100 Best Americana & Country Songs of the Decade: Part 7 (#40-31)

by Julian Spivey

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

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40. "You Never Really Knew My Mind" by Chris Cornell (2018)

"I know you feel the way I change/But you can't change the way I feel/Sometimes I'm a stranger to you"

​It saddens me that one of the best songs of 2018 is a collaboration between two musical legends who are no longer with us. The song is “You Never Really Knew My Mind” performed by Chris Cornell (of grunge rock legends Soundgarden fame) and written as a long unpublished poem by Johnny Cash. It’s not the first time Cornell and Cash have been linked. Cash included a terrific cover of Soundgarden’s “Rusty Cage” on one of his American Recordings releases in the ‘90s. Cash wrote the poem in 1967 and after hearing Cornell’s take on the song, I just can’t imagine anybody else performing it. Cornell gets the emotion of the words perfectly and conveys them in one of the year’s best vocals. I hope somewhere Cornell and Cash are collaborating in person. 

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39. "Every Girl" by Turnpike Troubadours (2010)

"Her voice it is a melody that sings just like a bird/Oh she's every song I've ever heard/And her heartbeat is a rhythm that commands her every word/Aw she's every song I've ever heard"

​The way songwriter Evan Felker weaves the lyrics to create perfect verse after perfect verse in “Every Girl,” off the Turnpike Troubadours’ 2010 album Diamonds & Gasoline, still stuns me all these years later. Felker has a knack of writing great female characters that you just dream of knowing or being with in real life. “Every Girl” is a good example of the Troubadours all-around talents as a band with the steady, chugging guitar by Ryan Engelman, the propulsive fiddle of Kyle Nix and just an all-around urgency that makes the band’s records sound like live performances and their live performances feel like honky tonk heaven on earth.  

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38. "Give Me Back My Hometown" by Eric Church (2014)

"My friends try to cheer me up/Get together at the Pizza Hut/I didn't have the heart to tell them that was our place"

​The longing and hurt in the vocal by Eric Church on 2014’s “Give Me Back My Hometown” is certainly one of the best vocals of his career. There’s a real hurt you can hear in this song about a man, living in his small-town and how this once great experience for him has been tainted by the end of a relationship, because he literally can’t go anywhere or do anything without being reminded of this love. "

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37. "Macon" by Jamey Johnson (2010)

"I gotta get back to Macon/Love all night"

​“Macon,” off Jamey Johnson’s The Guitar Song from 2010, should’ve been a major mainstream country hit (it wasn’t even released as a single), but Johnson’s third studio album (an excellent double album at that) just didn’t receive much airplay period. This was around the start of country radio’s downward turn and Johnson just had too much great songwriting in his stuff for them. “Macon” has a great double entendre as “I gotta get back to Macon/makin’ love all night” serves as not only the narrator’s hometown, but also his intentions. Johnson hasn’t released an album of new original material since this release, now a decade ago, and that’s probably the biggest cause of ongoing country music hurt for me personally. 

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36. "What it Means" by Drive-By Truckers (2016)

"Our heroes may be rapists/Who watch us while we dream/But don't look to me for answers/'Cause I don't know what it means"

​Probably the most important song in the Americana or country music genres in 2016 was the Drive By Truckers’ “What It Means” off of their excellent American Band album. The song is basically a synopsis of many of the troubles facing the country at the time, like racism, police brutality, gun violence, etc. It’s unabashedly political with references to the shootings of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Mo. and Trayvon Martin in Florida and it might come as a surprise to some of the following of this exalted Southern Rock band. It’s a song that is designed to make some listeners feel uncomfortable and if you’re one of them you probably should ask yourself, “what it means?”

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35. "Second Hand Heart" by Dwight Yoakam (2015)

"She said when I trusted love I dreamed in color too"

​For Dwight Yoakam’s 2015 release Second Hand Heart he decided to meld the musical styles of his 2012 critically-acclaimed album 3 Pears with his ‘80s cowpunk and it left fans and critics smiling from ear-to-ear. The title track was the real highlight from the album with its tale of broken hearts not wanting to jump back into the game of love because they’ve been beaten and broken by it too many times. It’s also one of the coolest sounding tracks of the decade due to Yoakam’s trademark twang.

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34. "Something More Than Free" by Jason Isbell (2015)

"When I get home from work/I'll wrestle off my clothes/And leave 'em right inside the front door/'Cause nobody's home to know"

​Jason Isbell’s follow up to his 2013 stunner Southeastern turned out to be noticeably more upbeat and optimistic than the somber release that appeared on many “best of” two years before, but everybody seemed to love it just as much. The title track “Something More Than Free” showed the world that this Americana darling could write something more country and true-to-life than any of those hacks releasing records in mainstream Nashville. “Something More Than Free” is a true working man’s anthem and something we should all try to strive for. 

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33. "Drivin'" by Robert Ellis (2016)

"“Oh I just wish you’d go to bed/Without the expectation that I’ll come up there and say/Something to help you feel like things aren’t such a mess/I’ll just sweep the floor and clean the desk/Put up the dishes and then fold some clothes I guess”

​Robert Ellis is such a literary lyricist that his songs frequently blow me away. My favorite song off of his brilliant self-titled album in 2016 is “Drivin’.” It’s a song about the monotony of being in a relationship that’s dead, but not over. It seems simplistic at first, as most great country songs frequently do, but has the ability to blow you away with a verse like: “Oh I just wish you’d go to bed/Without the expectation that I’ll come up there and say/Something to help you feel like things aren’t such a mess/I’ll just sweep the floor and clean the desk/Put up the dishes and then fold some clothes I guess.” Who writes like that? Thankfully Robert Ellis does. 

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32. "S.O.B." by Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats (

“Son of a bitch/give me a drink/One more drink/This can’t be me/Son of a bitch/If I can’t get clean/I’m gonna drink my life away.”

​The first time I heard “S.O.B.” by Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats the song and especially the performance of it frankly knocked me on my ass. It was on an episode of “The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon” and it was the first time I’d ever heard of this group. It was eye opening; exactly what I needed to hear at the time. Rateliff’s performance on this track is a force to be reckoned with, especially when he first lights into the line: “Son of a bitch/give me a drink/One more drink/This can’t be me/Son of a bitch/If I can’t get clean/I’m gonna drink my life away.” Rateliff’s performance, especially in person, makes drunkenness seem like a blast. 

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31. "Irene (Ravin' Bomb)" by Ian Noe (2019)

"Took down all my mirrors/I gave away all my rope and guns/Drowned the darkest time with some rotgut wine/and my faithful M*A*S*H re-runs"

​Ian Noe burst upon the scene this year with his debut release Between the Country and I was immediately flabbergasted when I heard the song “Irene (Ravin’ Bomb)” from this Kentuckian, who I hope will see as much success as his fellow statesmen like Sturgill Simpson and Tyler Childers have. Seemingly one of the many Americana singers who looked up to John Prine this is an immediate classic about a strung out, down-on-her-luck woman who’s barely scraping by in life with her rotgut wine and “M*A*S*H re-runs (I truly love that bit of pop culture referencing). The titular Irene is the kind of woman you can see right before you thanks to Noe’s realistic songwriting, but the kind of woman you’re thankful isn’t in your life. Noe is only 29-years old, but there’s a maturity and literariness about his work that’s well above his years.