Need Help Building Repertoire

Matthew Prouty · Post by **Matthew Prouty** » 24 Oct 2012 4:22 am

I need help building the repertoire for my new band. We need female country ballads. We have several contemporary female country songs but it seems like everyone is a uptempo country rock based song.

Here is what I would like to find:

1. 10 Female Contemporary Country Ballads
2. Ideally with some steel or fiddle parts
3. 1991 on up

We already have "If I Die Young"

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. All of the members of the band (except me) are rocker crossing over or pop artists crossing over to country.

Ben Lawson · Post by **Ben Lawson** » 24 Oct 2012 5:50 am

Youtube the "Time Jumpers". Anything that Dawn Sears sings is worth learning.

Matthew Prouty · Post by **Matthew Prouty** » 24 Oct 2012 5:53 am

Ben,

I did a search for Dawn on youtube and only came up with classic country. I wish we were playing that kind of music but we ain't. I need more contemporary stuff.

Frank Freniere · Post by **Frank Freniere** » 24 Oct 2012 6:15 am

Gretchen Wilson
Sara Evans
Patty Loveless

John Peay · Post by **John Peay** » 24 Oct 2012 7:32 am

Iris Dement's "Infamous Angel". From about '92 or so, and not everyone would be familiar with it, but a wonderful song (IMO!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PVcKXj_gpQ

Bill McCloskey · Post by **Bill McCloskey** » 24 Oct 2012 8:41 am

Spotify has a new Billboard app that you can install and it has all the top 100 country hits, updated each week. That would be a good place to start.

Jerry Overstreet · Post by **Jerry Overstreet** » 24 Oct 2012 9:48 am

It might be best to let the female singer pick the songs she wants to and can sing. Wouldn't want to open up that can of worms.

Modern country is all over the new country radio airwaves, shouldn't be hard to fill the need there or online. F.I., you can search country 90's, 1990 through 2000 etc.

Good Luck and much success.

Mark van Allen · Post by **Mark van Allen** » 24 Oct 2012 2:06 pm

Matthew, if she has the chops for it, sic her on some Martina McBride. "Evolution" is a great disc to start with. Beautifully produced stuff, much of which were hits.

Joey Ace · Post by **Joey Ace** » 26 Oct 2012 4:37 am

"When I Think About Cheatin" - Gretchen Wilson 2004.
Beautiful PSG parts.

Andy Volk · Post by **Andy Volk** » 26 Oct 2012 11:55 am

Jo Dee Messina's Bye Bye? The middle aged women I know all seem to dig it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bNOUNFNYAmA

Theresa Galbraith · Post by **Theresa Galbraith** » 26 Oct 2012 5:22 pm

Anything Jo Dee sings sounds good to me!

Joey Ace · Post by **Joey Ace** » 27 Oct 2012 1:53 am

Matt's asking for

Contemporary Country Ballads

from 1991 and later.

Bye Bye (1998) is cool, especially the intro guitar riff, but no where near a ballad.

I appreciate his difficulty in finding any from the last 15 years. It's not easy.

David Mason · Post by **David Mason** » 28 Oct 2012 3:27 am

There are any number of gorgeous songs written by and for females that can be played by a country band and still moisten the ducts, so to speak. "Time after Time" and "As I lay Me Down" come to mind. As long as pop music can claim Taylor Swift and Kenny Roger (they can keep 'em, too - grumble grumble) there's no reason you can't raid across the aisle, too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70J8r7jYthE

If yer girl can sing that, cut 'er loose... say, wasn't "I Will Always Love You" a country song?

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