Reccomend me some authentic 60s country...

[thisfall]

I want the true country western sound of the 60s, but don't know of any other artists besides Hank Williams and Johnny Cash.

Who else should I check out?

Ps- They don't have to play a Tele

[RevMike]

Buck Owens
Ray Price
Loretta Lynn
Tammy Wynette
Lefty Frizzell
Don Gibson
Ernest Tubb
Ernie Ford
Johnny Horton
Hank Snow
Skeeter Davis
Jim Reeves

and a gazillion others.

[guitarplayer51]

This is my favorite decade in country music(and I wasn't even born for another 15 years) :D

George Jones
Merle Haggard
Conway Twitty
Connie Smith
Patsy Cline
Ray Price
Buck Owens
Jim Ed Brown
Charley Pride
Portor Wagoner
Hank Snow

And the list goes on and on....
These guys really made true "Country" Music- Steel Guitar, Fiddles, Telecasters all over the place, walking bass lines that made it great for dancing and great lyrics. If you want hear where country tele pickin came from, just listen to the licks that Roy Nicholes and Don Rich where putting out on Merle Haggard and Buck Owens stuff, Chickin Pickin at its best and begining really. Great Stuff!!

[maestrovert]

Jimmy Bryant and Speedy West's white knuckle rides...
Joe Maphis
Merle Travis
Chet Atkins
"HOT" pickers all

[Teletwang]

Not entirely my music of choice but I can easily say that Merle Haggard - Okie From Muskogee (Live) is a favorite of mine. Aside from Merle's occasional "rants", Roy Nichols puts on a clinic.

[Poppatwang]

Faron Young

[ye olde fretmonkey]

Johnny Paycheck's 'Little Darlin' years.


GREAT stuff.

[GopherTele]

Aside from the aforementioned artists, there was plenty of dreck coming out of Nashville in the 60's.

Pick up a compiliation the decades hits and you will find more over-produced krep than honest to God fiddle, steel, tele. Wait, kind of like today's country!

Look at some of the biggest artists of that decade like Sonny James. The guy was a hit machine, but no one ever mentions his name because his records were awful. Kind of like Kenny Chesney.

Who was to blame for the decade's lapse into string arrangements, choral backings and slickness? One of the main proponents of what became known as the Nashville Sound was none other than Chet Atkins. I would like the alt-country crowd to acknowledge this at some point.

This whole dictomy of Old Country Good and New Country Bad is historical revisionism. Country has ALWAYS, ALWAYS had poppy dreck in the mix and the 1960's was no different.

But, this is not the conventional wisdom of those who only remember the good country of the time (Merle, Buck, etc.)

[jpkusa]

Jerry Lee Lewis (on the Smash-Mercury label, not Sun)
Roger Miller (also on Smash-Mercury)
Wynn Stewart
Louvin Brothers (almost bluegrass, but w/electric guitar)

[Jim W]

Sonny James

[popthree]

waylon jennings

edit:well...he may be considered 70's

[DMRoller]

GopherTele wrote

But, this is not the conventional wisdom of those who only remember the good country of the time (Merle, Buck, etc.)

That's human nature about memory anyway. We have the tendency to remember the best/pleasant things and push the rest further down in our memory.

As the song said "A man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest.."

Later.
Dale

[blue metalflake]

If you can get your hands on these two live albums, you'll hear some seriously good stuff.
Buck Owens live in Carnegie Hall - mighty picking by Don & Buck, with a superb version of Buckaroo. The CD version has some extra tracks not on the original vinyl, including some impersonations.
Merle Haggard live in Philadelphia - Think it was called Fighting Side of me. Strangers were small tight unit before he started adding all the extras - Every guy in the band is a master - Roy Nichols superb. Again some impersonations including Cash, Marty Robbins and Buck Owens.
Theres enough in these two to give you some flavour.

[flyingb54]

Buck
Porter
George
Merle
Ray Price
Wynn Stewart
Lefty Frizzell
Web Pierce

[Buckocaster51]

Lot's of good 'uns so far.

I would like to ad Carl Smith to list.

Yeah, I know it is borderline. The bulk of his catalog is from the 50s, but I think he belongs on this list.

How about Jean Shephard?

And then there is Little Jimmie Dickens with "May the Bird of Paradise Fly up Your Nose."

[Stickyfingers]

There was some pretty good music on all of the Texas Troubadors' albums. These were plain steel, guiter, piano, bass, drum and sometimes, but not often, fiddle. Vocals by Cal Smith and Jack Greene, among others, were also featured. The scorching instrumentals and twin work on these recordings are still some of the best around IMO..........

[jpkusa]

BTW, if you get some Johnnie Horton, make sure it's got his early stuff (Honky Tonk Man, One Woman Man, I'm a Comin' Home, etc). Grady Martin is on guitar I believe, and (much like the Luther Perkins sound he was copping) every single lick he plays on that stuff sounds taylor-made for a honkin' Tele.

(That having been said, I don't think Grady was actually playing a Tele on those sessions. Sounds like a P90 to me picked back at the bridge. Anyone know for sure?)

[BladeStratford]

Marty Robbins

Willie Nelson - even though most folks (myself included) prefer his 70's work he wrote and recorded some great music during the 60's as well.

[Mur]

Only listen to two from 60's, Patsy and Hank Snow. 40's and 50's? ..that list would be super long.

[Bandit]

Johnny Cash Bless him, never be another.
Merle Haggard
Conway Twitty
Carl Perkins
Charlie Rich
Buddy Emmons
Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys
David Allen Coe
Earl Scruggs
Del McCoury
Bill Monroe


Mickey Gilley (70's) nice if you have a piano player.
Toby Keith "Honky Tonk U" has a Waylon beat/sound
Hank Williams III "Lovesick Broke and Driftin"

Here's a couple, they aren't all from the 60's though

[Telebaker]

I have not read every responce in detail but I would like to add Johhny Bush to the list.

[cowboytwang]

I like (and have) many recordings from the '60's.
Buck Owens was the king for a while, with 17 number one hits in a row from '63 to '67.
The Merle came along and showed everyone how to write a great country song.

I was mostly into the west coast stuff, like the two above mentioned, and Red Simpson, Tommy Collins, Wynn Stewart, Skeets McDonald(he had some great stuff in the '60's), Ferlin Husky, Freddie Hart, Rose Lee & Joe Maphis, Rose Maddox and on and on.

For Nashville artist in the '60's one of my favorites is Del Reeves, along with Roger Miller, Waylon(Stop the world and Let me Off), and even all the dark stuff that Willie was doing at RCA.

[Aaron Schiff]

Other than Buck Owens and Merle Haggard, most of the guys mentioned so far didn't play Teles and most of the ones mentioned weren't recording in the '60s. Hank Williams died in 1953 at the age of 29 and played Martin and Gibson flattops. By the 60s Bob Wills, a great fiddler, had retired. Merle Travis played a Martin D28 and a Gibson Super 400. He was biggest in the 40s and 50s, but still had some records in the 60s. Joe Maphis played a variety of guitars, but the one I remember best was his double neck Mosrite. He was probably the fastest and cleanest guitarist I have ever seen in my life. The title of one of his albums "Fire on the Strings" was no lie. By the mid 60s he had moved to Nashville and was doing session work. Faron Young was a fantastic singer, but I don't remember him as much of a guitarist, and several others of those mentioned were pianists. Most of the people mentioned so far were recording in the 70s.

Here is a list of some of the 60s country stars. Johnny Cash and Lefty Frizzel started recording in the 50s and continued in the 60s. Neither played a Tele. George Jones was very big in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s and didn't play a Tele. Buck Owens and Merle Haggard have been mentioned and did play Teles. Roger Miller was big and I never saw him with a guitar, except as a prop. Webb Pierce and Hank Snow were still recording a little in the 60s, although their heyday was the honky tonk 50s. I never saw them with Teles either. Earnest Tubb was big in the same general time period as Webb Pierce and Hank Snow, no Tele there either. Hank Thompson did pretty well in the 60s, without a Tele. Porter Wagoner was big in the 60s and introduced Dolly Parton to the general public, but no Tele. Loretta Lynn and Tammy Wynette were also big in the 60s, but no Teles either. That's a pretty good list of the country stars of the 60s. I think the best country music came from the 40s and 50s, but that is just my opinion.

For the fellow who "blames" Chet Atkins for the heavily orchestrated c**p that overtook Nashville, I say don't leave Roy Acuff and Fred Rose out. I cringe when I hear myself introduced as another Chet Atkins, because I really don't like his stuff; Merle Travis, yes, but Atkins no. Nashville currently is the dregs of the music / money machine that Atkins and Acuff and Rose built.

Is this a tirade or what? As Barbara Mandrell said, "I was country when country wasn't cool."

[cowboytwang]

Roger Miller was big and I never saw him with a guitar, except as a prop.

Sorry man, but Roger Miller played ALL of his guitar parts live and on records. In fact many of his hits were just him his guitar.

Also the original question was for '60s country artist, not just who played a tele.

[WallyArms]

GopherTele - well said! :D

As for 60's country, not neccesarily country and western, but a lot of good stuff came out of the west coast in the 60's.... NGDB, Burrito's, etc.

[maestrovert]

Roger Miller was smart enough, no GENIUS enough to have had Danny Gatton in his band for a while....gotta give him props for that !
YEAH Joe Maphis ! Fire on the Strings is STILL hotter than Hades...
the state of "country" in Nville today is entirely deplorable....and i do NOT agree that Chet was the cause...."marketing" ANAL-ysts and the sorry state of what passes for radio programming (based on those analysts) .....well, don't get me started....
read Hellecaster member and picker extraordinaire Will Ray's interview for his take on things ...
http://www.cosmic-cowboy.com/willrayinterview.htm

the original post asked for some '60's Country music recommendations (not necessarily "Tele-centric"), and on the whole, some GREAT artists and music has been mentioned.......