As a teenager, I would have been very sniffy about both country and soul music. However, years have made me wiser, and I now fully appreciate them both. Country-soul is a great hybrid, with soul lending songs extra warmth and complementing the swing and melody of the country. They both often deal with the heartache that relationships can bring, and so the fusion provides a good backdrop to songs about affairs of the heart.
Country-soul compilations, for example, the Country Got Soul series, often seem to contain tracks where there is a lot of soul but little or no country to be heard. They would be better described as southern soul of the kind produced at the iconic Muscle Shoals studio. As an aside, try to see the superb Muscle Shoals documentary film, with its brilliant music and tragic, gripping storyline. Southern soul can be truly wonderful, but not what I would deem country-soul. So, for this Essentials, I have generally discarded tracks which seem to be wholly soul music. However, with some of my choices, my huge enthusiasm for them has led me to turn a bit of a blind eye to the lack of obvious country in them, and so they have slipped through the net.
The tracks chosen here are in no particular order – on another day it would have been different, but number one is there for a reason, as will be explained later.
Number 10. Charley Crockett “The Jamestown Ferry” (2017)
This is a cover of a Tanya Tucker track from 1972, from Crockett’s Lil G.L. Honky Tonk Jubilee album, and is a live favourite. The words have the familiar theme of desperate hurt as the singer’s lover leaves on the Jamestown Ferry, which crosses the James River near Williamsburg in Virginia. I just had to choose something from Crockett, and his version of Loretta is superb, but already picked by me for one of my Top 10 Americana songs. This is a worthy replacement, though, with his honeyed voice oozing soul and conveying the heartache so brilliantly. That man has soul running through his veins. Here’s a great clip of it being performed at The Ryman, with Crockett as an excellent frontman. His music, though, is better heard at smaller, more intimate and, dare I say it, sweatier venues.
Number 9. Drive-By Truckers “Dancin’ Ricky” (2011)
This one, with words written and then sung nicely by Shonna Tucker, is a bit of an outlier. However, I really like it from its soulful piano chords and lead guitar at the start to the soaring pedal steel later on. The words about Ricky, who seems to be a bit of a character, make you want to know more. For example, what’s the wonderful line “Hey Ricky, don’t let the Diabetes get you!” all about? It is from their Go-Go Boots album, which is one of my favourites of theirs. Patterson Hood described it as “the album where we finally fully embrace the music of our original hometown area of Muscle Shoals, exploring the waters of country/soul and that mystical intersection between to two dominate poles of our shared musical heritage”. For anyone who doesn’t know, Hood’s father, David, played bass on many of the historic tracks recorded at the Muscle Shoals studio. Hood also said that Dancin’ Ricky “doesn’t sound like anything we’ve ever done before. We’re really proud of it”.
Number 8. Iris DeMent “Workin’ On A World” (2023)
This one, from DeMent’s album of the same name, is inspiring. The song has a great tune and really swings along right from the piano at the start. DeMent was brought up listening to gospel music in a Pentecostal church, and you can hear influences of this here. Lead guitar comes in twanging, to give it a true country flavour, and horns make it solidly soulful as well.
The words begin with despair at the state of the world, but they then change to thanking “the warriors of love” who made sacrifices in the past to improve “a world they never got to see”. This, in turn, inspires Iris to do the same herself and to feel privileged to do so. There is also a welcome humility towards the end:”I don’t have all the answers/ To the troubles of the day/But neither did all our ancestors/ And they persevered anyway”.
Number 7. Elvis Costello and The Attractions “Good Year For The Roses” (1981)
The words here, telling of a banal conversation when two people have nothing left to say, convey the despair in the break-up of a marriage so much more vividly than a mere description ever could. Written in 1970 by Jerry Chestnut, it was first performed by George Jones. Chestnut was a prolific songwriter who wrote for Elvis and many other greats, including Jerry Lee Lewis, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash and Tammy Wynette. Jones, who struggled with addictions all his life, had three divorces himself. However, his most famous, from Wynette, happened six years after he recorded this.
I prefer the Costello version to that from Jones, although the latter is excellent. His voice is less strident, slightly smoother than Jones’ and seems to convey the heartache even more strongly. Steve Nieve’s keyboard gives the track a little extra soul, and the powerful harmonies in the chorus are stronger than with the Jones version.
Number 6. My Darling Clementine “Going Back To Memphis” (2011)
I had to choose one from My Darling Clementine, who, incidentally, sometimes perform Good Year For The Roses in their live set. From their fabulous first album How Do You Plead?, this one was inspired by Tom T Hall’s famous country track That’s How I Got To Memphis. Lyrically, they both concern going back to that city to find a lost love, with My Darling Clementine’s being far superior melodically to these ears. Their There’s Nothing You Can’t Tell Me (That I Don’t Already Know) is also another great slice of country-soul.
If you haven’t already listened to singer Michael Weston King’s superb 2026 album Nothing Can Hurt Me Anymore, written in the aftermath of his granddaughter’s death in the Southport killings, I urge you to do so. It is very moving but also has fine and memorable melodies.
Number 5. Jim Ford “Harlan County” (1969)
I heard this first on the Country Got Soul compilation, which is very much worth listening to. It is one where there is a lot of soul, with horns blaring out, and gospel in the chorus, but not much country except for a little in the lead guitar at times. I have let it through, though, because the visceral and compelling words backed by the passionate singing and music make it truly memorable. It is a tale of brutally hard times in the mining community of Kentucky: “The times I went hungry you can’t count ’em” and the tragic and pointless death of the singer’s father: “Big Jack caught Daddy cheatin’ and he shot him/ Over fifteen cents/ To buy a loaf of bread with”. It is one you don’t forget.
It is from Ford’s album of the same name, which is a towering southern soul record with the most fabulous groove. If there is more blood, sweat and tears on an album, I have yet to hear it.
Number 4. The Country Soul Revue featuring Bonnie Bramlett “Where’s Eddie” (2008)
Written by Eddie Hinton and Donnie Fritts, the first version was sung by Lulu in 1970. It is also on the Drive-By Truckers’ Go-Go Boots album, sung by Shonna Tucker, but this version, with Bonnie Bramlett’s vocals on The Country Soul Revue’s Testifying album, beats them both. Bramlett, who began singing in a church like Iris Dement, has had a long career working with some of the greats like Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Rita Coolidge and Duane Allman. She has had a turbulent but interesting life, which is worth reading up on. Her performance here is simply superb, at times beautiful, at others rousing and passionate. The keyboard heard is so soothing, and there are some wonderful horns added.
The Country Soul Revue was a collection of session players, including David Hood, Spooner Oldham and the Muscle Shoals and Memphis Horns, who recorded lovely versions of southern soul classics. They were produced by the legendary Dan Penn, writer of so many fabulous songs such as I Met Her In Church, Cry Like A Baby and Do Right Man.
Eddie Hinton was a talented musician and singer, but a troubled soul, and the words here are an emotional cry for love and acceptance. Written from the point of view of his lover looking for him all over town, they are the words that he hoped she would say “Where’s Eddie?/ Won’t you tell him I’ll be home, waiting and I’m ready/to give him all the love that I’ve been saving”. More powerful and heart-rending than a mere description could ever be.
Number 3. The Lostines “A Tear” (2024)
This one just makes my heart leap for joy, and I want to chant the chorus out loud. It surely would have been a massive hit if it had come out as a single in the sixties or seventies. From their album Meet The Lostines, it doesn’t have a huge amount of country in it but has much more of a Motown feel. However, the album as a whole has enough country flavour in it to put it firmly in the country-soul camp.
The album is brilliant musically, with not a bad track on it, and has words of love and heartache which ring true. Produced by Sam Doores of The Deslondes, it has a great swampy New Orleans vibe and is one of my top americana albums from recent times.
Number 2. The Delines “The Golden State” (2022)
Originally from The Lost Duets single, the opening horns and then the jazzy piano set this off to a great start. Then there is some nice pedal steel to give it some country vibes. The whole song then moves along with some vigour and beat, something I feel has been missing from The Delines’ work in recent times.
The words, as Vlautin’s so often do, paint a great picture of a relationship. However, it is all a bit lighter than it can often be with him. Amy Boone’s eye-rolling woman is exasperated with Vlautin’s rascally character, but he is charming and likeable, and you sort of know that she will forgive him and that they will rekindle things. It is all slightly comical, and I love the video of the band playing it in a small bar.
Number 1. The Flying Burrito Brothers “Dark End Of The Street” (1969)
If you have listened to the excellent The History Of Rock Music In 500 Songs podcast, the narrator, Andrew Hickey, regularly asserts that there is never a first song in any type of genre. So no first rock’n ’ roll or blues, for example. Having said that, Gram Parsons, with his fusion of country, rock, r’n’b and soul in his “cosmic American music”, was a pioneer of country-soul, if not the first example of it. Hence, I have put this choice first in my list.
Written as a soul track by Dan Penn, mentioned earlier, and Chips Moman, it was first recorded by James Carr in 1967. This version, from The Burrito’s The Gilded Palace Of Sin, adds some welcome country music in the lead guitar and honky-tonk piano. The words, with the metaphor of meeting at the dark end of the street, work very well in describing an illicit affair. There is more country-soul on the album with their version of Do Right Woman, but I find this track preferable.
Lovely list, Andrew. A genre that is very close to my heart.