Great country recording


Hi all, I am looking for some great country recording albums by various artists. Really like the sound of steel guitar, acoustic guitar, fiddle, and of course vocals. Any recommendations? Thanks
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Mark Chesnut: “Tradition Lives“, “Savin’ the Honky Tonks”, “Rollin’ with the Flow”

Great contemporary honky tonk. Slim Yamagucihi is one of the world’s greatest peddle steel players, Chesnutt a phenomenal country vocalist.

Townes Van Zandt: Start with “Live at the Old Quarter” and “High, Low and In Between”

In college, I was fortunate to see him many times at the Outhouse in Austin, Tx. It was the mid to late 1980’s. Addiction had taken its toll but he was still magical on stage. Just him and his guitar. I still can’t believe I drank beers with him during his breaks. Crazy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Townes_Van_Zandt
You may want to take a listen to the soundtrack for Oh Brother Where Art Thou?

It's a survey of pre-Nashville country music.

Best,

E
Regarding the comment that Nashville hasn't skimped on recording.- I popped a Tim McGraw CD in and was really disappointed in the SQ. I don't play a ton of country, but the comparison to James Taylor and Jackson Brown CDs was significant. When stacked against some of my acoustic guitar Cds it was downright stunning. I don't recall the McGraw album name, and maybe it is a bad example or a bad match to the Vandersteens I had hooked up, but truly surpirsed me. 

Tim McGraw is of the mainstream Country I mentioned above. For artistic integrity and stunning sound quality recordings, give a listen to Buddy Miller. He has turned the "front parlour" of his Nashville home into a recording studio. He produces recordings there, when he's off the road with Emmylou Harris, whose band he leads. He also leads the band at the annual Americana Music Awards Show, hosted by Jim Lauderdale, with whom he made a duet album. He is a major player in the Americana scene, where gen-u-wine Country music is being made.

The majority of the "Country" music coming out of the mainstream music factories owes more to The Eagles than to true Country/Hillbilly music: Merle Haggard, Hank Williams, George Jones (including his Rockabilly recordings under the name Thumper Jones!), Lefty Frizzell (The Band covered his "Long Black Veil" on their debut album), Ernest Tubb, Bob Wills, Moon Mullican (Nick Lowe has recorded his "7 Nights To Rock", Springsteen performs it live), Faron Young, early Johnny Horton, The Stanley Brothers, The Carter Family (Country royalty), Johnny Cash (my mom's favorite male singer), Patsy Cline, Wanda Jackson (she dated Elvis for awhile), Jimmie Rodgers, Hank Snow, Bill Monroe, Lester Flatt (Marty Stuart joined his band at age 14!), The Louvin Brothers (I hear them when The Everly Brothers are singing), Webb Pierce (John Fogerty included his "I Ain't Never" on his debut solo album, put out under the name The Blue Ridge Rangers! A great album of Country-inspired music), hundreds more.