’70s Country Essentials

Country music in the ‘70s was like a winding trail through the wilderness, with many overlapping paths—on one hand, it was the heyday of the outlaw movement, with rough-hewn rebels like Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson delivering raw, gritty lone-wolf sagas. On the other, the lush countrypolitan sound reached its zenith with country-pop crossover artists like Charlie Rich and Crystal Gayle ruling the charts. Of course, there was room for plenty of other sounds between those two extremes, be it Dolly Parton's bluegrass-speckled progressive country or Don Williams' gentle traditionalism.