Fun For Friday: An iTunes Country Song Playlist

Just for fun today, we've randomly put our iTunes on shuffle and wrote down and discussed the first 10 songs that played and came up with these 10 truly random country songs. Read on to see what songs made our list!

“Bullets In The Gun” – Toby Keith:

This was one of Toby’s recent radio hits and it tells a strong story song about a Bonnie & Clyde type of couple. What’s funny about this song is that some fans think TK stole the song from Texas music icon Robert Earl Keen’s “The Road Goes On Forever.” I don’t quite think that and neither does REK (or else he’d sue Toby for royalties and writer credit).

“Angel Heart” – Radney Foster

From the same “alternative country” album that includes “Godspeed (Sweet Dreams),” a song cut by the Dixie Chicks, “The Lucky Ones,” recorded by (and the title track to an album) by Pat Green, and “Raining On Sunday,” a song Keith Urban took to #1 a couple of years ago. See What You Want To See is a strong album and honestly, I’m surprised this great tune hasn’t found its way into mainstream country by another artist like the other songs did.

“I’m Still A Guy” – Brad Paisley

Three songs in and we’ve got two recent country radio hits. Interesting. The song is a big hit from 2007, the year before we-relaunched Roughstock to actively cover country songs like this one. It’s one of the ‘formulas’ that Brad Paisley always does but it’s hard to argue with his success in moving from sensitive to humorous to well, what does it matter. The melody is strong and the fact that he has playful piano fills throughout the production while allowing the steel guitar to have a solo too.

“Corpus Christi Bay” – Todd Snider

This East Nashville-based artist may never have been a big radio star in his own right (not even getting the shot that Radney Foster had in the 1990s) but he’s a beloved figure among people who give his music a shot. Corpus Christi Bay” – from 2009’s The Excitement Plan – finds Todd Snider singing as a man who lives the life of a lonely, hell-raisin’ oil-riggin’ man. It actually tells the tale of two brothers, one – Snider’s narrator – who couldn’t leave, and the other who did and was able to find love twice and a more stable job the second time around. What’s funny about this song appearing here is that it IS a Robert Earl Keen song.

“Love Song” – Hunter Hayes

From Hunter Hayes’ Songs About Nothin, the album Hunter made before signing a big Nashville record deal, the song showcases that soulful vocal that is completely evident throughout his album. It does showcase the potential he has made good on, including his considerable musicianship, which includes a strong guitar solo on this R&B-tinged track.

“The Reason Why” – Little Big Town

This is the title track to the trio’s fourth album and it finds them showcasing their considerable vocal chemistry on a sweet little romantic song. It’s a shame that their follow-up singles from this album’s lone hit “Little White Church” have failed to catch on at country radio because radio is better for having this band in the rotation.

“Titty’s Beer” – Colt Ford W/Trent Tomlinson

From Colt’s strong-selling Every Chance I Get album, “Titty’s Beer” is nothing but a little piece of playful fun. The song features Ford and Tomlinson telling a story about a guy who created a brand of beer playing off of the name of the beer “Titty’s”. It’s a little ditty but that’s all this song is claiming to be. It’s made all in good fun and the band in the song is completely country.

“Roll With It” – Easton Corbin

In keeping with a theme of playing some songs that are actual hits, iTunes played Easton Corbin’s second single “Roll With It,” and it’s easy to see why this song became such a big hit when it came out. It just comes off effortlessly sounding and Carson Chamberlain’s production was just right here. Yes, I can still see where George Strait could’ve recorded this song and how Easton’s definitely compares to him but a good song is a good song and that’s exactly what “Roll With It” is. Hopefully, Easton’s next album will have more good stuff like this.

“I Bought The Shoes” – Dierks Bentley

Now here’s a song that cannot be confused for something from any other genre than country music. it’s got a two-step beat, sawin’ fiddles and a damn good vocal delivery from Dierks. It’s one of the many strong songs from his self-titled debut album (that features “What Was I Thinkin’”).

“That Ain’t The Way I Heard It” – Trisha Yearwood.

A track from her 1998 album Where Your Road Leads, “That Ain’t The Way I Heard It” still remains one of my favorite Trisha Yearwood songs. Written and later recorded by Jamie O’Hara, the song has strong lyrics about trying to rekindle romance and the whole track creates an atmospheric vibe. Too bad that this one never got a big chance to be a single at country radio, but Trisha was, by this time, no longer moving the needle at country radio as much as he had over the most of the decade.

This is a strong way to end this ‘playlist’ of random country songs from my 14,000 iTunes songs. While it would’ve been interesting to see some classic Strait, Jones, Haggard, Lynn or Parton songs somehow fall in the mix as well as what did end up being on this playlist, It is always interesting how iTunes randomly picks songs that are actually singles (particularly for me, since I often keep more than ‘singles’ in my iTunes collection). We hope you'll enjoy the list enough to leave your own in the comment0s below!

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