Off Topic: 90’s Country Music Rewind

I’m a huge fan of alt country or Americana music, definitely appreciate some classic country like Johnny Cash, Lefty Frizzell or Buck Owens, and I live in Austin so it’s mandatory to be into Willie Nelson, Robert Earl Keen, Hays Carll, and the late, great Billy Joe Shaver (maybe my favorite musician of all time). Mainstream country though? That’s a totally different animal. I like *some* newer country artists like Maren Morris or Kacey Musgraves (i.e. not really typical country at all), but I was only really into mainstream country during its 90’s boom when I was in or right out of college.

Just for fun and out of curiosity, I’ve been on a couple year mission to reevaluate what out of the country music of that that time is still worth listening to and what was “Mighty Morphin Power Rangers” level cheesy. I’m going hard into Comic Book Guy mode here as I make up some categories and lists:

Albums in rotation for me

I have plenty of playlists with 90’s country, but what albums are still worthwhile to me for a full play? I only came up with a few:

• This Time by Dwight Yoakum. Such an awesome, timeless album. It’s the “Sharon Stone dumped me and I’m sad” album.
• What a Crying Shame by the Mavericks. One of my all time favorite bands, and I even proposed to my wife right before seeing a Raul Malo concert at Gruene Hall. Trampoline from ’98 is my overall favorite Mavericks album but I’m saying they’d moved long past country by that point anyway.
• Killin’ Time by Clint Black. Never got into anything else he ever did though
• Brand New Man by Brooks & Dunn. Mostly about good memories, and I love Neon Moon
• A Lot About Livin’ (And a Little ‘Bout Love) by Alan Jackson. It’s just a fun album.
• Weirdly enough, I still like Thinkin’ Problem by David Ball. Still holds up for me even though it wasn’t any kind of big hit
• Born to Fly by Sara Evans. That might have been the very last mainstream country CD I ever purchased. Think it was in the 2000’s, but still including it here!

What surprisingly holds up for me

I remember liking him at the time, but I will happily pull out Joe Diffie’s (RIP, and an early COVID casualty:( ) greatest hits and play that. The humor still works, and I think he had a genuinely great voice. I’ll see your John Deere Green, but give me Prop Me Up By the Jukebox When I Die.

Mark Chesnutt. I liked him at the time, remember him always being in the background on the radio, but I don’t think I appreciated how good he was until I tried out his Greatest Hits collection for this post. Same kind of humor (Bubba Shot the Jukebox) as Joe Diffie, but his ballads hold up for me too. Awesome voice too.

Sammy Kershaw. I’ll still pull out his greatest hits once in awhile. I loved him at the time of course

Um, what about the women?

This post has been a bit of a sausage fest so far, and that’s not fair. Let’s talk about the women too! I think just like today, that the female artists hold up better over all somehow.

• Her biggest stuff came later, but I was Sara Evans fan from the start and I’ll still play her music sometimes
• Joe Dee Messina was awfully good in the late 90’s, and Head’s Caroline, Tails California still merits cranking up the volume if it ever comes on the radio
• Faith Hill was cheesy to me when she first got started, but I like her later, admittedly poppy stuff.
• Shania Twain. I absolutely remember why 20-something guys like me were into her, a couple songs were fun, but man, that stuff is cheesy
• I still like Suzy Bogguss
• I don’t mind Trisha Yearwood or Mary Chapin Carpenter, but I think they were products of their time and they sound really dated to me now
• The Chicks were and are the real thing. I liked their first couple albums, but Home from ’02 is their best in my opinion. Doesn’t hurt that there was a strong Austin influence on that album from the song writers
• Pam Tillis had a couple fun songs
• Patty Loveless had some fun stuff
• SheDaisy was and is a guilty pleasure

Songs I still Love

Guilty pleasure or not, I still like these songs and will play them on purpose when my wife and kids aren’t around:

• SheDaisy. I think their couple big songs like Little Goodbyes were fun
• I’d totally forgotten about the Queen of Memphis
• Some Girls Do by Sawyer Brown. Chalk full of country music cliches, but I’ll allow it!
• Southbound by Sammy Kershaw
• Straight Tequila Night by John Anderson.
• Goodbye Says it All by Blackhawk, but see the note below
• Alibis by Tracy Lawrence. I’m a sucker for a good waltz

If I’m in absolutely the right mood once in a great while…

• Little Texas
• Travis Tritt even though he’s a nutjob Trumper in real life now
• Tracy Lawrence once in awhile

Cheeseball City

Music I might have liked at the time, but are awfully cloying now

• Deanna Carter’s Strawberry Wine — maybe not too cheesy, but man, that was overplayed
• Achy Breaky Heart. I don’t feel like I need to explain
• Toby Keith
• Sawyer Brown story songs like The Walk
• Boy Howdy
• Diamond Rio’s Meet in the Middle is *okay*, but c’mon, that’s the epitome of cheesy
• Little Texas — even though I loved them at the time
• Aaron Tippin
• Trashy Women from Confederate Railroad
• Lonestar. Blech.
• Alan Jackson’s “Small Town Southern Man.” Just cringe.
• Blackhawk, except for the song above
• Doug Stone ballads walked right up to the line between “good” and “cheesy”.

What about Garth Brooks or George Strait?

Just like Alan Jackson, the two biggest country guys of the 90’s could easily swerve from “hey, I really like that” to “zomg, that’s so cheesy I can’t believe anybody would ever listen to that on purpose.”

For Garth Brooks, give me Friends in Low Places & Shameless, and keep The Dance or Unanswered Prayers on the sideline. For George Strait, I think I’d throw out most of his 90’s music, but keep his earlier stuff like Amarillo by Morning or Baby Blue as a guilty pleasure.

Not counting Americana, but if I was…

For the sake of this post, I’m only going to consider mainstream artists and not bands that I think of as primarily being Americana or Alt Country. That being said, I think the Alt Country music of that era absolutely holds up:

• Every single album that Shaver put out in his 90’s renaissance was fantastic, but I’m calling out Unshaven: Live at Smith’s Olde Bar as one of my all time favorite albums of any era or genre. Check it out, but make sure you play it loud. I cannot overstate how good those guys were live in the 90’s before Eddie Shaver passed away.
• Joe Ely put out some great albums in the 90’s too, with Letter to Laredo being my favorite of his
• Robert Earl Keen was prolific, and I’ll toss up No. 2 Live Dinner as my favorite of that time, but I would accept A Bigger Piece of Sky, Gringo Honeymoon, or Walking Distance as very strong contenders. With Feelin’ Good Again being one of my favorite songs of all time
• Charlie Robison put out Life of the Party in the late 90’s
• Bruce Robison’s (Charlie’s younger brother) first couple albums, and I’ll go with Wrapped in this list
• Kelly Willis (Bruce’s wife) had several good albums, and I’ll pic What I Deserve here
• Guy Clark released Dublin Blues in ’95

Artists that hold up for me

• Brooks and Dunn
• Dwight Yoakum
• The Mavericks are one of my all time favorite bands, and they’ve long since transcended country, but they started as a very good traditional country band
• Alan Jackson is across the whole spectrum between genuinely great stuff (Chasing that Neon Rainbow) and oh my gosh, that’s absurdly cheesy and I’m embarrassed for people that like that (Small Town Country Man)
• Sawyer Brown, but some of their stuff is too maudlin
• I have a soft spot for Sara Evans partially since she’s from Missouri, but also,
• Faith Hill’s later music when she admittedly got a little poppier