100 Best Americana & Country Songs of the Decade: Part 8 (#30-21)

by Julian Spivey

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

---

30. "Life Ain't Fair and the World Is Mean" by Sturgill Simpson (2013)

“The most outlaw thing I’ve ever done was give a good woman a ring”

​The title “Life Ain’t Fair & the World is Mean” off Sturgill Simpson’s debut solo album High Top Mountain in 2013 is the perfect way to some up country music in the decade. The great stuff was hard to find and certainly not in the mainstream – and this song kind of gets at the reasons why because true artistry can’t just be bottled and sold because it can’t be easily harnessed by the suits. One of my absolute favorite lyrics of the decade is: “the most outlaw thing I’ve ever done was give a good woman a ring.” That is pretty outlaw. 

---

29. "Ho Hey" by The Lumineers (2012)

"I belong with you/You belong with me/You're my sweetheart"

​It’s not often that something in the folk/Americana world can take the pop world by storm, but that’s exactly what happened with “Ho Hey” by The Lumineers in 2012. The Lumineers were riding the wave of pop-indie-folk led by British band Mumford & Sons, but in my opinion were actually doing a better job at crafting stories and have done a better job since of remaining true to themselves. The Lumineers certainly craft earworms that get stuck in your head and stay there, and “Ho Hey” was the first and possibly greatest of these, but they aren’t just catchy little ditties, as they often get into the intricacies of relationships with a bit more substance than typical top-40 tunes. 

---

28. "Thoughts & Prayers" by Will Hoge (2018)

"Why don't you do your job up there/And keep your thoughts and prayers"

​It’s incredibly unfortunate, but Will Hoge’s “Thoughts & Prayers” might be the song that most summarizes the world we currently live in. It’s a track about the bullshit line politicians seem to throw out every time there’s a mass shooting in this country – which is seemingly a monthly thing these days. Hoge says what many of us in this country are thinking: “we don’t give a damn about your thoughts and prayers.” Maybe one of these days the politicians who make the laws for this country will care more about human life than receiving money from the National Rifle Association, but until that glorious day comes, we’ll need songs like “Thoughts & Prayers” by artists like Will Hoge. 

---

27. "Dearly Departed Friend" by Old Crow Medicine Show (2014)

"There's only one road leads out of this town and it comes right back/So I just drive in circles, circles, and I try not to blow my stack"

​Old Crow Medicine Show’s Ketch Secor is brilliant when it comes to writing realistic tales of human suffering and sacrifice and just life. “Dearly Departed Friend,” from 2014’s Remedy, is a tale too many men and women who’ve come back from war have felt when they have to stand by the graveside of a comrade who’s passed too soon. The little things are captured so well in this track like all the grieving soldiers flinching at the sound of a truck backfiring and the annoyance at the deceased friend’s mother’s new boyfriend. Then you get to the awful loneliness of small-town living in the final verse and how it’s something that may have pushed one into preferring to fight overseas to begin with. It’s just pure poetry by O.C.M.S. 

---

26. "Mr. Misunderstood" by Eric Church (2015)

"Your buddies get their rocks off on Top-40 radio/But you love your daddy's vinyl, old-time rock & roll/Elvis Costello, Ray Wylie Hubbard and think Jeff Tweedy is one bad mother"

​Eric Church is one of the few mainstream country stars worth paying any attention to and he surprised the country music world this November with a surprise album released on the day of the CMA Awards. The album’s title track “Mr. Misunderstood” is a killer track that speaks to an entire generation of misfits who feel like outcasts because they don’t listen to the same music or like the same things that the populous does. The name-drops on this track of Elvis Costello, Ray Wylie Hubbard and Jeff Tweedy are particularly exciting and leave many realizing Church ain’t like the other wannabe badasses in Nashville. He’s the real thing. 

---

25. "Another Nightmare in America" by Cory Branan (2017)

"A tattered flag is crimson with a blood that can't be wrong/Take one last drag of night air/Cinch that blackness in a lung/As we hoist another nigtmare"

​Sometimes the best way to call something horrible out is to put yourself in the shoes of those doing the horrible. Cory Branan decided to take on one of the biggest social injustices facing this country – the shooting of unarmed black men by police – by placing himself in the shoes of the police for “Another Nightmare in America.” It’s a brutal recording about a brutal subject and one of the most important releases of 2017. The singer-songwriter from Memphis has been brand alt-country or folk, but “Another Nightmare in America” has a much-needed punk streak about it with keys that remind me of Elvis Costello’s “Radio Radio” and an “Oh say can you see” chant at the end reminiscent of some of Green Day’s finest work. 

---

24. "Girl Goin' Nowhere" by Ashley McBryde (2018)

"It took a whole lot of yes I wills and I don't care/A whole lot of basement dives and county fairs/To this show right now and y'all sure look good out there/Not bad for a girl goin' nowhere"

One of the greatest country music moments of 2018 was when singer-songwriter Ashley McBryde made her Grand Ole Opry debut and performed the driven-to-succeed anthem “Girl Goin’ Nowhere,” which she wrote when a teacher back home in Arkansas told her to quit her far-fetched dreams of being a songwriter. Thankfully McBryde has a stubborn streak and boy did she ever make it big in 2018 with her debut album Girl Goin’ Nowhere. As she sings that’s “not bad for a girl goin’ nowhere.” 

---

23. "The Mercury" by Turnpike Troubadours (2015)

"Girl, I know you're gonna wreck this town/Won't you tell me where to be when the walls start falling"

​The Turnpike Troubadours are the best band currently in country music. Period. Not only does their sound perfectly capture a raucous Saturday night jam session, but front-man Evan Felker has proven himself to be something of a William Faulkner-esque songwriter when it comes to capturing the complexities and minute details of small town living. “The Mercury” is prime example of this. Felker captures the tumultuous relationship of Lorrie and Jimmy and somehow finds his narrator right in the middle of a love triangle. The Troubadours are at their best when Felker puts a complete short story to music and his story is driven home hard here with probably the most rocking country song released this year. It’s infectious as hell. 

---

22. "Yvette" by Jason Isbell (2013)

"I might not be a man yet/But that bastard will never be/So I'm cleaning my Weatherby"

​“Yvette” is Jason Isbell’s most underrated masterpiece. It’s almost hidden away at the end of his 2013 career-defining and changing Southeastern album and doesn’t get near the attention it deserves. “Yvette” tells the story of a teenage girl who’s kinda quiet and shy in school and the narrator, a classmate of hers who lives across the street from her house, is the only one who knows her secret because he sees the shadows behind her curtains. It’s a shocking tale of child abuse and getting revenge, but the way Isbell tells and sings it it sounds stunningly beautiful, especially with the slide guitar used throughout. 

---

21. "Welcome to Earth (Pollywog)" by Sturgill Simpson (2016)

"Wish I'd done this 10 years ago/But how could I know/How could I know/That the answer was so easy"

​Sturgill Simpson’s third studio album A Sailor’s Guide to Earth plays out as a letter to his newborn son. That letter (or the album) begins with the introduction into the world “Welcome to Earth (Pollywog),” which sees Simpson get personal and emotional about his firstborn’s entrance into the world. The song also takes on a new sound for Simpson with a horn section, particularly on this song, and a more sort of operatic feel to it that turns midway into something more soulful than we’ve experienced previously from Simpson. It’s an epic beginning to the best country music and Americana album of 2016. 

---