100 Best Americana and Country Songs of the Decade: Part 3 (#80-71)

by Julian Spivey

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​Note: portions of this article have previously been published on this site

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80. "Feathered Indians" by Tyler Childers (2017)

"If I'd known she was religious/Then I wouldn't have came stoned/To the house of such an angel/Too fucked up to get back home"

​Tyler Childers is the next big thing (or has been the next big thing) in the non-mainstream country music circles for the last little while. His breakthrough album Purgatory in 2017, which was produced by buddy Sturgill Simpson, featured the excellent ballad “Feathered Indians” about a troubled man falling for a good, religious woman and how that love just might be what it takes to save him. It quickly became a fan-favorite for many and includes such literary lyrics as, “Well, my buckle makes impressions on the inside of her thigh/there are little feathered Indians where we tussled through the night.” It didn’t take long at all for Childers to reach the upper-echelon among non-mainstream country heroes. 

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79. "Cost of Livin'" by Ronnie Dunn (2011)

"Bank has started callin'/And the wolves are at my door/Three dollar and change at the pump/Cost of livin's high and goin' up"

​Ronnie Dunn’s “Cost of Livin’,” a top-20 country hit in 2011 (hard to believe a song like this was a top-20 country song in this decade) is the terrific ballad of a laid-off, hard-working American just looking for any work to help feed his family and it came just after the economic recession toward the end of the previous decade. It plays out like a job interview and was the song country music and its fans needed to hear at the time, and that’s something that just doesn’t seem possible at the decade’s end. We don’t really get songs in the mainstream with important topics anymore and that’s a damn shame. 

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78. "Kansas City" by The New Basement Tapes (2014)

"You invite me into your house/Then you say you gotta pay for what you break"

​The New Basement Tapes was one of the more interesting musical moments of the decade, not to mention one of the big supergroups. Super producer T-Bone Burnett had taken the task of uniting a group of Americana’s finest artists: Elvis Costello, Marcus Mumford of Mumford & Sons, Jim James of My Morning Jacket, Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes and Rhiannon Giddens and giving them a recently uncovered box of unfinished Bob Dylan lyrics from 1967. The superstars all banded together to finish these Dylan excerpts and released the 20-track album Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes. The finest track on this release was the Mumford and Goldsmith co-write “Kansas City,” which comes off as essentially sounding like a Mumford & Sons song about trying to escape a bad relationship. Trivia: actor Johnny Depp plays guitar on this track. 

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77. "Only Lies" by Robert Ellis (2014)

"Just because a thing's convenient/Well, that doesn't make it true/Only lies can comfort you"

​One unforgettable performance this decade was seeing Robert Ellis perform “Only Lies” on the Americana Awards & Honors in 2014. I had never heard the name Robert Ellis before that night and was flabbergasted by how good his performance of this song about a friend coming to him for guidance on whether a not a loved one was cheating on them. Ellis has a knack for making simplicity sound so damn good and “Only Lies” is proof. 

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76. "Come Unto Me" by The Mavericks (2013)

"And if there's no one there to see you through/I'll be there for you"

​Raul Malo’s vocal on “Come Unto Me,” from The Mavericks comeback 2013 album In Time, makes me want to hug a bull. That’s manlier than fighting them anyway. It’s such a bombastic, sexy vocal on this performance, with the typical Latin flavor from The Mavericks that makes you want to get up and dance along, as well as show off in other forms of bravado. 

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75. "The Real Me" by Shooter Jennings (2012)

"I'm mean when I'm lonesome/I'm angry when I'm high/But I'll chase that nightmare until I die"

​Shooter Jennings comes from country music royalty being the son of Waylon Jennings and this has somewhat allowed him to be a maverick of his own when it comes to his music – recording everything from stone cold country to hard rock concept albums to music with an electronic flare. My favorite release of his this decade (and since his 2005 debut Put the ‘O’ Back in Country) is 2012’s Family Man, which saw him return to traditional country a bit. My favorite track off that record is “The Real Me,” with imagery that I absolutely love of what happens when people run into the real him and this perfect imagery is song at a breakneck speed that makes the whole thing fun as hell to listen and sing along with. 

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74. "Trailer for Rent" by Pistol Annies (2011)

“Trailer for rent/no down payment/comes with some holes and dents where I got tired of his shit/call if you’re interested”

The Pistol Annies were the most successful country music supergroup of the decade with three stellar albums showcasing the sisterhood spirit of spitfires Miranda Lambert, Ashley Monroe and Angaleena Presley. My favorite track from the Pistol Annies is “Trailer for Rent,” the Lambert penned and lead vocal off the Pistol Annies’ 2011 debut Hell on Heels. “Trailer for Rent” is right up there with the best of Lambert’s career work, as it tells the tale of a woman who’s had enough with her deadbeat husband and puts a simple ad in the local newspaper that reads: “Trailer for rent/no down payment/comes with some holes and dents where I got tired of his shit/call if you’re interested.” It’s probably the most country the Pistol Annies have been on any of their albums. 

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73. "Follow Your Arrow" by Kacey Musgraves (2013)

"Kiss lots of boys/Or kiss lots of girls/If that's something you're into"

​Country radio has always been too conservative for its own good, so it was nice to see an artist like Kacey Musgraves challenge that, especially taking a risk of doing it so early in her career. Musgraves quickly became one of the most queer friendly artists in country with “Follow Your Arrow,” off her 2013 debut Same Trailer, Different Park, with its “kiss lots of boys/or kiss lots of girls/if that’s something you’re into” and “love who you love” lyrics. The song was a be-who-you-are-and-forget-the-haters anthem that was co-written by two of country’s best openly gay songwriters Brandy Clark and Shane McAnally. 

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72. "Like Jesus Does" by Eric Church (2013)​

“I’m a long gone Waylon song on vinyl”

​“I’m a long gone Waylon song on vinyl” is one of the greatest opening (and closing) lyrics of the decade from Eric Church’s 2013 top-10 single “Like Jesus Does,” from his 2011 album Chief, written by Casey Beathard and Monty Criswell. The tender love ballad about a rebel personality loved by a good Christian woman who accepts him for who he is is something that I think a lot of good ol’ boys can identify with. 

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71. "Fire Away" by Dawes

"So if you finally wrote that heartbreak song/That the experts never could/Or if you just wanted someone to listen to you play/Then fire away"

​“Fire Away” was a good thing to title a song this decade as two different songs with that title make the cut on this list. “Fire Away,” off Dawes’ 2011 release Nothing is Wrong, is that good California folk-rock sound that harkens back to artists of the ‘70s like Jackson Browne. In fact, “Fire Away” sounds like it easily could’ve been on a Browne record … of course it helps that Browne provides backing vocals on the track. 

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