100 Best Americana and Country Songs of the Decade: Part 4 (#70-61)

by Julian Spivey

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

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70. "Hardwood Floors" by Charles Wesley Godwin (2019)

"Take my hand, honey, let's just dance/And pretend there ain't nobody else in town"

​This year has been an amazing one for upcoming singer-songwriters bursting onto the scene with terrific debut albums and Charles Wesley Godwin’s Seneca is one of the year’s best (overall, not just by new musicians). It’s hard to pick a best song from his album, but I’m going to go with the foot-stomper “Hardwood Floors,” with a fiddle solo that makes you want to take part in a hoedown. Godwin’s talent as a songwriter is something I hope more listeners start to take note of, as I believe he could be one of the finest to come out of the Americana/country music genres going into the next decade. 

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69. "Drinkin' Problem" by Midland (2017)

"People say I got a drinkin' problem/But I got no problem drinkin' at all"

​The biggest debate in country music in 2017 was over the authenticity of Midland. This evidently means that many of us music writers have too much time on our hands. I don’t care if one of these guys directed music videos for Bruno Mars and another one was a model as long as they perform songs as good as “Drinkin’ Problem,” which was the biggest breath of fresh air on country radio that entire year. Hearing Midland on mainstream radio was a shock to the system the first time I heard it. I felt like I was in the mid-‘90s again. It’s an old school drinkin’ song with the proper amount of twang and it’s well-written. Sure, co-writer Shane McAnally might be responsible for helping crap like Sam Hunt’s “Body Like a Back Road” into the world, but we forget he’s also co-written terrific stuff with likes of Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves and Brandy Clark. We shouldn’t be running down music this good because we don’t like how these guys dress or where they came from. 

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68. "Long White Line" by Sturgill Simpson (2014)

"If somebody wants to know what's become of this so and so/Tell 'em I'm somewhere looking for the end of that long white line"

​This decade has pretty much taught me that Sturgill Simpson can do anything and everything and do it well … and he just might do it all. Truck driving songs are certainly no exception, as one of the highlights off his sophomore solo release Metamodern Sounds of Country Music in 2014 was “Long White Line.” The song was written many years ago by Buford Abner of The Suwannee River Boys (I haven’t been able to find this version anywhere), but souped up by Simpson and super-producer Dave Cobb. Simpson’s thick Kentucky accent really makes this version a lot of fun. 

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67. "Hands Up" by Parker Millsap (2016)

"And it's hard to keep a job when you just can't pretend/That you never heard a body bag zipping over your best friend"

​The intensity with which Oklahoman Parker Millsap sings is matched by very few. “Hands Up,” about an Iraq War veteran holding up a gas station because he can’t afford to feed his children, is proof of this. The vocal is stirring from start to finish and the lyrics show that Millsap can get into the heads of his characters and write fully-fledged story songs with the best of them. 

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66. "Vice" by Miranda Lambert (2016)

"Steady as a needle dropping on a vinyl/Neon singer with a jukebox title full of heartbreak/33, 45, 78/When it hurts this good you gotta play it twice/Another vice"

​The entire fan-base of country music was waiting on pins and needles for the return of Miranda Lambert after her divorce from fellow country star Blake Shelton and what the response to that would be in song. “Vice” was that response, and it was very personal and revealing – even from a songwriter who isn’t afraid to be personal and revealing. The lyrics roll off of Lambert’s tongue so deliciously, proving why she won so many consecutive Female Vocalist of the Year awards from the CMAs. 

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65. "Ramon Casiano" by Drive-By Truckers (2016)

"The killing's been the bullet's business/Since back in 1931/Someone killed Ramon Casiano/And Ramon still ain't dead enough"

​“Ramon Casiano” is hard-charging Southern Rock at its best and includes some important and pointed messages about gun culture and immigration within it. The song, off the Drive-By Truckers’ critically-acclaimed and politically-inspired 2016 release American Band, is a true tale about a Mexican teenager who was murdered in Texas near the Mexico border in 1931 and how the man who killed him would not only go on to serve no prison time, but lead the National Rifle Association. White privilege indeed. 

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64. "Kate McCannon" by Colter Wall (2017)

"Well the raven is a wicked bird/His wings are black as sin/And he floats outside my prison window/Mocking those within/And he sing to me real love/It's Hell to where you go/For you did murder Kate McCannon"

​At one point the murder ballad was a staple of country and Appalachian music. It’s long since fallen by the wayside, probably because singing about murdering someone – often women – isn’t exactly PC. But Canadian throwback folkie Colter Wall brought the murder ballad back with a vengeance this year on his self-titled debut album with the story of “Kate McCannon,” a woman the narrator of the song dearly loved but caught cheating. We all know what must happen next and Wall’s baritone and sparse production perfectly captures the story. 

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63. "The Joke" by Brandi Carlile (2018)

"Let 'em laugh while they can/Let 'em spin, let 'em scatter in the wind/I have been to the movies, I've seen how it ends/And the joke's on them"

​Brandi Carlile’s “The Joke” would make the perfect song for an anti-bullying campaign. The emotional song about being yourself and forgetting about and ignoring the haters is a soaring anthem with a powerhouse vocal by Carlile. It’s a perfect song for today’s world. Carlile told NPR: “There are so many people feeling misrepresented. So many people feeling unloved. Boys feeling marginalized and forced into this kind of awkward shapes or masculinity that they do or don’t belong in. Little girls who got so excited for the last election and are dealing with the fallout. The song is just for people that feel under-represented, unloved or illegal.”

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62. "Cabinet Door" by Anderson East (2018)

"Jason and Margaret they're expecting one more/You'd be happy to know I fixed that cabinet door"

​Anderson East’s “Cabinet Door” was the biggest tearjerker of 2018 and will rip your heart right out of your chest with its story of an elderly widowed man trying to adjust to life without his love of 52 years. Every single line of this song is devastating, but the one that truly gets me the most as a baseball fan is how he misses watching the Atlanta Braves (my favorite team) games with his wife. It’s one of the best representations of grief I’ve ever heard. 

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61. "Tough Folks" by American Aquarium (2018)

“Life ain’t fair/saddle up, boy, and see it through/tough times don’t last/but tough folks do”

​“Tough Folks” is a political song, but it’s not one that points fingers at anybody or casts blame. American Aquarium’s B.J. Barham sings: “Last November I saw firsthand what desperation makes good people do,” referring to the 2016 election of President Donald Trump and how many believed or at least hoped the election of a “non-politician” would lead to some actual change. Barham sings: “Life ain’t fair/saddle up, boy, and see it through/tough times don’t last/but tough folks do.” That’s a modern day John Mellencamp sentiment if I’ve ever heard one. We’ll get through this. 

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