25 Country Albums You Need to Hear

1. JOHNNY CASH AT FOLSOM PRISON
Johnny Cash
Is there any album in any genre that has ascended to a higher level of myth than Johnny Cash's 1968 comeback LP, immortalized in 2005 biopic Walk the Line? When the Man in Black stood in solidarity with the inmates, wearing prison grays, he cemented his appeal to the rock counterculture. But even if you take away the jailhouse milieu and pretend he's at Carnegie Hall, the music holds its own, with the Tennessee Three bringing a minimalist rockabilly vigor to tunes ranging from the felonious ''Cocaine Blues'' to the ridiculous ''Flushed from the Bathroom of Your Heart.'' (Here's a secret: At San Quentin, released a year later, is the rare sequel that's as great as the original.)