{"id":72723,"date":"2020-02-01T12:29:57","date_gmt":"2020-02-01T10:29:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/whisnews21.com\/?p=72723"},"modified":"2020-07-30T01:42:51","modified_gmt":"2020-07-30T01:42:51","slug":"ten-country-albums-turning-40-in-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/2020\/02\/01\/ten-country-albums-turning-40-in-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten Country Albums Turning 40 In 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Ten Country Albums Turning 40 In 2020<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Despite the polarizing crossover success of 1980’s Urban Cowboy film and soundtrack, legends and old souls stood tall throughout the first year of a new decade.<\/p>\n

It’s hard now to imagine the legacies of\u00a0Merle Haggard,\u00a0George Jones,\u00a0Willie Nelson\u00a0and\u00a0Dolly Parton\u00a0without their biggest songs of 1980. Meanwhile,\u00a0Alabama,\u00a0John Anderson,\u00a0Emmylou Harris\u00a0and\u00a0Hank Williams Jr. found commercial success while honoring country music’s past.<\/p>\n

As for the other end of the spectrum,\u00a0Eddie Rabbitt\u00a0and\u00a0Johnny Lee\u00a0did ’80s pop-country first, and few over the coming years did it better.<\/p>\n

Read on to rediscover 10 definitive country music albums released in 1980.<\/p>\n

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RCA Records<\/p>\n

Alabama’s ‘My Home’s in Alabama’<\/h2>\n
Alabama\u2019s ownership of the charts throughout the \u201880s began with two hits: the Southern rock-inspired fiddle tune \u201cTennessee River\u201d and the lovelorn \u201cWhy Lady Why.\u201d Toss in the autobiographical title track, and you\u2019ve got the first great Alabama album.<\/div>\n
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Warner Bros. Records<\/p>\n

John Anderson’s ‘John Anderson’<\/h2>\n
John Anderson\u2019s big-label debut lacked the commercial success of other albums on this list, but it deserves a mention for featuring songs of the caliber of \u201c1959\u201d and teasing the future rise of more traditional-sounding options in a pop-saturated marketplace.<\/div>\n
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MCA Records<\/p>\n

Merle Haggard’s ‘Back to the Barrooms’<\/h2>\n
“The Hag” kicked off the \u201880s by rolling the clock back to his \u201860s honky-tonk output. Forty years later, it\u2019s hard to imagine Haggard\u2019s catalog \u2014 or his sons\u2019 covers-heavy live sets \u2014 without \u201cI Think I\u2019ll Just Stay Here and Drink.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Warner Bros. Records<\/p>\n

Emmylou Harris’ ‘Roses in the Snow’<\/h2>\n
Ricky Skaggs, Jerry Douglas, Tony Rice, the Whites, Dolly Parton and Linda Ronstadt eased Emmylou Harris\u2019 transition to the bluegrass-inspired sound heard on covers of the Louvin Brothers (\u201cYou\u2019re Learning\u201d), the Stanley Brothers (\u201cDarkest Hour is Just Before Dawn\u201d) and Paul Simon (\u201cThe Boxer\u201d).<\/div>\n
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Epic Records<\/p>\n

George Jones’ ‘I Am What I Am’<\/h2>\n
The opening track \u201cHe Stopped Loving Her Today\u201d would be enough justification to list this album here; it is, after all, one of the greatest country songs ever. Beyond that, though, Jones covers Tom T. Hall (\u201cI\u2019m Not Ready Yet\u201d) and Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson (\u201cGood Hearted Woman\u201d) on this project.<\/div>\n
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Columbia Records<\/p>\n

Willie Nelson & Family’s ‘Honeysuckle Rose’ Soundtrack<\/h2>\n
The other impactful country music soundtrack of 1980 featured film star Willie Nelson and a few of his famous friends, including Jeannie Seely, Hank Cochran and Johnny Gimble. Its legacy, though, has got to be one of Nelson\u2019s trademark hits, \u201cOn the Road Again.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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RCA Records<\/p>\n

Dolly Parton’s ‘9 to 5 and Odd Jobs’<\/h2>\n
\u201c9 to 5\u201d still gets talked about more than any Dolly Parton song, aside from perhaps \u201cJolene.\u201d Likewise, the film it\u2019s from earns more praise than anything else Parton\u2019s done outside of country music, philanthropy and the theme park business. Plus, there\u2019s covers of folk and country classics by Woody Guthrie (\u201cDeportee (Plane Wreck of Los Gatos)\u201d) and Merle Travis (\u201cDark as a Dungeon\u201d) on this album.<\/div>\n
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Elektra Records<\/p>\n

Eddie Rabbitt’s ‘Horizon’<\/h2>\n
Eddie Rabbitt was a great country music songwriter with pop sensibilities, as heard a decade earlier when Elvis Presley struck gold with the Rabbitt co-write \u201cKentucky Rain.\u201d Rabbitt continued a run of solo dominance in 1980 with crossover hits such as \u201cDrivin\u2019 My Life Away\u201d and \u201cI Love a Rainy Night.\u201d<\/div>\n
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Full Moon\/Asylum Records<\/p>\n

Various Artists’ ‘Urban Cowboy’ Soundtrack<\/h2>\n
Whether they view it as a source of boundless nostalgia or an ugly blight in between the reigns of outlaw country singers and neo-traditionalists, fans of a certain age feel strongly about the film\u00a0Urban Cowboy<\/em>\u00a0and its impact on the careers of Mickey Gilley and Johnny Lee.<\/div>\n
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Elektra\/Curb Records<\/p>\n

Hank Williams Jr.’s ‘Old Habits and New’<\/h2>\n
When he wasn\u2019t griping about Donna Summer during \u201cDinosaur,\u201d Bocephus cut some of his better tributes to his father, including a cover of ol\u2019 (and older) Hank\u2019s \u201cKaw-Liga\u201d and Kris Kristofferson\u2019s \u201cIf You Don\u2019t Like Hank Williams.\u201d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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\u00a0– The Boot<\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ten Country Albums Turning 40 In 2020 Despite the polarizing crossover success of 1980’s Urban Cowboy film and soundtrack, legends and old souls stood tall throughout the first year of a new decade. It’s hard now to imagine the legacies of\u00a0Merle Haggard,\u00a0George Jones,\u00a0Willie Nelson\u00a0and\u00a0Dolly Parton\u00a0without their biggest songs of 1980. Meanwhile,\u00a0Alabama,\u00a0John Anderson,\u00a0Emmylou Harris\u00a0and\u00a0Hank Williams Jr. found commercial success while honoring country music’s past. As for the other end of the spectrum,\u00a0Eddie Rabbitt\u00a0and\u00a0Johnny Lee\u00a0did ’80s pop-country first, and few over the coming years did it better. Read on to rediscover 10<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":32414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72723"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72723"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72723\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73502,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72723\/revisions\/73502"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whisnews21.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}