Willie Nelson Red Headed Stranger (See also Phases and Stages, Tougher Than Leather)

After having toiled as a songwriter behind the scenes, having scored a hit with Patsy Cline's version of "Crazy" and Farron Young's version of "HelloWalls", Nelson had some success with albums on Atlantic and RCA. But it was this album, his debut on Columbia, that finally made Nelson a country star on his own terms. Nelson scored hits with "Blue Eyes Cryin' in the Rain" and "Remember Me", and helped make country music a more creatively viable artform in the eyes of the public. This is some of Nelson's best work, and hangs together as a song cycle with themes of death and redemption.

Johnny Cash At San Quentin (See also American Recordings, Johnny 99,
At Folsom Prison, The Sound of Johnny Cash)

The Folsom Prison performance gets more attention than the San Quentin
concert, and "At Folsom Prison" is certainly an album worthy of praise. But
since both were rereleased, San Quentin has started to get its due. Both
offer a good look at what made Cash a legend. But if you're looking for
pure swagger, attitude, and a well-oiled music machine (including Cash's
wife, June Carter and rockabilly king Carl Perkins), you can't do any better
than this album. This is the stuff that put Cash in both the country and
rock and roll halls of fame.

Marty Robbins Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs

If you can get past the ring K-Tel compilations hawking Robbins' tunes on
late night TV, this Marty Robbins album offers some great country classics,
complete with all the cowboy storytelling and cavernous production sounds
you'd expect from the genre. Listening to "El Paso" without thinking about
horrible eighties movies is half the battle. A lot of these tunes, first
released in 1957, would easily port from the recording studio to an isolated
piece of desert, complete with lonesome singing cowboy, sagebrush, campfire and beans.

Merle Haggard Mama Tried (See also If I Could Only Fly, Roots:
Volume 1, Back to the Barrooms)

Merle Haggard is currently putting out some of the best music of his career.
It's almost hard not to pick a more recent album as his stand-out
collection, but "Mama Tried" is the essence of the man, the DNA that would
carry through his best work to follow. Haggard makes a great outlaw country musician, partly because he made such a poor outlaw. Music clearly saved the man from becoming a legendary inept criminal (as evidenced by his attempt with an accomplice to break into a restaurant that was already open and serving customers) and turned him into a music legend. These are the songs that saved him, full of humility mixed with a strange brand of
bravado - a recognition of stubborn and foolish ways that nonetheless define the man.

Kris Kristofferson Kristofferson (later rereleased as Me and Bobby
McGee. See also Jesus Was a Capricorn and Full Moon with Rita
Coolidge)

This one has some of the best songs Kristofferson ever wrote, that everybody but him got to sing. Until he released this album in 1970, Kristofferson was doing odd jobs and trying to get people's attention. He finally did that by landing a helicopter on Johnny Cash's lawn and convincing him to record "Sunday Morning Coming Down", one of the many tunes he had previously tried to get Cash to listen to when they would meet in the halls at Kristofferson's day job as janitor of a CBS recording studio. Songs range from pop tunes like "Me and Bobby McGee" to wise ass classics like "To Beat the Devil" and political commentary like "The Law is For the Protection of the People" and "Duvalier's Dream". Though some find it hard to get past Kristofferson's ragged, sometimes wandering delivery, there is no doubt this is a classic singer/songwriter album that could be classified anywhere from folk to alt.country.

Wille Nelson and Waylon Jennings Waylon and Willie (See also Waylon's
Good Hearted Woman)

Okay, so Nelson makes the list twice and Waylon only once, but it would be
difficult to list classic country albums without giving a nod to one of it's
most celebrated and infamous duos. Plus it had "Mama Don't Let Your Babies
Grow Up To Be Cowboys" (and also "Don't Cuss the Fiddle" and "The Year 2003 Minus 25"). In the original back jacket notes for the album's 1978 release, then-Rolling Stone Associate Editor Chet Flippo said, "What country music needs right now, I decided the minute I heard this album, IS this album. Some of the stuff that's passing for country these days - no names needed, you and they know who they are - is nothing but a disgrace". It's classic outlaw country, which is to say, the original alternative country.

Emmy Lou Harris, Blue Kentucky Girl (See also Pieces
of Sky, Red Dirt Girl, Wrecking Ball)

This album is considered by many to be an alt.country forebear, though it
has a distinctly old school flavor. Harris covers Willie Nelson, bluegrass
pioneers Flatt & Scruggs, Hank Williams, Loretta Lynne, and the Louvin
Brothers. It's the full breadth of country history until that point, and
serves as both a testament to Harris' talents and the talents of those who
shaped country music before her. It doesn't hurt to have the vocal talents
of Tanya Tucker, Dolly Parton, and Linda Ronstadt, as well as studio aces
like Ricky Scaggs, Albert Lee, and Ron Tutt backing you up.