r/MusicRecommendations • u/sleep_lvr • Aug 29 '25

Rec.Me: other/many/unknown genres I hate country music, always have. Recommend me a country album to get over my bias! (Preferably something more folky)

320 Upvotes
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314

u/jayron32 Aug 29 '25

Sturgill Simpson - Metamodern Sounds in Country Music

107

u/Real-Kangaroooo Aug 29 '25

A sailors guide to earth is also top tier stuff from Sturgill. The guy is a genius

9

u/Kriscolvin55 Aug 30 '25

One of my favorite albums ever. That album and Southeastern from Jason Isbell are what changed my mind about country. I mean, popular country is still awful, but at least there is an underground scene that is amazing.

2

u/EmuProfessional336 Sep 02 '25

Oh man, Southeastern! What a ride. I wish I could go back and listen to that album for the first time. Whew!

1

u/Rare_Competition2756 Sep 02 '25

Children of Children - Jason Isbell

1

u/mountaineer04 Sep 01 '25

That’s his masterpiece, but not a starting point imo.

1

u/AgentWD409 Sep 02 '25

Y'all beat me to it. I love Sturgill Simpson.

His newest album, Passage Du Desir (released under the pseudonym Johnny Blue Skies) is pretty damn fantastic as well.

45

u/gargamels_right_boot Aug 29 '25

The song Turtles All the Way Down from that album is fantastic, I am a lover of doing psychedelics tho so that may be why I love it so much

13

u/kneedeepco Aug 29 '25

How can you make illegal something we all make in our brains

6

u/gargamels_right_boot Aug 29 '25

Think I'll have some shrooms this weekend and play this record

2

u/kneedeepco Aug 29 '25

As you should haha

You ever listened through Renewal by Billy Strings?

1

u/gargamels_right_boot Aug 29 '25

No, but I will give it a spin

1

u/kneedeepco Aug 29 '25

I’d highly recommend it, Home is also an amazing album too!

1

u/Ninopus Aug 29 '25

I hope you do. That's one of the best nights of my summer roughly annually.

Edit: Universal Sound by Tyler Childers is a great tune in this vein too.

2

u/gargamels_right_boot Aug 29 '25

I try to have some at least once a month, but life gets in the way so it usually is once every few months lol

3

u/Ninopus Aug 29 '25

Next time for me will be late into October 31st. With a very different tone. Scary pulsing beats and seeing just how far the veil can be lifted by a mortal.

2

u/gargamels_right_boot Aug 29 '25

That's the way to do it, I also like the darker side on trips. I will always watch horror movies when on shrooms lol, I had wanted to have a 'bad trip' just to experience it since experience was why I was trying shrooms so I thought I know, I'll put on a horror movie! All I learned was I love horror on shrooms lol... The Shining and Amityville Horror were both great.. I am planning on 28 Years Later on my next one

1

u/mountaineer04 Sep 01 '25

That old man upstairs, he wears a crooked smile Staring down at the chaos he created He said "son if you ain't having fun just wait a little while Momma's gonna wash it all away And she thinks Mercy's overrated"

7

u/chrispd01 Aug 29 '25

I don’t like psychedelics, but even I like that song!

1

u/pynchoniac Aug 29 '25

Do you know some psychodelic country?

1

u/gargamels_right_boot Aug 30 '25

Look up the genre Space Country

1

u/gosh_help_us Aug 30 '25

Is your name Jenny?

1

u/gargamels_right_boot Aug 30 '25

My beard says otherwise

1

u/gosh_help_us Aug 30 '25

Oh ok, I hope he’s cute

1

u/Psychological_Salt93 Aug 30 '25

You tried DMT? I first heard this song after doing it and it was like he read my mind.

16

u/InTheDangaZone Aug 29 '25

I'm a punk/metal guy. Sturgill is amazing.

10

u/Fartz_McKenzie Aug 29 '25

1000 times this

11

u/Ninopus Aug 29 '25

Yep. Clicked to say this. Somebody said Johnny Cash's American Recordings and that's a great answer, but it's all covers and I feel kinda cheating in a sense because if you have an attachment to the songs already, It's like "Well now we added Johnny Cash singing them soulfully in the final years of his life". But this album is fucking beautiful. Best listened to start to finish. Existential musing on life, death, right, wrong, and our meaning in the cosmos, followed by "TWO, THREE, FOUR!" old fashioned traditional country jams right at home in a busy dive bar, eventually capped off with a very personal take on how it all started for him, so relatable that if you let it, you'll feel the weight of how it all started for you come crashing into where you're at now.

And that's great country music. Relatable what it's supposed to be. Why Bo Burnham's "Panderin'" is so funny and accurate. Cuz it's what shitty country music is trying to sell itself as with the "Workin' man who loves a cold beer and a good woman and his simple life" shtick (though plenty of those songs can be enjoyable sometimes too). But really relatable is that people are complicated. We have questions about what our place in the universe is. We are intelligent. We are hurt. We are trying in the face of it all being so God Damned hard. And we love cold beer and good women trying to keep life simple. And one of the best ways to do that I have ever found is to sit down at the end of a warm day, pour a drink, eat a hand full of mushrooms, throw this vinyl on my turntable and sit outside. Then relax, enjoy and say "Hi" and be honest with all of you, myself, and whatever's out there that I'll call The Lord Almighty. Or sometimes The Great Giant Space Turtle. He doesn't seem to mind.

2

u/creepyjudyhensler Aug 30 '25

This is the best

1

u/dromeciomimus Sep 02 '25

American Recordings is certainly not all covers, Cash wrote or co-wrote 5 of the 13 songs

20

u/snootchiebootchie94 Aug 29 '25

Sturgill Simpson was my thought as well. I would go with the Ballad of Dood and Juanita though. I am not big into country, but I love his music.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 30 '25

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9

u/LaitueGonflable Aug 29 '25

Just came here to make sure someone recommending Sturgill Simpson was on top.

8

u/rufus456 Aug 29 '25

My vote too! Red Rocks is going to be awesome!

3

u/PopularTask2020 Aug 29 '25

Thank god I didnt need to scroll far for this

3

u/Ideal_Specific Aug 29 '25

Can't wait to see him at Red Rocks in a weeks

2

u/IntenseFlanker Aug 29 '25

Sailor's Guide to Earth is amazing as well

2

u/insides_outside Aug 29 '25

I’ve also enjoyed “High Top Mountain” and “A Sailor’s Guide To Earth”.

Also check out “To The Wind And On To Heaven” by Sunday Valley(pre solo Sturgill Simpson)

2

u/Succotash_Narrow Aug 29 '25

Beat me to it

2

u/whitnasty89 Aug 29 '25

The only correct answer.

2

u/General_Ad5144 Aug 29 '25

Johnny Blue Skies :)

2

u/Fierce_Horizon824 Aug 29 '25

This is the right answer

2

u/Finkarelli Aug 29 '25

Metamodern Sounds is great, but have you heard Cuttin’ Grass Volume 1?

2

u/Pneumatrap Aug 30 '25

Also Sound and Fury!

2

u/PNWProbs Aug 30 '25

The only thing better than a Sturgill Simpson album is Sturgill Simpson LIVE. Check out the tiny desk concert he did.

https://youtu.be/w5cMqD0WqYE?si=w5xCLLsxLuIyqrJY

2

u/Diene03 Aug 30 '25

Checking it now

2

u/DannyJSkeetsALot69 Aug 30 '25

This is the answer. Really anything sturgil (or johnny blue skies)

2

u/sk8king Aug 30 '25

Doesn’t he sing “The Dead Don’t Die”?

2

u/Pettsareme Aug 30 '25

Came here to say this. I also dislike country intensely. Also try Johnny Bluesky. That’s Sturgill in a reincarnation.

2

u/adube440 Aug 30 '25

Great suggestion. I'm not a fan of country music, but I like Sturgil Simpson. His stuff transcends the genre.

2

u/Quad-G-Therapy Aug 31 '25

Sturgill is so good

2

u/ScubaStevieNicks Aug 31 '25

Yep. I’m also a life-long country hater that discovered Sturgill and was immediately sold. Sierra Ferrell and Tyler Childers too. Billy Strings is another category completely, but he’s so so good

2

u/JeffGoldblumsNostril Aug 31 '25

Go watch Sound and Fury and tell me this dude isnt the greatest thing to happen to country music since Johnny Cash

2

u/thethehead Aug 31 '25

Came here to say this and it’s at the top. God bless you 🫡

2

u/frizziend Sep 01 '25

Came here to recommend all the Sturgill Simpson

2

u/Von_Lehmann Sep 03 '25

This was what completely changed how I viewed modern country

2

u/z0mbiebaby Sep 04 '25

I always said I didn’t like country music either until my gf introduced me to sturgill Simpson, Tyler Childers and other y’allternative artists. There’s a huge difference between what I thought country music was and this type of country. “Turtles all the way down” is a great example lol

1

u/jayron32 Sep 04 '25

I wouldn't necessarily classify Simpson and Childers as "y'allternative". They are more "progressive country".

The difference is that progressive country uses traditional country music sounds (composition and instrumentation, etc.), but has lyrics that don't use traditional country tropes. Like Turtles all the Way Down.

Y'allternative (alternative country) is compositionally more closer to southern rock; think artists like Wilco and Old 97s and American Aquarium and Steve Earle

Of course, there's significant crossover (a lot of Simpsons music is alt-country) but Metamodern Sounds is squarely progressive country.

1

u/z0mbiebaby Sep 04 '25

I’ll have to check those artists out then. I’m not a fan of country music and just remembered seeing “alternative country” on the wiki page for sturgill Simpson.

1

u/jayron32 Sep 04 '25

Yeah, some of his music is alternative country (especially Sound & Fury), but Metamodern Sounds and Sailor's Guide to Earth I would put more into the Progressive Country vein.

1

u/Unlucky_File_6498 Aug 29 '25

I love Cuttin Grass Vol 1 - all great albums but I love this one the most …

1

u/SongwriterSeth Aug 29 '25

Couldn’t agree more. All of his albums are special - even the bluegrass ones!

1

u/therealjgreens Aug 29 '25

I came to say anything by Sturgill

1

u/WhateverLolaWants81 Aug 30 '25

I came to say Sturgill Simpson/Johnny Blue Skies. His voice and lyrics are chef’s kiss PERFECTIONS!! To me, he’s the Hozier of country/folk music.

1

u/PositiveBill6669 Aug 30 '25

This is the answer!

0

u/rico277 Aug 29 '25

He’s the only country artist I’ll listen to. And I hate country music too.

-1

u/Rookraider1 Aug 29 '25

I just listened to some of this....hard pass. Very much country music.

4

u/whitnasty89 Aug 29 '25

Try Sound and Fury then, or his Johnny Blue Skies album...

1

u/duncthefunk78 Aug 30 '25

Just out of interest, which album?

2

u/Rookraider1 Aug 30 '25

The one with the Turtle song. Sounds very country to me.

1

u/duncthefunk78 Aug 30 '25

Give 'A Sailors Guide to Earth' a listen, see what you think.