Rolling Stones’ 100 Greatest Country Artists of All Time

Rolling Stones ranked their 100 greatest artists of all time. They ranked these country artists according to their lasting impact on the genre and their recorded output, their legacy as an entertainer. Brace yourselves for you might be surprised with some of the artists included. Also, who among your favorite country artists entered the category? Find out!

100 artists is a lengthy list, and there isn’t room for everyone. With this, Rolling Stones didn’t include those who were mostly songwriters like Hank Cochran and Harlan Howard. Also, they skipped Chet Akins who is a work of art of Nashville. However, he is mainly a sideman and a producer. They also omitted Elvis Presley and Ray Charles since those artists were essential contributors of rock and roll and soul.

Nevertheless, all of the artists’ common denominator for both the legends and today’s stars was that they are all world’s most magnificent.

Here is the list of the Top 10:

10. Garth Brooks

Garth Brooks is a game changer in the world of country music. He is one of the crossover artists during the 90s. His sensibilities of the pop-country made him a superstar. Brooks’ song like “Friends in Low Places” became a standard all over the globe. Without a doubt, Brooks has had great success on the country single and album charts. He has sold platinum and multi-platinum albums all around the world. Also, his performances and concerts were never a flop.

Moreover, Brooks is the best-selling solo albums artist in the United States with 148 million domestic units sold, ahead of Elvis Presley, and is second only to The Beatles in total album sales overall. He is also one of the world’s best-selling artists of all time, having sold more than 170 million records.

As of September 23, 2016, Brooks is now the only artist in music history to have released seven albums that have achieved diamond status in the United States. He was able to surpass The Beatles with six records.

Brooks’ trademarks songs include “Friends in Low Places,” “The River,” and “The Dance.”

9. George Jones

Indeed, George Jones has become the standard in the country music scene. He was able to penetrate the hearts of country music obsessives through his soulful songs. Also, he has touched everyone by creating and recording tracks that anyone could relate to.

Jones was able to reinvent melodies and stretch out words and lyrics in ways that seemed impossible. However, those are wholly natural and felt. Undoubtedly, he is one of the legends who sang songs of devotion and heartbreak at the core of country music. Those songs include “He Stopped Loving Her Today,” “She Thinks I Still Care,” “We Must Have Been Out of Our Minds,” “The Grand Tour,” and “We’re Gonna Hold On.” On the other hand, he was able to rock our world with his early honky-tonk temperaments like “Why Baby Why” and “White Lightning.”

In the course of his career, Jones had more than 150 hits, both as a solo artist and in duets with other country artists. Jones was frequently referred to as the greatest living country singer.

Jones’ trademark songs include “He Stopped Loving Her Today” and “The Grand Tour.”

8. Dolly Parton

Yes, Dolly Parton is “America’s Sweetheart. Her quirky personality is the main reason why people love her so much. She is bubbly yet a great performer. Her songs define a realistic picture of real-life situations. She has risen to stardom with her great music such as “Jolene,” “Coat of Many Colors,” and her irrepressible “I Will Always Love You.”

Furthermore, Parton has a string of excellent 2000s bluegrass LPs joining a catalog of over 20 Number One hits.

Her signature songs include “Coat of Many Colors” and “9 to 5.”

7. Waylon Jennings

During the 70s, Jennings was instrumental in the inception of the Outlaw Country Movement. He released critically acclaimed albums such as “Lonesome, On’ry and Mean” and “Honky Tonk Heroes.” Then, followed by massive hit albums “Dreaming My Dreams” and “Are You Ready for the Country.” In 1976, he released the album “Wanted! The Outlaws” with Willie Nelson, Tompall Glaser, and Jessi Colter. It became the first platinum country music album.

With a rich, growling voice and the twang of a leather-embossed telecaster, Jennings helped create his own incredible and unmistakable sound. It was one that resonates today in the music of artists like Sturgill Simpson and Jennings’ son, Shooter. In 1973, he gave songwriter Billy Joe Shaver his big break by cutting nine of his songs on the LP Honky Tonk Heroes, including the signature title track and the brooding “Black Rose.”

Jennings also penetrated the world of films and television series. He was the balladeer for “The Dukes of Hazzard,” composing and singing the show’s theme song and providing narration. In 2001, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In 2007, he was posthumously awarded the Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award by the Academy of Country Music.

Jennings’ trademarks songs were “Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way” and “Honky Tonk Heroes.”

6. Willie Nelson

One of Country’s greatest crossovers, Willie Nelson “The Red Headed Stranger” provided us his hits “Always on My Mind,” “On the Road Again” and “Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain.” These songs scored both on both the country charts and the Top 40 in the 70s and 80s.

Before becoming world’s famous and greatest country musician, Nelson wrote the country’s all-time favorite songs like Patsy Cline’s “Crazy” and Faron Young’s  “Hello Walls.”

Nelson is not just a singer but also a musician, songwriter, author, poet, actor, and activist. He is one of the leading figures of outlaw country, a subgenre of country music that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restrictions of the Nashville sound. Nelson has acted in over 30 films, co-authored several books, and has been involved in activism for the use of biofuels and the legalization of marijuana.

Nelson’s trademarks songs include “On the Road Again” and “Funny How Time Slips Away.”

5. The Carter Family

The trio of A.P. Carter, his wife Sara, and sister-in-law Maybelle created the sound of modern country in the late 20s. They began by singing folk songs over the guitar, autoharp, and banjo arrangements. Perhaps, it’s the band’s signature temperament among other country artists.

“Keep on the Sunny Side” and “Wildwood Flower” have become canon for the country music. The Carter style was built around the vocals and incorporated them into the instrumental background. It’s usually made up of the basic three-chord structure. In essence, The Carter Family violated the main traditions of vocal and instrumental music. However, the band has created a whole new style and a whole new sound.

Despite Sarah’s divorce in 1939, they continued playing and performing together. By the time the group split in 1943, they’d recorded more than 250 songs. Maybelle carried on the group’s

tradition and name with her daughters. Above all, the original trio’s influence still ripples through the country today.

The Carter Family’s trademark songs include “Keep on the Sunny Side” and “Wildwood Flower.”

4. Loretta Lynn

A coal miner’s daughter from Butcher Hollow, Kentucky, Loretta Lynn became a wife by the age of 15 and a mother soon after. Indeed, she is forever the “Queen of Country Music.”

Her classics was yet ageless like “The Pill,” “Rated X” and “Don’t Come Home A-Drinkin’ (With Lovin’ on Your Mind)” are as controversial as they are legendary. Lynn would often avoid attaching a feminist narrative to her music however they unfolded a whole new world for women on Music Row.

With more awards than any female in the genre and scores of partnerships with everyone from Conway Twitty to Jack, White Lynn has kept the classics coming and the naysayers guessing. Her style with distinct lyrics pierced the heart and tickled the mind.

Lynn has received a bunch of awards and other accolades for her groundbreaking contribution in country music. Some of her trophies as a duet and an individual artist are from the Country Music Association and Academy of Country Music. Also, she is the most awarded female country recording artist and the only female ACM Artist of the Decade.

Moreover, Lynn has sold more than 45 million albums worldwide, scored 24 number one hit singles, and 11 number one albums. Lynn continues to tour, appear at the Grand Ole Opry and release new albums. She is recognized by the strength and quality of her voice still today, as well as her down to earth, quick wit, and humor.

Lynn’s trademark songs include “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” “The Pill,” “You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man).”

3. Johnny Cash

“The Man in Black” Johnny Cash embodied outlaw country’s rebel spirit. It runs through his character as well as through his songs. Much of Cash’s music contained themes of sorrow, moral tribulation, and redemption, especially in the later stages of his career. Nevertheless, it helped him rise to prominence. On the other hand, he could sing beautiful love songs with his wife, June Carter Cash. Johnny and June once lead a family-friendly concert, which he branded with the most famous salutation in the country “Hello, I’m Johnny Cash.”

Cash’s impact was extraordinary and compelling. In fact, President Bill Clinton once proclaimed that Cash had made country music not just for the country, but for the entire world, too.

Although primarily remembered as a country music icon, his genre-spanning songs and sound embraced rock and roll, rockabilly, blues, folk, gospel, and even alternative rock in later recordings. This crossover appeal won Cash the rare honor of being inducted into the Country Music, Rock and Roll, and Gospel Music Halls of Fame.

Cash’s trademarks songs include “Folsom Prison Blues” and “I Walk the Line.”

2. Hank Williams

Although Hank Williams’ recorded output lasted only for seven years, his influence has spanned ten times as long, and it continues to flourish. In fact, he is already a standard in the world of country.

Moreover, Williams’ plainspoken songs and tales of heartbreak “Your Cheatin’ Heart,” “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry”; catchy and playful party melodies “Move It on Over,” “Jambalaya (On the Bayou)”; and charming pickup lines set to music “Hey Good Lookin’,” and “Honky Tonkin’” became a blueprint for artists like Willie Nelson and George Jones.

Many artists recorded songs that Williams wrote and recorded. He influenced Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Bob Dylan, George Jones, and The Rolling Stones, and others. Williams was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1961, the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987.

1. Merle Haggard

“The Hag” Merle Haggard has a distinct story. His tale, like his music, was an American epic, shot through with improbability, struggle, sin, and redemption.

Yes, Merle Haggard has been through bad times before achieving the limelight. He faced a lot of struggles in life before becoming an ultimate star. Moreover, he has been in and out of juvenile detention center, he ran away from home, involved in a theft, fused in a robbery, has been in prison, and then a sudden struck of change hit him.

It was not a smooth beginning for Haggard’s musical career. His very first record with Tally Records entitled “Singing My Heart Out” was a whole flat. Despite Haggard’s wanting to pursue his career, he kept chasing his dreams.

He asked for a consent to record “Sing A Sad Song” which was, astonishingly, became a huge hit in 1964. The following year, he recorded “My Friends Are Gonna Be Strangers” written by Liz Anderson, the mother of country singer Lynn Anderson. This made Haggard’s career skyrocket.

The Hag

In 1966, Merle Haggard recorded “I’m A Lonesome Fugitive” also written by Liz Anderson and Casey Anderson. The song was his very first No.1 single on the country charts.

At that time where his career was skyrocketing, there was one thing that was bothering Haggard. It was his pasts, the things he had done. He was worried that it would affect his career. But God is great, and it didn’t; instead, he was loved by millions of people all over the globe. His love petrified his evil deeds to music and country music enthusiasts.

While in prison, Haggard learned that his wife was expecting another man’s child, which pressed him psychologically. He was fired from a series of prison jobs, and planned to escape along with another inmate named “Rabbit,” but was convinced not to escape by fellow inmates.

Haggard started gambling and brewing racket with his cellmate. After he was caught drunk, he was sent for a week to solitary confinement where he met Caryl Chessman, an author, and a death-row inmate. Meanwhile, his inmate named James “Rabbit” Kendrick has managed to escape by shooting a police officer. With this, his friend was returned to jail and was executed.

Chessman’s predicament, along with the execution of “Rabbit,” inspired Haggard to change his life. He soon earned a high school equivalency diploma and kept a steady job in the prison’s textile plant. Haggard also played for the prison’s country music band, attributing a performance by Johnny Cash at the jail on New Year’s Day of 1959 as his main inspiration. And he was released from San Quentin on parole in 1960.

From 1966 to 1987, he placed 38 hits at Number One on the country charts, among them the bitterly patriotic “Okie From Muskogee” and “The Fightin’ Side of Me.”

People were just so passionate about Merle Haggard. They forgot what was in the past and embraced what Merle Haggard has to offer. Above all, Merle Haggard is still in our hearts no matter what happens.

Here are the other country artists from 11-100:

11-20

11. Jimmie Rodgers
12. Patsy Cline
13. Buck Owens
14. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys
15. Ray Price
16. Tammy Wynette
17. Glenn Campbell
18. Eddy Arnold
19. Roger Miller
20. George Strait

21-30

21. Conway Twitty
22. Lefty Frizzell
23. Ernest Tubb
24. The Louvin Brothers
25. Shania Twain
26. Tom T. Hall
27. Bill Monroe
28. Alan Jackson
29. Kris Kristofferson
30. Flatt and Scruggs

31-40

31. Charley Pride
32. Randy Travis
33. Miranda Lambert
34. Jerry Lee Lewis
35. Stanley Brothers
36. Reba McEntire
37. Jerry Reed
38. John Prine
39. Gram Parsons
40. Hank Snow

41-50

41. Charlie Rich
42. Kitty Wells
43. Bobby Bare
44. Porter Wagoner
45. Dixie Chicks
46. Gary Stewart
47. Mel Tillis
48. Tennessee Ernie Ford
49. Kenny Rogers
50. Hank Williams Jr.

51-60

51. Keith Whitley
52. Don Williams
53. Ronnie Milsap
54. Jim Reeves
55. Don Gibson
56. John Anderson
57. Johnny Horton
58. Emmylou Harris
59. Hank Thompson
60. Doug Sahm

61-70

61. Webb Pierce
62. Vince Gill
63. Faron Young
64. Marty Robbins
65. Billy Joe Shaver
66. Roy Acuff
67. Tanya Tucker
68. Guy Clark
69. Connie Smith
70. Vern Gosdin

71-80

71. Dwight Yoakam
72. Jessi Colter
73. Merle Travis
74. Lee Ann Womack
75. Asleep at the Wheel
76. Marty Stuart
77. Patty Loveless
78. Rosanne Cash
79. Alabama
80. Taylor Swift

80-90

81. Statler Brothers
82. Lynn Anderson
83. Townes Van Zandt
84. Steve Earle
85. Eric Church
86. Bill Anderson
87. Jamey Johnson
88. The Judds
89. Tim McGraw
90. Crystal Gayle

91-100

91. Lucinda Williams
92. Chris LeDoux
93. Jerry Jeff Walker
94. Alison Krauss
95. Brooks and Dunn
96. Toby Keith
97. Brad Paisley
98. Keith Urban
99. Carrie Underwood
100. John Denver

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