Patty Loveless, “Blame It On Your Heart” (1993)

Patty Loveless has a lot of fun with lyrics—there’s the faintly ridiculous wordplay of “Timber, I’m Falling In Love” (1988), and the adjective pileup of a chorus in “Blame It On Your Heart.” With a string of insults followed by a deadpan change of heart, Loveless’ delivery captures the difficulty of trying to stop loving somebody who’s cheated on you. It’s more lighthearted than mopey, and the chorus of “Blame it on your lyin’, cheatin’, cold, deadbeatin’, two-timin’, double-dealin’, mean, mistreatin’ loving heart” never gets any less fun to sing along to.

Dixie Chicks, “There’s Your Trouble” (1998)

The Dixie Chicks existed as a Dallas bluegrass band from the late 1980s, but it wasn’t until they replaced their lead singer with Natalie Maines that they had their breakthrough, Wide Open Spaces, in 1998. With Maines came a newer country sound, balanced against Martie Maguire and Emily Robison’s traditional country and bluegrass instruments, like mandolin, fiddle, and banjo. “There’s Your Trouble” was on that first album with the new Chicks lineup, which heralded change in country music—Maines voice has more brazenness than drawl, and the Dixie Chicks charted new territory with songs like “Goodbye Earl,” in which a woman buries her abusive husband.

Garth Brooks and Chris LeDoux, “Whatcha Gonna Do With A Cowboy” (1992)

Garth Brooks is, first and foremost, an entertainer. He filled his first stadium in 1993, and those early-career tours were more successful than New Kids On The Block’s Magic Summer Tour and Madonna’s Blond Ambition. He was also an early advocate for low-cost concerts, loudly supporting Pearl Jam’s 1994 complaint with the U.S. Justice Department over Ticketmaster prices, and making a point to connect with fans in the nosebleed seats at Texas Stadium—literally, by strapping himself in a harness and fly wire and high-fiving fans in the cheapest seats. This duet with Chris LeDoux showcases just how much fun Brooks likes to have. Listen to the chuckles between the two of them (particularly when LeDoux sings, “You’d be better off to try to rope the wind,” a wink to Brooks’ Ropin’ The Wind). From the opening fiddle slides to the barn-stomping tune, “Whatcha Gonna Do” is an exuberant celebration of good country fun.

LeAnn Rimes, “Cattle Call” (1996)

After years singing at Texas rodeos and opries, LeAnn Rimes, age 13, skyrocketed to fame with “Blue,” written by Bill Mack, whose songs have been recorded by the likes of Dean Martin, Jerry Lee Lewis, and George Jones. Mack wrote the song in 1958, and four years later, tried to get Patsy Cline interested in it. Forty years later, a teenage girl whose voice earned comparisons to Cline’s recorded it and won the Grammy for Song Of The Year in 1996. Rimes’ debut album is filled with retro delights like this, including “Cattle Call,” recorded with county great Eddy Arnold, who popularized the song in 1940s.

Trisha Yearwood, “Wrong Side Of Memphis” (1992)

Trisha Yearwood’s best-known song, “She’s In Love With The Boy,” stands up as a song of simple, true love. But Yearwood’s voice powers a lot more than simple love songs, and “Wrong Side Of Memphis,” from her second studio album, sees her dig into a bluesier sound as she “bronze[s] these blue suede shoes” and hops in a ’69 Tempest to Nashville. Even as she sings about typical country subjects—love, cowboy boots, Nashville—she was one of the female country artists of the 1990s who brought much-needed balance to the industry. In “Wrong Side Of Memphis,” throwaway lines like “I ain’t drivin’ no pink Cadillac” underscore her perspective.

Randy Travis, “Honky Tonk Moon” (1988)

When poppier songs gained traction on country radio in the ’90s, Randy Travis was there with harmonica and a swinging bluesy beat to bring a little nostalgia to mainstream country. Heavily instrumented with fiddle, harmonica, and pedal steel, “Honky Tonk Moon” doesn’t have the slick production of a lot of his contemporaries. Travis’ soulful, gravelly voice sounds almost beautiful against the smooth slide-guitar work, and it’s a rare song of the late ’80s that doesn’t sound stuck in time. Travis’ throwback sound earned him 15 No. 1 songs in the ’80s and early ’90s but was beat back by the burgeoning pop-country hits later in the decade.

Lorrie Morgan, “What Part Of No” (1992)

Truly a song before its time, “What Part Of No” is Lorrie Morgan’s plea for a guy in a bar to stop hitting on her so she can just be alone. It has the strongest feminist underpinnings of any song on this list, and it spent three weeks at No. 1, a sign that country music was inching forward politically even in 1992.

Clint Black, “A Good Run Of Bad Luck” (1993)

Another of the giants of ’90s country music, Clint Black sang a lot of bluesy, poppy songs while wearing a cowboy hat and a big belt buckle. “A Good Run Of Bad Luck” had the good luck of appearing on two albums—Black’s No Time To Kill and the Maverick soundtrack.

Tanya Tucker, “Down To My Last Teardrop” (1991)

Tanya Tucker was just 13 when she released her first hit, “Delta Dawn,” in 1972. Even then, there was a hint of that signature rasp in her voice, and by the ’90s she sounded just world-weary enough. Paired with an upbeat harmonica and hooky midtempo tune, “Down To My Last Teardrop” is downright triumphant as she finally tires of a cheating lover. She sneaks in some cheeky lyrics, too, at least by early-’90s radio standards: “I don’t care who or what you’re doing / there ain’t gonna be no more boo-hooin’.”

Reba McEntire and Linda Davis, “Does He Love You” (1993)

Just about any Reba McEntire song would have worked for this list. She’s been a powerhouse of country radio since she cracked Billboard’s Hot Country Songs Top 100 in 1976 (“I Don’t Want To Be A One Night Stand”), with her first No. 1 song in 1982 (“Can’t Even Get The Blues”). “Does He Love You” spent five months on the charts and one week at No. 1 in 1993, and it’s a rare example (outside The Judds) of a two-woman duet. Another rarity: The song tells the story of an affair from the perspective of the wife and the other woman. It could have been a song about a broken heart or revenge or walking away, but Reba McEntire and Linda Davis tease out compassion from the pain.

Deana Carter, “Strawberry Wine” (1996)

Deana Carter’s 22-year-old ode to teen love wouldn’t feel out of place on a recent Kacey Musgraves’ album. Carter’s bright, clear voice brims with bittersweet nostalgia, but she still slips in a little wry humor (“I was thirsting for knowledge / And he had a car”). “Strawberry Wine” is one of several hit singles from Carter’s debut album, Did I Shave My Legs For This?, which earned multiple Grammy nods in 1997 and ’98.

Ty Herndon, “What Mattered Most” (1995)

Ty Herndon’s soft voice and plaintive love songs were typical of a lot of ’90s country music, and Herndon puts a lot of heart into the sweetly poignant “What Mattered Most.” The narrator’s self-reflection is a less typical perspective, though a refreshing one. It was nearly 20 years after this song was released that Herndon came out publicly as gay—even if the industry and the music were slowly making way for new voices and new sounds, country music has maintained a conservative, even regressive, outlook.

Alan Jackson, “Chattahoochee” (1992)

Country music can be a helluva lot of fun, and nothing captures that quite like “Chattahoochee,” a honky-tonk coming-of-age tale with the soul of a drinking song. Released in May, just in time to become the song of summer, it works just as well as a line dance as a roll-down-your-windows-and-sing-along song. It kept a foot firmly in neo-traditionalist country, but unlike tracks by greats like Randy Travis, did more to welcome in younger listeners.

 
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