Also, I caught The Mountain Stage on my local NPR station on the ride home today and heard a great set from Dierks Bentley. I've not listened to much country, but I realized that since I love bluegrass, folk, americana, southern rock, even weirder stuff like polka and zydeco, why shouldn't I like country?
TBH, his set with the McCourys was mostly bluegrass, but it really blew me away, even the slower ballads like Down in the Mine from his last LP.
Any suggestions for other new country artists I might enjoy? I also really like Caitlin Rose.
rawarr, I'm looking at you.
Uh, well the last time I went through a pop country phase was my senior year of high school. Dierks is about as good as you're going to get in that realm. Brad Paisley can play his instruments really fucking well, even if some of his songs are totally corny.
A lot of what I listen to these days is "country" music, but really falls somewhere in the folk/americana/alt country realm. In other words, if I told some stranger I listen to country, that would be true, but that stranger would likely assume I like the pop stuff about tractors and saving horses by riding cowboys.
Since you've been sniffing around this stuff for a while, I can throw some random names out I've been listening to lately that's in the country/folk/americana/blues/southern rock type realm:
Ryan Bingham -- must have in my book, my favorite new artist of the past couple years. Wrote the theme to the movie Crazy Heart and won some film awards for it. Get all three major releases and listen to them in order to get a feel for his music, the latest album might be his best work all around but doesn't represent the rest of his catalogue as well. If you want more pure country feel, look around for Wishbone Saloon, Poor Boy's Amen, or Dead Horses... albums that are floating around from before his first label release.
Ry Cooder -- good classic artist, not really country per se but the sounds are there.
Justin Townes Earle -- americana type stuff, not crazy about it but you might like it
Townes van Zandt -- absolute classic folk/country songwriting
Chatham County Line -- bluegrass group out of Raleigh
Chuck Prophet -- another I'm not crazy about, but got his album from Wake Radio last year... country feel
Drive-by Truckers -- lots of southern rock, but they also mix in some country style numbers. Mike Cooley and Jason Isbell's songs in particular. I love this band and their songwriting and their range is excellent. Almost impossible to pick any one album to suggest, but if you want a feel for the range of their music, start with Brighter Than Creation's Dark. Southern Rock Opera - Decoration Day - The Dirty South is sort of the southern rock triumvirate and are all excellent albums. The earlier albums don't have the same quality songwriting, but are great in their own way of watching the band evolve. Their first album, Gangstabilly, is probably the most country sounding overall, but you'll find some country sounding numbers scattered throughout the catalgoue. For example, their last album (Go-Go Boots) is dominated by a bluesy-soul rock feel, but Mike Cooley's songs on the record are all pure country acoustic (see links). I have a crush on Cooley because he writes some damn good songs and lyrics.
http://youtu.be/NzG4PaInROU
http://youtu.be/Qn48mHQlWh8
http://youtu.be/b_-TXA7IVi0
Other names I can think of... The Flatlanders are classic country, Joe Ely, Gram Parsons.. John Prine is a well known songwriter in the americana mold... North Mississippi Allstars for some southern rock.
That's all I can think of off the top of my head that's sort of in the area I think you're looking for.