'90s Country

The '90s put country music on the charts, quite literally, as SoundScan sales-based figures confirmed Nashville's secret: them country folks sold lots more records than the city slickers thought. Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn electrified the line dance with their "Boot Scootin' Boogie," Clint Black paid homage to the Eagles with his cover of "Desperado," and Faith Hill had a huge crossover smash with her anthemic "Breathe." Course, while the U.S. produced the lion's share of stars, homegrown trooper Lee Kernaghan put his own Ute-powered spin on the decade with "Boys from the Bush." And there's a jackaroo among the Chicks, in Next Steps.

The Dixie Chicks turned their multi-year underground status into "overnight success" with an album — Wide Open Spaces — that featured three massive hits, of which "There's Your Trouble" was the first. Lorrie Morgan rebounded from the death of her country-superstar husband Keith Whitley to great chart success, notably with the autobiographical "I Didn't Know My Own Strength," Kenny Chesney caused mass swooning the world over with "You Had Me from Hello," and jackaroo James Blundell wore his heart on his sleeve with "Touch of Water." LeAnn Rimes channels Patsy Cline, in Deep Cuts.

Aaron Tippin had his first chart-topper of the '90s with a song about his beaten-up car with the great sound system, "There Ain't Nothing Wrong With the Radio." Faith Hill had an unlikely smash with a song made famous by Janis Joplin, "Piece of My Heart," LeAnn Rimes' "Blue" harked back to Patsy Cline's era as a counterweight to country's modernization, Sherrié Austin — who had opened for Johnny Cash in Australia as a teenager — laid down the law to men-folk with "Put Your Heart Into It," and Billy Ray Cyrus took line-dancing global with "Achy Breaky Heart."

The '90s was a transitional time in country music — the era of the line dance, the "hat" vs. the "no hat" acts, the winding down of the hit-making machine named for the Cotton State, and Wynonna Judd's transition to just plain Wynonna, as her audience grew exponentially. Faith Hill and Tim McGraw had the most notable country merger since Johnny Cash and June Carter. And while rhythmic, rather than melodic, music dominated pop radio, millions of listeners (particularly young adult to middle-aged women) flocked to the sounds of country. The superwomen of country included Terri Clark ("You're Easy on the Eyes") and Shania Twain, who saw her career take off in a stratospheric way. Yee-haw, indeed.