I was having this discussion with a friend. Comment why you chose the singer.
I tried to get "the best," but understand there is someone I left off.
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I was having this discussion with a friend. Comment why you chose the singer.
I tried to get "the best," but understand there is someone I left off.
by Anonymous | reply 55 | February 5, 2023 4:21 PM |
Dolly Parton*****
So sorry
by Anonymous | reply 1 | January 27, 2023 4:46 AM |
Of all of them Patsy Cline was the best singer by far. And she was REAL country. A good ol' girl.
by Anonymous | reply 2 | January 27, 2023 4:47 AM |
If we are talking vocal chops, Reba in her prime.
If we are talking crafting a song, Patsy Cline.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | January 27, 2023 5:22 AM |
No one can belt it out like Reba McEntire
by Anonymous | reply 4 | January 27, 2023 1:40 PM |
Loretta Haggers
by Anonymous | reply 5 | January 27, 2023 2:27 PM |
Martina McBride
Trisha Yearwood
by Anonymous | reply 6 | January 27, 2023 2:28 PM |
Patsy Cline, for both her technique and her influence
by Anonymous | reply 7 | January 27, 2023 2:31 PM |
Patsy Cline. She was the real deal. I like the other singers, especially Loretta and Tammy. Patsy, really had a distinct and elegant voice. She was tough too.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | January 27, 2023 3:17 PM |
Happy to see Cline in the lead
by Anonymous | reply 9 | January 27, 2023 6:09 PM |
Patsy, Dolly, and Reba
by Anonymous | reply 10 | January 28, 2023 3:16 AM |
You forgot me!!
by Anonymous | reply 11 | January 28, 2023 3:23 AM |
Tammy, without a doubt.
by Anonymous | reply 12 | January 28, 2023 3:39 AM |
There's a difference between "country" and "western" music. Patsy Cline sounded more western than the others.
I'd say Tammy Wynette. She could hit some really high notes and she sang a lot of country-flavored lyrics about relationships gone wrong, etc.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | January 28, 2023 4:12 AM |
Cline. She's truly in a class by herself.
Within her genre, her talent is unsurpassed.
She never over sings. Quiet subtlety rather than belting or bombast, is more effective when conveying heartache.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | January 28, 2023 4:26 AM |
This might be controversial.
I don’t consider Patsy Cline “country”. I know she’s country but her music sounds very 1950s and 60s pop and rock and roll to me.
When I think of female country, I hear Loretta and Tammy or Dolly.
I’ve always put Patsy with Patti Page and Connie more than Loretta and Tammy.
Is it just me?
by Anonymous | reply 15 | January 28, 2023 5:41 AM |
Like if Connie is pop and Patsy is the difference? Patsy could have sang “Who’s Sorry Now”. But the genres are considered different.
I guess it’s like how Adele is a pop singer even though it’s actually R&B.
by Anonymous | reply 16 | January 28, 2023 5:43 AM |
R15, I feel the same way about Patsy. My vote would go to Bobbie Gentry or Loretta Lynn.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | January 28, 2023 6:10 AM |
Very tough to select just one, for me Loretta Lynn just marginally edges out Dolly Parton, but all of these artists have done some great songs. I have 167 Loretta Lynn tracks downloaded into my phone
by Anonymous | reply 18 | January 28, 2023 8:20 AM |
Nobody can touch Cline's voice.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | January 28, 2023 9:34 AM |
Bitsie Mae Harling.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | January 28, 2023 10:44 AM |
I just watched “Sweet Dreams” again last night. I love those performances.
by Anonymous | reply 23 | January 28, 2023 1:45 PM |
Loretta Lynn was close personal friends with George H.W. and Barbara Bush
by Anonymous | reply 24 | January 28, 2023 2:01 PM |
Reba is the most ridiculous over singer in the history of country music. Patsy is a far superior vocalist.
by Anonymous | reply 26 | January 28, 2023 2:25 PM |
OP how are you defining greatest? Greatest voice? Greatest overall image? Most well known? Greatest person?
Overall I'd vote Dolly Parton, although Reba, Patsy, maybe Loretta have voices just as strong if not stronger.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | January 28, 2023 2:27 PM |
Reba McEntire is great when she’s restrained. She’s like all belters that get huge success and start trying to hit the back of the rafters on every song, see Whitney and Christina. The evolution of her voice is very interesting. This is 1988.
by Anonymous | reply 28 | January 28, 2023 4:05 PM |
Dolly is a great songwriter and has a pleasant singing tone but her voice is weak.
by Anonymous | reply 29 | January 28, 2023 4:08 PM |
Dolly's voice is weak, now. Here she is in ~ 2015 singing live, Little Sparrow.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | January 28, 2023 5:25 PM |
Meant to say that Dolly did have a very strong voice, even into her older age.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | January 28, 2023 5:25 PM |
Pam Tillis and Wynonna, their voices held up the best.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | January 28, 2023 5:30 PM |
Patsy- rich, fat naturally powerful voice with all manner of vocal shading. I put in a category with Aretha, Judy and Barbra- perfect storm of vocal gifts and musical artistry.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | January 28, 2023 5:32 PM |
R36 Repug cunt
by Anonymous | reply 37 | January 28, 2023 5:35 PM |
Reba is very showy with little subtlety, that’s why she was perfect for Broadway.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | January 28, 2023 5:37 PM |
Reba’s song about HIV/AIDS almost got her cancelled by conservatives in country, her next album’s sales slipped by half. It brought great awareness and a different perspective to the disease. Definitely was an uncomfortable song at the time to hear. I think the song had a profound effect on thoughts about it.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | January 28, 2023 5:43 PM |
Fancy was not Reba's song; it was written and recorded by Bobbie Gentry in the late 60's.
by Anonymous | reply 40 | January 28, 2023 7:14 PM |
Thanks, R40, didn't know that.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | January 28, 2023 7:17 PM |
The first version of Fancy I heard was Lynn Anderson's. My parents had this album.
by Anonymous | reply 42 | January 28, 2023 7:21 PM |
Reba's Fancy is the best.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | January 28, 2023 7:22 PM |
Say what you will of her voice, no country female past or present comes close to her as an entertainer. I know quite a few queens who begrudgingly tagged along to one of her concerts in the 90s and left a fan.
by Anonymous | reply 44 | January 28, 2023 7:29 PM |
Miranda Lambert doesn't have the years that everyone else does on the list. However give her another decade or two.
by Anonymous | reply 45 | January 28, 2023 7:35 PM |
Nobody can sing a fucking story like Dolly Parton.
Extra points for being the songwriter of most of her work, including this.
by Anonymous | reply 46 | January 28, 2023 7:42 PM |
R45 Miranda is turning into some fat, small town, busybody hedgehog
Her affected twang is okay in doses, she has zero stage presence
by Anonymous | reply 47 | January 28, 2023 7:47 PM |
Lee Ann Womack has a beautiful country voice. Here she is, singing "The Grand Tour" at the Opry, George Jones tribute (he's in the audience).
by Anonymous | reply 48 | January 28, 2023 7:50 PM |
Does LeeAnn Rimes even sing country any more? She has a gorgeous, incredibly versatile voice.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | January 28, 2023 7:59 PM |
I always thought Barbara Mandrell had a great soulful country sound. Too bad she went all Christian. She could sing about whorin’’ around with the best of them!
by Anonymous | reply 50 | January 28, 2023 8:12 PM |
Bobbie Gentry had a velvety, sensuous voice best appreciated on some of the slow, intimate tracks she recorded.
Her sound wasn’t exactly pure country, but her songwriting captured the gothic aspects of the Deep South so fantastically that she deserves for more accolades than she’s gotten in the genre.
by Anonymous | reply 51 | January 28, 2023 8:33 PM |
Beautiful song, r51. I love Bobbie Gentry and remain intrigued by her sudden departure and continued ability to happily live outside the spotlight.
by Anonymous | reply 52 | January 28, 2023 8:49 PM |
There was a deliberate attempt, beginning in the late 1950s, to make country music that was slicker and more pop-oriented. Gone were the fiddles and pedal steel guitars, replaced by piano, swirling strings, and background vocal choirs. This became a subgenre known as the Nashville Sound. In the ‘60s, it evolved into the Countrypolitan style, an even more overtly country-pop sound.
Patsy Cline is probably the most famous example of the Nashville Sound, which is why some have commented that her music sounds indistinguishable from, for instance, Connie Francis. There was a lot of overlap between Nashville Sound/Countrypolitan and adult pop/easy listening music of the 1950s and ‘60s.
by Anonymous | reply 53 | January 28, 2023 9:35 PM |
R49 for the most part Leann Rimes doesn't make country music anymore. It's been about ten years. She's gone down a lot of interesting musical paths. If she had stayed singing country she might have ended up on the list. There's her pre Eddie career and her post Eddie career.
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