2011 in Country Music: Best singles (and five that sucked)

10. Alison Krauss - Paper Airplane
Did not chart


Poignant, well crafted lyrics combine with the voice of an angel to make a wonderful piece of music. I got chills the first time I heard the soaring chorus. Still do occasionally.

9. Justin Haigh - All My Best Friends (Are Behind Bars)

Did not chart

It's been a while since I've heard a good old fashioned drinking song like this on the radio. Haigh has a great voice, and the song features a nice play on words that shows it's still possible to cover the old country tropes in a new way. Sadly, the only reason I heard it was because he opened for Chris Young at a concert in Lincoln so the song was played to promote the show. Otherwise, it got no love.

8. Sunny Sweeney - Staying's Worse Than Leaving
Chart peak: 38


I never thought Sunny Sweeney would make any dent on the charts. She seems too country and too twangy for mainstream country radio. Yet with "From a Table Away" making it into the top ten, and two subsequent top 40 singles, she seems to be getting at least a little traction. This is my favorite song on her album. A story of a woman who has tried everything she can think of to save a relationship, but finally accepts that it simply isn't salvageable.

7. Bradley Gaskin - Mr. Bartender
Chart peak: 32


I could say a lot of the same things about this song as the Justin Haigh tune, complete with a voice that sounds like one of the top artists of the '90s (in this case, Travis Tritt). This one is much more of the tear jerking variety of drinking songs, with a brilliant hook, "Mr. Bartender, take me out with one shot."

6. Kenny Chesney Feat. Grace Potter - You and Tequila
Chart peak: 3


While Kenny's deal is impersonating Jimmy Buffet, he's at his best when he's brooding and melancholy. It would be hard for any artist to mess up this song, which was wonderfully written by Matraca Berg and Deana Carter, but the sparse arrangement and addition of Grace Potter on harmony make it easily one of the best songs Chesney has ever recorded.

5. Ronnie Dunn - Cost of Livin'
Chart peak: 19


When Dunn first recorded the song in 2008, his label discouraged releasing it on the grounds that A.) the economy would have recovered by the time it came out, and 2.) Dunn was "too wealthy" for the song. Obviously, they were wrong about the former, and the latter pissed Dunn off enough that he insisted on doing it. The song perfectly captures the plight of the working poor in the present in much the same way that Merle Haggard did in his day.

4. Jamey Johnson - Heartache

Chart peak: 51

As if I was going to get through a year end list without Jamey Johnson making an appearance. This is one of my favorites off The Guitar Song, so of course it had no chance of radio success. The fact that it charted at all is a surprise.

3. George Strait - Here For A Good Time
Chart peak: 2


The word "outlaw" is seldom attached to King George, but I think it fits here. This song is full of attitude that flys a bit under the radar because it's wrapped in a country shuffle and Strait's typical laid back delivery. It's the sort of thing people like Eric Church and Jason Aldean have been trying way too hard to achieve and failing at.

2. Randy Houser - In God's Time
Chart peak: 54


Don't look now, but between "Anything Goes" and this song, Randy Houser is rapidly developing into one of the best up and coming artists in country music. Inconsistency is the one thing that's really holding him back. This song about letting go and putting things in God's hands could easily come off as heavy handed, but Houser's low key, soulful performance makes it fantastic.

1. Vince Gill - Threaten Me With Heaven
Chart peak: 42


I heard this song for the first time less than a month before my grandpa died of cancer. Cancer has been a popular topic to do over syrupy songs about lately (I'm looking at you, Martina and Rascal Flatts), but Vince's song beautifully portrays someone at peace with his impending death. Music has always been a huge part of my life; it relaxes me when I'm stressed, helps me focus and acts as a soundtrack for both the good and bad times. Never have I found a song more comforting through the bad than this one.





Just missed the cut: Zac Brown Band - "Keep Me In Mind", Shooter Jennings - "Outlaw You", Billy Currington - "Love Done Gone", Trace Adkins - "Just Fishin'", Terri Clark - "Northern Girl"


Five Songs I Hated


5. Brantley Gilbert - Country Must Be Country Wide
Chart peak: 1


The Triggerman over at Saving Country Music said it best: "Our enemy has a new face friends and neighbors, and that face has a penciled-on beard and hoop earrings." This has all the hallmarks of what's terrible about mainstream country: a laundry list of what it means to be "country", shameless namedropping of country legends and it sounds much more like '80s rock than any of the artists that get namedropped.





4. Luke Bryan - Country Girl (Shake It For Me)
Chart peak: 4


I used to think Luke Bryan had potential if he could just find the right songs. This blew up any goodwill he had with me and showed he has no interest in finding the right song. Instead he'd rather sing trash and hire a bunch of strippers to dance on stage with him.





3. JaneDear Girls - Wildflower
Chart peak: 15


I'm not sure I heard any song this year that made me wish I was deaf more than this one.





2. Trace Adkins - Brown Chicken Brown Cow
Chart peak: 39


Who doesn't love a puppet porn music video? This was so bad Trace pulled it from radio and apologized for releasing it in the first place. I don't know if there has been a great artist in history who has had more wildly extreme swings between good and bad songs than Trace has over the past five or six years.





1. Jason Aldean - Dirt Road Anthem
Chart peak: 1


As the joke goes, country + rap = crap. But this doesn't even try to combine the two. It's a rap song, and not a very good one at that. Extra douchebag points for the fact it's sung by the biggest poser in all of music and treats drinking and driving like it's no big deal. Worse yet, its monster success means there's a decent chance we'll see it imitated. I'm starting to think Jason Aldean is actively trying to kill country music because I have a hard time believing an artist could do so much damage to a genre by accident.