Top 5 Country songs to play acoustically...
 

I'm increasingly becoming enamored with country music. I've always loved the Grateful Dead's " cowboy tunes" and now I've been getting into more and more country artists. It started with Dwight Yoakam's acoustic disc. Since then I've gotten into Keith Urban, Kenny Chesney and most recently I've fallen hard for a couple tunes that I saw on the Country Music Awards broadcast. Here's my current top 5 for both playing and singing:

1) In Color - Jamey Johnson
2) Troubadour - George Strait
3) Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven - Kenny Chesney
4) I Go Back - Kenny Chesney
5) A Long Way Home - Dwight Yoakam

Any suggestions on more fun ones to play and sing?

Not everybody's cup of tea but "Oh My Sweet Carolina" by Ryan Adams is pretty cool song. Especially if you are doing acoustic solo.

My advice would be to check out Hayes Carll immediately. "Trouble in Mind" is a good place to start. Great songs and fun to play. All of his stuff is great and he puts on a heck of a show IMHO.

I promise I will not start a fight over the definition of "country" and who is country and who is ... hot country

I promise....

'I Can't Help It (if I'm Still in Love with You)'. - Hank Williams. Though I first heard this beautiful cover version by Kim and Kelley Deal of The Breeders. (I'm not claiming Kim's guitar playing is beautiful!:D)

'Banks of the Ohio'. - Traditional. First heard on 'Joan Baez Vol. 2' (I didn't realise for a long time that a lot of the songs on that album are from the country tradition. I thought country music was Billy Ray Cyrus's 'Achy Breaky Heart'...)

'Coalminer's Daughter'. - Loretta Lynn.

'I Am A Pilgrim'. - Traditional. There's a fantastic bluesy Clarence White version on his '33 Acoustic Guitar Instrumentals' CD. There's a video of him playing it about ten years later, with a completely different feel to it: Clarence White playing 'I Am A Pilgrim'. Beautiful playing, delicate and imaginative.

And, although I'm not all that keen on Alt-Country, I think 'Weightless Again', by the Handsome Family, is a superb song. Fantastic lyrics.

James

Johnny Horton's "Honky Tonk Man" was always a fun acoustic cover for me.
Nashville Bluegrass Bands "Brand New Tennnessee Waltz" from their first record

That's probably for the best! :D

Country music has minimal commercial presence over here, although I did notice Taylor Swift's album was on sale in my local supermarket's tiny CD section, so she must be breaking through here. (I'd heard of her when someone started a thread about her on the AGF a while ago.)

One of the pleasures of that lack of commerical presence (and of me being a foreigner) has been that I've been able to disover country music largely by myself, one new find leading on to the next. A huge range of music that I didn't know existed, stretching from oral tradition, to Hank Williams' blues rhythms, to the sophisticated songwriting of 60s Nashville, to country-rock. It's not a tradition I was born to, so I can just enjoy the music I like and pass on the rest.

James

Small Town Saturday Night by Hal Ketchum... simple and effective. Most people can relate to it a bit.

I like STUPID BOY by Keith Urban
I even like our own AGF members version of it better!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntzPjx-FdVE

Pancho and lefty...

Sammy

I enjoy playing Long Hard Road by the Dirt Band. Nothing fancy but it kind of speaks to me.

We play instrumental versions of:

Crazy,

Your Cheating Heart

Cold Cold heart

Trambone

See you in my Dreams

Pilgram

Deep RIver BLues

Copper Kettle

FOur Leaf clover

Dance of the Goldenrod

San Antonio Rose

Don't get around much anymore

Pan Handle Rag

Anytime

Lonesome Road

Take Me Home Country Roads - John Denver
Back Home Again - John Denver

Wow, that's pretty tough.

I imagine many if not most country songs are written with an acoustic guitar.

There are a lot of good acoustic country songs.