with a U.S. Army-sponsored band, "Rambling Country", which played off-base under the name "Santee".[8] On October 6, 1972, while still in Hawaii, George and Norma had their first child, Jenifer.
After Strait was honorably discharged from the Army in 1975, he enrolled at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos and graduated with a degree in agriculture. During his college years, he joined the country band Stoney Ridge, answering a flyer the band posted around campus looking for a new vocalist. Strait renamed the group the Ace in the Hole Band and quickly became the lead; they began to perform at different honky tonks and bars around south and central Texas, traveling as far east as Huntsville and Houston.[10] They gained a regional following and opened for national acts such as The Texas Playboys. Soon, his band was given the opportunity to record several Strait-penned singles including "That Don't Change The Way I Feel About You," and "I Can't Go On Dying Like This" for the Houston-based D label. However, the songs never achieved wide recognition, and Strait continued to manage his family cattle ranch during the day in order to make some extra cash.[10][11]
While he continued to play with his band, without any real connections to the music industry, Strait became friends with Erv Woolsey, who operated one of the bars in which the Ace in the Hole band played, and who had previously worked for the major label MCA Records. Woolsey convinced some of his Music Row (Nashville, TN) connections to come to Texas and to listen to Strait and his band play. Impressed with the performance, but concerned that they couldn't market the Western Swing sound that the band featured, they left without a deal. After several unsuccessful trips to Nashville in search of a record deal in which Strait was turned down by every label in town, he considered giving up music altogether. He was offered a job designing cattle pens and decided to take it. He gave the band notice that he was leaving, but after a discussion with his wife, she convinced him to give music one more year. Not long afterward, MCA signed Strait to a recording contract in February 1981. The initial deal was for one song. If the single did well, the label would then consider doing an album. [12] The Ace in the Hole band remained with Strait, performing as the backup and touring band for the now solo act.

#1's (90's):
"Love With End, Amen"
"I've Come To Expect It From You"
"If I Know Me" 
"You Know Me Better Than That"
"I Cross My Heart"
"Heartland"
"Easy Come, Easy Go"
"The Big One"
"You Can't Make A Heart Love Somebody"
"Check Yes Or No"
"Blue Clear Sky"
"Carried Away"
"One Night At A Time"
Carrying Your Love With Me"
"Round About Way"
"I Just Want To Dance With You"
"Write This Down"

Albums:


Random Music Video!


Live!:

[Kanenrá:ke]

2. Gary Allan

Bio: Gary Allan Herzberg was born and raised in La Mirada, California,[1] to Harley and Mary Herzberg.[2] To ensure that the family would focus on music, Allan's mother insisted that the family's guitars would always remain visible in the home. At age thirteen, Allan began playing in honky tonks with his father.[1][3] Two years later, he was offered his first recording contract, from A&M Records, but rejected the deal. His parents wanted him to finish his education and his father felt that Allan had yet to develop his own distinctive style.[4] Despite his commitment to finishing school, Allan reflects that he was rarely alert in class. "I played the bars at night, I was half asleep when I got to school. I thought sleep was what you did when you go to school."[4]
After graduating from La Serna High School in Whittier, California, Allan continued to play in the bars with his band, the Honky Tonk Wranglers. Many of the venues they played were packed, and promoters often tried to move them to larger clubs. The moves would have required him to stop playing some of the older country music, such as covers of George Jones songs, so Allan refused.
Allan was introduced to songwriter/producer Byron Hill on August 28, 1993 by a mutual friend and talent-scout Jim Seal, at a bar called the Lion D'or in Downey, California, where Allan was already regularly performing. Seal and Hill had asked Allan if they could showcase an unsigned act that they were developing there. Hill had arranged to bring the head of A&R from a major label to the show to see this other act perform. Allan kindly let them use his stage for the event, giving the new act the opening performance slot that night. Hill promised Gary that they would make sure the A&R person remained there to see his portion of the show. Everyone was knocked out with Allan's performance, and very impressed with his voice. From that point on, Byron Hill began sending Gary songs. Without any serious funding at the time, Hill arranged for Allan to go into Seal's small studio in California to try his vocals on some of existing demo tracks that Byron had sent to Gary from Nashville, Tennessee. Meanwhile, Hill became head of A&R at BNA Entertainment on October 29 of that same year and immediately wanted to sign Allan to BNA, but the then current roster conditions and other circumstances related to the planned restructuring of RCA/BNA Nashville stood in the way.
In the meantime, Allan took a job selling cars. He left a demo tape in the glove box of a truck purchased by a wealthy couple. When the couple discovered that he was the singer, they wrote him a check for $12,000.[4] This independent funding allowed Allan to go to Nashville to record some of the songs that were on that early demo tape with Byron Hill as producer.[9] On September 11, 1995, they worked at Javelina Studios for a couple of days on the four songs that Hill immediately showed to labels. Allan's recordings brought serious responses from several labels including Mercury, RCA, and Decca.[9] A meeting was then held at a Nashville hotel among Hill, Allan, and friend of Allan's, who was a program director for a radio station in California.[9]
The meeting was to arrange two showcases in Los Angeles, California, to put Allan on stage at two of the radio station's regular nights at a local club. Byron arranged for staffers at the Nashville office of Decca Records to attend the first showcase held on November 1, 1995. Decca immediately wanted to sign Allan, and knowing that Byron was lining up other labels to see Gary, Decca asked them to cancel the second showcase. A rep from RCA was already booked to see the second showcase the following week, but the "bird-in-hand" deal offer was too tempting for both Byron and Gary, so they committed to the Decca offer.

Biggest Hits:
"Man To Man" #1
"Tough Little Boys" #1
"Nothing On But The Radio" #1
"Every Storm (Runs Out Of Rain)" #1
"Watching Airplanes" #2
"The One" #3
"Life Ain't Always Beautiful" #4
"Right Where I Need To Be" #5
"Her Man" #7
"It Would Be You" #7
"Best I Ever Had" #7
"Smoke Rings In The Dark" #12
"Songs About Rain" #12
"A Feelin' Like That" #12
"Learning How To Bend" #13

Albums:


Random Music Video!:


Live!:

[Kanenrá:ke]

1. Reba McEntire

Bio: Reba Nell McEntire was born March 28, 1955, in McAlester, Oklahoma, to Jacqueline (née Smith; born November 7, 1926) and Clark Vincent McEntire (November 30, 1927 – October 23, 2014[5]).[4] She was named for her maternal grandmother Reba Estelle [Brassfield] Smith (October 6, 1903 – May 12, 1970). Reba Smith was the daughter of Byron Williams "B.W." Brasfield (May 13, 1874 - September 12, 1906) and Susie Elizabeth [Raper] Brasfield (February 2, 1871 - April 18, 1935).[6] Her father and grandfather, John Wesley McEntire (February 19, 1897 - February 13, 1976), were both champion steer ropers and her father was a World Champion Steer Roper three times (1957, 1958, and 1961). John McEntire was the son of Clark Stephen McEntire (September 10, 1855 - August 15, 1935) and Helen Florida [Brown] McEntire (May 19, 1868 - May 16, 1947). Her mother had once wanted to be a country-music artist but eventually decided to become a schoolteacher, but she did teach her children how to sing. Young Reba also taught herself how to play the guitar. On car rides home from their father's rodeo shows, the McEntire siblings learned songs and harmonies from their mother, eventually forming a vocal group called the "Singing McEntires" with her brother, Pake, and her younger sister Susie (her older sister Alice did not participate). Reba played guitar in the group and wrote all the songs. The group sang at rodeos and recorded "The Ballad of John McEntire" together. Released on the indie label Boss, the song pressed one thousand copies.[4] In 1974, McEntire attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University planning to be an elementary school teacher (eventually graduating December 16, 1976[4]). While not attending school, she also continued to sing locally. That same year she was hired to perform the national anthem at the National Rodeo in Oklahoma City. Country artist Red Steagall, who was also performing that day, was impressed by her vocal ability and agreed to help her launch a country-music career in Nashville, Tennessee. After recording a demo tape, she signed a recording contract with Mercury Records in 1975.

90's Singles!
"Walk On" #2
"You Lie" #1
 
"Rumor Has It" #3

"Fancy" #8

"Fallin' Out Of Love" #2
"For My Broken Heart" #1

"Is There Life Out There" #1

"The Night The Lights Went Out In Georgia" #12

"The Greatest Man I Never Knew" #3
"Take It Back" #5

"The Heart Won't Lie (Feat. Vince Gill)" #1

"It's Your Call" #5

"Does He Love You (Feat. Linda Davis)" #1

"They Asked About You" #7
"Why Haven't I Heard From You" #5

"She Thinks His Name Was John" #15

"Till You Love Me" #2

"The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter" #1
"And Still" #2

"On My Own" #20

"Ring On Her Finger, Time On Her Hands" #9
"Starting Over Again" #19

"You Keep Me Hangin' On"
"The Fear Of Being Alone" #2

"How Was I To Know" #1
"I'd Rather Ride Around With You" #2

"What If It's You" #15

"What If" #23
"If You See Him (Feat. Brooks & Dunn)" #1

"Forever Love" #4

"Wrong Night" #6
"One Honest Heart" #7
"What Do You Say" #3

[trebor]

J.  Awesome work! Thank you so, so much! 
Will save all the pages and keep them as a reference. Have yet so much to discover from the 90s (let alone from the decades before...)
All your efforts are very, very much appreciated! 

[Kanenrá:ke]

Thanks everybody for playing, I love how well the first game I started went and I'm happy with the results!

[bboat11]

For anyone who is interested: In honor of Reba winning, I have created a new danger zone involving all of her hits! It can be found here!