First impressions go a long way in music, and these country debut albums are some of the best examples of how to make a memorable, lasting, and genre-defining introduction. These artists' freshman releases not only gave listeners an idea of who the artist was creatively, effectively defending their rightful place within the country music genre.
These debuts also accomplished an even larger task: improving upon the genre with a new style, perspective, or musical touch. While this list does not cover every incredible country debut, here are some of our all-time favorites.
John Prine's 1971 eponymous debut might have never happened had Kris Kristofferson not taken up a colleague's suggestion to catch a Prine set while the "Me and Bobby McGee" songwriter was in Chicago for his own weekend of concerts. Most of what Kristofferson heard that night ended up on Prine's incredible country debut album, including "Sam Stone," "Hello in There," and "Angel from Montgomery." Prine's self-titled debut redefined good, authentic, and brilliant songwriting forever with this 13-track collection.
Kacey Musgraves' 2013 country album debut, Same Trailer Different Park, was a unique blend of many musical elements that had come before her. Gretchen Wilson already had trailer park culture on lock. Pop stars had been doing their pop thing for years. Willie Nelson was the pot-smoking country singer. But Musgraves managed to glue bits and pieces of these influences to her overall stage persona, like hot gluing sequins on a Goodwill dress.
If anyone was worrying about the decline of troubled baritones in country music à la Johnny Cash in the mid-aughts, Canadian singer-songwriter Colter Wall swept in and saved the day with the release of his 2015 country debut album, Imaginary Appalachia. With his timeless voice and melancholy imagery that earned country music the joke about losing the house, wife, dog, and truck back, Wall captured a quintessentially American sound despite his Saskatchewan roots (Joni Mitchell's old stomping grounds, by the way).
Even if you didn't know that Chris Stapleton's country album debut was called Traveller, you likely know one of the lead singles off the 2015 record: "Tennessee Whiskey." Stapleton's solo debut came after years of working as a songwriter and member of the SteelDrivers in Nashville. The album not only solidified his place in the country genre as a solo artist. It also incorporated elements of soul and Southern rock that hadn't been in mainstream country for years.
Before there was the billionaire pop star behind the record-breaking "Eras" tour, there was curly-haired, teenage Taylor Swift, the rising country star. Swift's 2006 debut offered a different perspective to the genre with cuts like "Tim McGraw," Teardrops on My Guitar," and "Our Song." Swift's country album debut is everything one might expect from songs written by a girl going through high school. It's aspirational, almost naive in its hopeless romanticism, and, at times, a little bit temperamental.