So many of my favorite country songs growing up had fantastic harmonies. Here are three classic songs that can definitely stand alone but also have vocal arrangements that set them apart.
“Better Man” by Little Big Town
Initially, this song was actually intended for Taylor Swift‘s 2012 album Red. At some point, she thought to pitch it to Little Big Town instead. Not to worry, though. Swift would later put her own spin on the song when she released Red (Taylor’s Version).
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Apparently, it took some time for the band to really get comfortable with the song, as they told People magazine.
“It took us a little bit, and then we finally got there,” Karen Fairchild shared. “We have such fond memories of bringing [Swift] to the studio to let her hear when it was done, and she turned around after she listened to it, and her mouth was open.”
Fairchild continued, “She was like, ‘I love it. I love it.’”
“If I Die Young” by The Band Perry
This is one of those country songs that just haunts you to your core. As Kimberly Perry explained to The Boot, “If I Die Young” is about making the absolute most of the time you have.
“We really have gotten to live and love at our young ages. ‘If I Die Young’, for us, is about, if it all ends at this moment, look at what we’ve gotten to do. Whatever time we’re given will be absolutely enough, as long as we make the most of it.”
“Cowboy Take Me Away” by The Dixie Chicks
The Dixie Chicks knew what they were doing with this one in 1999. This song has nostalgia written all over it. In 2019, a younger Taylor Swift even talked about that special feeling that “Cowboy Take Me Away” encapsulates.
“To this day, when I hear ‘Cowboy Take Me Away’ by the Dixie Chicks, I instantly recall the feeling of being 12 years old, sitting in a little wood-paneled room in my family home in Pennsylvania,” she told Elle UK. “I’m clutching a guitar and learning to play the chords and sing the words at the same time, rehearsing for a gig at a coffee house.”
Photo by: John Shearer/Getty Images for ACM
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