48 Essential Country Songs From the 2000s [LISTEN]
With the dawn of a new millennium, country music threw open the barn doors and launched a new era of crossover hits and country stars from pop, bluegrass and rock 'n' roll roots. It was the age of the "Redneck Woman," and everybody figured out that it was "Five O'Clock Somewhere."
The first decade of the new millennium, 2000-2009, also found country music stars using their stages as platforms for a political voice, kicking some careers into overdrive and sending others into a free fall for unpopular opinions. The terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, unleashed a wave of reactions in the country music world: for example, anger in Toby Keith's "Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American)" and grief in Alan Jackson's "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)."
In a playlist, The Boot has rounded up some of the best country songs that came out of the first decade of the 21st century. Press play below for more than three hours of '00s country music.
Listen to The Boot's 2000s Country Playlist