Dick Barrie's
Country Music Website

Top Ten Contemporary Male Performers

in preface to this list, I should explain I consider a "contemporary" performer to one currently active, signed to a major label and (regardless of when their career began) who is creating Billboard chart activity in 2001.

They need not be specifically "New Country" - just currently active at the top of the profession!

This list is created in no specific order - just ten guys I reckon to be the best in the business at this point in time.

1) GARTH BROOKS: The Guv'nor! Simply the biggest thing to hit country music since Elvis, nearly 40 years before. Clear, incisive voice, structured songs - a superb live performer in the biggest stadiums, and a firm grip on his career throughout the wild ride he took to super-stardom (while selling 100 million records!) during the '90's. New Country? Garth led the way, bashed the door open - all the others just ran through behind him…..

2) ALAN JACKSON: Like Garth Brooks, a man in control. Writes most of his own music. Good, very distinctive, voice. Tall, blond and good-looking - a fine stage presence. Can stay on top of his particular tall, tall tree as long as he wants to.

3) BRAD PAISLEY: Too soon? Don't you believe it! His rise to the top over the past year-and-a-half, backed by a single album, has been quick, but very sure. A deeply religious young man, he is blessed with a nice voice, expert guitar-picking skills - and he writes a good song.

4) TIM McGRAW: A steady haul to the very top of the tree over the past decade. Son of baseball pitcher Tug McGraw, and husband to Faith Hill, Tim's voice can handle a ballad as easily as an up-tempo stormer.

5) VINCE GILL: Two decades after joining Pure Prairie League, Vince remains country's "Mister Nice Guy", perennial host at the CMA Awards Show - and owner/operator of one of popular music's finest high tenor voices. Picks a pretty mean guitar, too.

6) COLLIN RAYE: Doesn't write, doesn't pick - but golly, can he sing! A super high-flying tenor out of Arkansas with a string of hits a decade long. His mother (Lois) used to play small-town concerts in the 50's with early Sun performers such as Elvis, Cash and Perkins. Came to country music after some years honing performing skills in Las Vegas

7) GEORGE STRAIT: As I say every week on air, The Great George Strait! The performer who highlighted country music to a young Garth Brooks. The top country seller of the '80's (his first hit came in 1981) his stature remains undiminished by the arrival of the new kids on the New Country block since 1990 onwards. His concerts play to huge, sell-out audiences - when he can be persuaded to leave the ranch! I met him once, in the early '80's, and he was so shy he could hardly talk for a while! An excellent selector of the best songs, his reticence remains to the extent that he's happier at home, working with his string of prize horses, than on the road. Thankfully, he does still take time to make another great album, and play a few big tour dates, each and every year. Long make the process continue!

8) SAMMY KERSHAW: In my Top Ten? Oh, aye. A lovely, mellow voice and phrasing of which George Jones wouldn't be ashamed, this Louisiana lad makes lovely music - and has a happy knack of reviving older songs on his albums which (although rarely taken as singles) are - for me - often the stand-out track on the CD.

9) JOHN MICHAEL MONTGOMERY: For a while back there in the late '90's, it seemed as though John Michael might be ready to attack the position held by Garth at the very top of the ladder. Equally at home with a fast-paced tongue-twister as he is with a ballad, "The Man With Three Names" has levelled out a little of late - but remains very much in anybody's Top Ten. I believe.

10) DWIGHT YOAKAM: Nasal, bald, must be at least 45 now - yet Dwight remains by far the most-accessible star on our list for younger, rock-oriented fans. An accomplished song-writer who has also featured in several good films (the kind we don't find only on TV or video), he remains a few steps apart from the Nashville mainstream - and none the worse of being so. One of his finest achievements of late has been to persuade his idol Buck Owens to return to the business, and make a few well-received appearances on stage with Yoakam.

Not easy, picking out only ten! If it gives any consolations to champions of their cause, a "mention in dispatches" must also be given to the likes of RANDY TRAVIS, NEAL McCOY, HAL KETCHUM and CLINT BLACK, while the newer names who will surely assume future greatness (and might expect to be included in similar listings next time around) would have to include GARY ALLAN, KEITH URBAN, CHAD BROCK and TRACE ADKINS. Just watch!

DICK BARRIE - 27.2.01