These country tracks are sad, to be sure. But that doesn’t make them any less beloved. These songs prove that not all worthy stories end happily.
[RELATED: 3 Country Songs From the 1960s That Sounded Like Nothing Else on the Radio]
“Deportee (Plane Wreck At Los Gatos)” — Dolly Parton
Dolly Parton borrowed this Woody Guthrie country track in 1980, breaking hearts with her tender vocals. “Goodbye to my Juan, goodbye Rosalita / Adios mis a-mi-gos, Jesus and Maria / You won’t have a name when you ride the big airplane / All they will call you will be deportee,” Parton sings in this song, capturing a plane crash in 1948 that killed nearly 30 Mexican migrant farmworkers. The victims’ names remain anonymous.
This song captures the tragic end of those lives and the indignity of their anonymity in retellings. “Who are these dear friends all scattered like dry leaves / The radio said they were just deportees,” she adds later on in the track. Parton had a knack for delivering poignant messages with pristine vocals that made them easy to digest. She used that skill tenfold here.
“Travelin’ Soldier” — The Chicks
“Our love will never end / Waitin’ for the soldier to come back again / Never more to be alone when the letter said / ‘A soldier’s coming home,’” the familiar lyrics to The Chicks’ country track “Travelin’ Soldier” read. This song isn’t happy by any means, but it’s a must-listen just the same.
This song tells the story of a love between a girl and a soldier. She keeps his memory close while he’s overseas. She’s also the only one to remember him in the wake of his death. It’s a song about the cost of war, connection, and love’s impossible force.
“Angel From Montgomery” — John Prine
This is a bittersweet song about loneliness and the need for escape. “There’s flies in the kitchen, I can hear ’em there buzzing / And I ain’t done nothing since I woke up today / How the hell can a person go to work in the morning / And come home in the evening and have nothing to say,” the impeccably written bridge reads. Seldom has a song summed up life’s disillusionment better than this one.
“Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery / Make me a poster of an old rodeo / Just give me one thing that I can hold on to / To believe in this livin’ is just a hard way to go,” the lyrics continue. When we listen to this song, we’re washed in deep emotion, but it’s a visceral story worth revisiting.
(Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
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