Love a good guitar lick? According to The Boot, these 10 country songs feature the genre's best riffs of all time:
- "I Walk the Line," Johnny Cash. Perhaps one of the most instantly recognizable opening guitar riffs in all of country music, Cash’s 1956 hit song “I Walk the Line” is legendary.
- "Jolene," Dolly Parton. "It's a great chord progression--people love that 'Jolene' lick," Parton once said. "It's as much a part of the song almost as the song. And because it's just the same word over and over, even a first-grader or a baby can sing, 'Jolene, Jolene, Jolene, Jolene.' It's like, how hard can that be?"
- "Gentle on My Mind," Glen Campbell. When Campbell released “Gentle on My Mind” in 1968, it quickly became one of his biggest hits thanks to the way it combines Campbell’s trademark croon with his formidable guitar skills.
- "I've Got a Tiger by the Tail," Buck Owens and the Buckaroos. Trading slick guitar licks and polished production for twangy honky-tonk and pedal steel, “I’ve Got a Tiger By the Tail” not only helped to define an entire sub-genre of music, it introduced one of the most recognizable guitar progressions in country music.
- "Something to Talk About," Bonnie Raitt. Raitt’s guitar solo midway through the song shows off the bracing electric-slide style she has become known for.
- "Stupid Boy," Keith Urban. The guitar maestro’s 2006 single “Stupid Boy” features Urban at his best, with electric guitar ripping throughout the song and a healthy dose of proper shredding in the outro.
- "Walkin' After Midnight," Patsy Cline. “Walkin’ After Midnight” is everything we love about a guitar riff: instantly recognizable, but still perfectly in sync with the rest of the song.
- "The Nervous Breakdown," Brad Paisley. “The Nervous Breakdown” is over three minutes of pure guitar mastery, with Paisley’s fingers flying over the strings and shredding every single second.
- "Criminal," Lindsay Ell. The 29-year-old country rocker delivers a strong vocal performance here, but it’s the song’s powerful guitar progression that really makes listeners take note, proving once and for all that women rock just as hard as men, if not harder.
- "Stay a Little Longer," Brothers Osborne. This song features both a mid-song guitar shred and an explosion of rhythmic energy in the outro.
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