Dave's Music Database Hall of Fame: Albums (Nov. 2021)

Originally posted 11/22/2021. January 22, 2019 marked the 10-year anniversary of the DMDB blog. To honor that, Dave’s Music Database announced its own Hall of Fame. This month marks the twelfth group of album inductees. These are classic country albums, excluding previous inductee At Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash. By “classic” I mean that the focus is on albums before 1990. Modern country will be represented down the line. See the full list of album inductees here.

Hank Williams 40 Greatest Hits (compilation: 1947-53, released 1978) Inducted November 2021 as “Classic Country Albums.”

Country legend Hank “Williams lived fast and worked fast, too, recording relentlessly from 1947 until his alcohol-related death in 1953. This compilation shows how craft transcended the demon booze. Of these 40 hits, more than a quarter topped the country charts.” BL “As a one-stop shopping place for Hank’s basic repertoire, 40 Greatest Hits is as good as it gets.” MD Read more.

Ray Charles Modern Sounds in Country & Western Music (1962) Inducted November 2021 as “Classic Country Albums.”

When Ray Charles left ABC-Paramount for Atlantic Records in 1959, he was a well-established R&B singer rooted in the gospel tradition. The move gave him artistic freedom, which he immediately tested when he opted to record an album of cover songs. The record company thought it was a joke and critics were certain it would destroy Charles’ career. It became the biggest success of his career, spending 14 weeks at #1 on the album chart. Read more.

Patsy Cline 12 Greatest Hits (compilation: 1957-63, released 1973) Inducted November 2021 as “Classic Country Albums.”

Patsy Cline was only 30 years old when she died in a plane crash in 1963. Despite her short career, she has been celebrated as “one of the greatest singers in country music history” AMG thanks to gems like I Fall to Pieces, Crazy, and She’s Got You. Ten years after her death, she became the first female performer inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. This collection of her biggest hits became the first album by a female country artist to go double platinum. By 2005, the album was certified for diamond, or ten-times platinum. Despite the massive sales, the album has never charted on the Billboard album chart. Read more.

The Byrds Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968) Inducted November 2021 as “Classic Country Albums.”

The Byrds are one of the most important band’s in the history of American music. In the latter half of the ‘60s, they were at the forefront of the folk-rock movement, then psychedelic rock, and finally country-rock. The latter owed much to Chris Hillman recruiting Gram Parsons. His previous group, the International Submarine Band, is credited with the “the first bona fide country-rock album” WK “but with its gorgeous three-way harmonies and sweet pedal steel, [Rodeo] remains the best.” DC The album served “as a blueprint… for the entire nascent 1970s Los Angeles country-rock movement.” WK Read more.

The Flying Burrito Brothers The Gilded Palace of Sin (1969) Inducted November 2021 as “Classic Country Albums.”

After the Byrds created the template for country rock with Sweetheart of the Rodeo, Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman formed the Flying Burrito Brothers and created another of “the finest and most influential albums the genre would ever produce.” MD John Firminger of Country Music Review said the album “quite clearly stands as a complete definition of the term country rock.” WK Read more.

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band Will the Circle Be Unbroken (1972) Inducted November 2021 as “Classic Country Albums.”

The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band “was a young…band with a hippie look” WK “known for their country-rock and jug band music.” NRR They dreamed up an all-star country project that would “tie together two generations of musicians” WK including Roy Acuff, Mother Maybelle Carter, Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis, Doc Watson, and others. The album “introduced acoustic country music to a new generation of audiences and revived the careers of several of the guest performers.” NRR Read more.

Gram Parsons Grievous Angel (1974) Inducted November 2021 as “Classic Country Albums.”

Parsons became “the patron saint of alt-country” MD from his work with International Submarine Band, the Byrds, and Flying Burrito Brothers before a pair of solo albums. The latter, Grievous Angel, was released after Parsons died of a drug overdose at age 26 in 1973. It infused…cosmic tang with melancholy soul, breathing new life into both country and rock & roll.” BL The duet with Emmylou Harris on Love Hurts is “so quietly impassioned and delicately beautiful that it’s enough to make you forget Roy Orbison ever recorded it.” MD Read more.

Willie Nelson Red-Headed Stranger (1975) Inducted November 2021 as “Classic Country Albums.”

Wille Nelson had been a fixture on the country charts since 1962, but he didn’t reach #1 until 1975 with Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain from Red Headed Stranger. The concept album tells the story of a renegade “preacher on the run after murdering his departed wife and her new lover.” AMG It is “perhaps is the strangest blockbuster country produced.” AMG It sounds “like a tale told around a cowboy campfire.” AMG It made Nelson an international superstar and remade his image as that of a country music outlaw. Read more.

Kenny Rogers Greatest Hits (compilation: 1969-80, released 1980) Inducted November 2021 as “Classic Country Albums.”

Prior to 1977, Kenny Rogers had never gone higher than #19 on the country charts. However, “Lucille” changed that, giving him his first of 21 #1 country songs. Seven of those, including “The Gambler,” “She Believes in Me,” “You Decorated My Life,” “Coward of the County,” and “Lady,” are featured on this collection alongside other early favorites as “Ruby, Don’t Take Your Love to Town” and “Reuben James.” Read more.

Alabama Greatest Hits (compilation: 1980-86, released 1986) Inducted November 2021 as “Classic Country Albums.”

In the first half of the ‘80s, Alabama landed 18 #1 songs atop the country chart on their way to becoming the most successful act in the history of the genre. Only seven of those chart-toppers are gathered here on this, their first compilation, and two albums (The Closer You Get, Roll On) from this era are inexplicably overlooked completely. Still, this set offers a fantastic overview of the band’s most successful years. Read more.