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
Ag insider logo xs@2xhighend64

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.

I used Iris Dement's My Life album as source material at one CES Vegas. Sounded great on Crosby-modified QUAD 63's. Stuart Duncan, a great fiddle player, is one of the superb musicians on the album.

Chris Hillman's (The Byrds bassist) albums on Sugar Hill records possess great sound quality, and are musically great (a nice "bonus" ;-), His albums as a member of The Desert Rose Band as fantastic as well. His latest album was produced by Mike Campbell of Petty's Heartbreakers.

T Bone Burnett's (producer of the O' Brother soundtrack, as well as The New Basement Tapes) Truth Decay album (originally on Takoma, a label known for good sound and artists) sounds REALLY good.

I'll think of some more if you want.

Love this kind of music and have spent a great portion of my life enjoying it.  Great recommendations above from everyone so I'll toss a couple logs onto the fire...

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Will the Circle Be Unbroken albums volumes 2 & 3 (2 different albums) which feature all most of the greats mentioned above....enjoy!
A lot of what's been suggested above falls under what I'd consider more Americana than country but it's also what I happen to prefer.  Yes, much modern Americana is recorded well - especially folks like Rawlings and Welch and Jason Isbell.  From back in the 70s I felt that Gram Parsons's debut solo album GP was recorded very nicely not to mention it's brilliant.