Here are some of our favorite country songs about money matters.

1. Wynn Stewart – Another Day, Another Dollar
2. Chris Knight – Another Dollar
3. Tom T. Hall – Ballad of Forty Dollars
4. Billy Joe Shaver – Bottom Dollar
5. Jamey Johnson – The Dollar
6. Ted Russell Kamp – If I Had A Dollar
7. Faron Young – I’ve Got Five Dollars and It’s Saturday Night
8. Tim McGraw – Last Dollar (Fly Away)
9. Rebecca Lynn Howard – Life of a Dollar
10. Gillian Welch – One More Dollar
11. Emmylou Harris – Queen of the Silver Dollar
12. The Delmore Brothers – Silver Dollar
13. Shawn Camp – The Tune of the Twenty Dollar Bill
14. Chris LeDoux – Workin’ Man’s Dollar
15. Corb Lund – Five Dollar Bill
16. Townes Van Zandt – Dollar Bill Blues
17. Stringbean – Give Me Back My Five Dollars
18. Steve Gulley & Tim Stafford – Sixteen Cents
19. Ricky Skaggs – I Had But 50 Cents
20. Chris Wall – Ten Cents on the Dollar

See also:
Hoyt Axton – Greenback Dollar
Eddie Rabbitt – Two Dollars in the Jukebox
Walt Wilkins – Somedays A Dollar
Bleu Edmonson – 50 Dollars & a Flask of Crown
Owen Temple – Dollars and Dimes
The Infamous Stringdusters – 17 Cents
The Wilkinsons – 26 Cents
Porter Wagoner – Eleven Cent Cotton
Norman Blake – Give Me Back My Fifteen Cents
John Michael Montgomery – A Few Cents Short

Not sure where you’d find songs like that? Fear not, friend: we’ve got you covered. Here’s the soul-soothing mix that’s been spinning in the Country California hot rod (slash mid-90s sedan) over the past several weeks. It hasn’t failed us yet.

• “As She’s Walking Away” – Zac Brown Band w/ Alan Jackson
• “Your Husband’s Cheating On Us” – Matraca Berg
• “Bring Back My Heart” – Kasey Chambers
• “Brandi Sue” – Jeremy Steding
• “Bottle In My Hand” – Hayes Carll, Todd Snider, and Corb Lund
• “A Few Ole Country Boys” – Randy Travis w/ Jamey Johnson
• “Turn Your Radio On” – Nell Robinson
• “In Jail” – Justin Haigh
• “Oklahoma Hills” – Ben Hall
• “Working in Tennessee” – Merle Haggard
• “Lemon Drop” – Pistol Annies
• “Nights” – Byron Hill
• “Feelin’ Like El Paso” – Charlie Sizemore
• “Red River Blue” – Blake Shelton w/ Miranda Lambert
• “She Left Me in Modesto” – Hellbound Glory
• “Loving Is Better Than Leaving” – Jacob Lyda
• “There She Goes” – The Dirt Drifters
• “L.A. Freeway” – Radney Foster
• “Take the High Road” – Blind Boys of Alabama
• “Last Horse” – Randy Montana w/ Emmylou Harris
• “Codeine” – Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit
• “Love’s Gonna Make It Alright” – George Strait
• “Over When It’s Over” – Eric Church

What new(ish) songs have you found yourself listening to a lot lately?

Well, no. And if you make fun of her, that’ll be grounds for dismissal from the site because, come on, it’s Mom. Actually, there isn’t much to make fun of here anyway – Mom’s a Waylon and Willie fan from way back, and I’ve turned her onto a lot of the newer stuff as I’ve discovered it over the years. Which isn’t to say that she’s taken to all of it – Mom finds Darius Rucker’s voice annoying and is unconscionably indifferent to most bluegrass, for example.

I asked for 20 songs or so to fill a CD, but she got pretty serious about browsing through the collection for favorites and ended up with 40. So, here’s her playlist. Thanks for humoring me, Mom!

Billy Joe Shaver – I Been to Georgia on a Fast Train
Brooks and Dunn – Boot Scootin’ Boogie
Brooks and Dunn – We’ll Burn That Bridge
Brooks and Dunn – Whiskey Under The Bridge
Chris Young – Drinkin’ Me Lonely
David Allan Coe – The Ride (She discovered this through Tim McGraw’s version on TV.)
Dwight Yoakam – Fast As You
Dwight Yoakam – Guitars, Cadillacs
Gary Allan – As the Crow Flies (“Love, love, love Gary Allan’s voice.”)
Gary Allan – It Would Be You
George Strait – Cowboys Like Us (She likes songs about cowboys.)
George Strait – I Just Want to Dance With You (“This song makes me feel happy whenever I hear it.”)
George Strait – She’ll Leave You With a Smile
Josh Turner – Why Don’t We Just Dance
Keith Whitley – Don’t Close Your Eyes
Keith Whitley – Hard Livin’
Kenny Chesney – That’s Why I’m Here
Mark Chesnutt – Beer, Bait and Ammo
Mark Chesnutt – Somebody Save The Honky Tonks
Merle Haggard – I Think I’ll Just Stay Here and Drink
Miranda Lambert and Buddy Jewell – Today I Started Loving You Again (“Miranda’s never sounded better.”)
Paul Overstreet – It Takes a Whole Lotta Liquor To Like Her
Randy Travis – It’s Just a Matter of Time
Randy Travis – Point of Light
Sawyer Brown – Some Girls Do
Sawyer Brown – Step That Step
Sawyer Brown – The Boys and Me
The Notorious Cherry Bombs – Let It Roll, Let It Ride
Todd Snider – Alright Guy
Todd Snider – Enjoy Yourself
Todd Snider – Just In Case
Tracy Lawrence – Sawdust On Her Halo (“What’s that Tracy Lawrence song about the sawdust?”)
Tracy Lawrence – Texas Tornado
Tracy Lawrence – Used To The Pain
Vern Gosdin – This Ain’t My First Rodeo (She likes it when he goes high on certain words.)
Vern Gosdin – Who You Gonna Blame It On This Time
Waylon Jennings – I’ve Always Been Crazy
Waylon Jennings – Lonesome, On’ry and Mean
Willie Nelson – My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys
Willie Nelson – Stardust (She used to wear this out on vinyl.)

BONUS: BEST CHRISTMAS SONG EVER: George Strait – Christmas Cookies

Not bad, huh? Happy Mother’s Day!

This began as an outlandish idea for a list of songs and turned into something even weirder, which I call…

Facts About Lonely Guys in Empty Houses

1. They find odd ways of entertaining themselves.

The Grand Tour – George Jones
This guy imagines he’s a tour guide and rehearses an elaborate, fantastically depressing walk through the site of his former happiness and present disintegration. It’s hard to imagine many people wanting to take that tour… unless the guy happens to be George Jones and he’s giving the tour in song format.

Hello Walls – Faron Young
Meanwhile, this guy chats up the walls, windows, and ceiling in hopes that they share his pain.

Flowers on the Wall – The Statler Brothers
He divides his time between staring at the wallpaper, playing Solitaire, watching television, and putting on his tuxedo (tails and all) for no reason, insisting all the while that he’s actually very busy.

Walking the Floor Over You – Ernest Tubb
If you can’t think of anything else to do, just pace around the house nonstop. This is only recommended for people in proper houses and ground-level apartments. Don’t do this if you have neighbors downstairs.

2. They are not mindful of energy conservation.

Every Light in the House – Trace Adkins
This man irresponsibly leaves all the lights turned on 24/7 for the woman he’s pretty sure won’t be coming back.

The Door Is Always Open – Waylon Jennings
This one leaves just one light on in the hall, but also leaves the door ajar. He doesn’t specify whether he has central heating (how could he leave out such an important detail?), but if so, this is an enormous waste of energy.

3. They are not particularly sane.

Nothing’s Changed Here – Dwight Yoakam
It’s like she’s still there, except that she’s actually long gone.

Be a Little Quieter – Porter Wagoner
This guy’s so far gone that he’s pleading with the ghost/memory that haunts him (footsteps in the hall, rattling pots and pans in the kitchen, running water in the bathroom) to keep it down a bit so he can catch some sleep.

Haunted House – Aaron Watson
This one’s actually a double whammy, since the ghost of the former relationship that follows him everywhere also prompts him to sleep with all the lights on. Frightening and un-environmentally-conscious.

Walls – Ray Scott
Although he’s “just a few thoughts shy of being certified insane,” this guy still has the presence of mind to realize that the real problem isn’t when you start talking to walls: it’s when they start talking back.

4. They’re big on prison metaphors.

House of Memories – Merle Haggard
My house is a prison where memories surround me
There’s no place to hide where your memory won’t find me

When a House (Is Not a Home) – Roger Miller
Is there a way out for a soul so torn as mine?
Each day I’m living like a prisoner passing time

5. They are open to downsizing. Maybe a good time for a studio apartment?

Home for Sale – Dwight Yoakam
More square footage = more space to fill up with memories = more misery

Fool’s Castle – Merle Haggard
He thought he was doing her right by spoiling her rotten, but he forgot to give her love. Now he feels foolish in his big mansion on a hilltop all by himself. To make matters worse, all the (apparently very nosy) townspeople have taken to calling his house “Fool’s Castle.” An apartment in the city has never looked better.

6. They do not excel at home and plant care.

Things Have Gone to Pieces – George Jones
This guy’s life is falling apart, leaving him feeling powerless in the face of even the most minor home improvement challenges: a drippy faucet, a picture fallen off the wall, a light bulb burnt out.

Since You Ain’t Home – Mark Chesnutt
Here, the woman’s departure is the direct cause of the activities that lead to the home’s deterioration: The carpet’s wearin’ through, where I dragged around these blues/And the curtain’s torn in two, from me lookin’ out for you. I’m going to guess that letting the grass grow over the flowers she planted probably wasn’t accidental either.

Before You Kill Us All – Randy Travis
“You better come home soon, honey, because your absence isn’t just killing me. It’s also killing the dog, cat, fish, and house plants, none of which I know how to care for properly.”

The Feminine Touch – Johnny Paycheck
Clocks are stopping, plants are dying, dust is everywhere, and dude just doesn’t care anymore.

Another Day Without You – Mike Stinson
The only thing more tragicomic than the speaker’s description of his disintegrating home and life is the revelation that he’s telling it all right to the woman who left him over the telephone. This fact becomes clear near the end of the song: Well now, wait a minute, hon/I’ll try not to be so glum… Didn’t want to sound so desperate/Can’t find other words for what I’m going through/I’m just trying to survive another day without you. Now that’s down-and-out.

This Ole House – Stuart Hamblen
An oddly jaunty celebration of a home falling into disrepair and the old man who doesn’t care because he’s “getting ready to meet the saints” anyway, leaving the old homestead to his old hound dog.

7. They sometimes exhibit destructive behavior.

Mowin’ Down the Roses – Jamey Johnson
Instead of just sitting there suffering, he channels his energy into something productive, like demolishing every last trace of her: pictures, perfume, clothes, you name it. Those roses she planted don’t stand a chance.

8. They don’t have a monopoly on misery.

House of Pain – Danni Leigh
While radio darlings are preoccupied by finding new expressions of optimism, hard-edged female singers like Danni Leigh remind us that suffering at home all by your lonesome is not exclusively a male domain.

Can you think of other songs in this vein? Or, for that matter, other facts about lonely guys in empty houses (keep it clean)? Feel free to add them below. Oh, and give the playlist a listen while you’re at it.

Songs not available on Amazon:
“Another Day Without You” by Mike Stinson
“This Ole House” by Stuart Hamblen

• Amarillo Highway – Robert Earl Keen
• Give Me the Highway – Vince Gill and The Del McCoury Band
• Heartaches and Highways – Rodney Hayden
• Heartbreak Highway – Sawyer Brown
• Highway 17 – Rodney Crowell
• Highway 20 Ride – Zac Brown Band
• Highway 40 Blues – Ricky Skaggs
• Highway 54 – Wayne Hancock
• Highway 87 – Hayes Carll (version in player is by Jimmy Kaiser)
• Highway Blue – J.B. Beverley & The Wayward Drifters
• Highway Halo – Old Crow Medicine Show
• Highway Junkie – Chris Knight
• Highway Kind – Moot Davis
• Highway Patrol – Junior Brown
• Highwayman - The Highwaymen
• Highways, Heartaches and Honky Tonks - Brian Burns
• Hillbilly Highway – Steve Earle
• Home Sweet Highway – The Wrights
• Life’s Highway – Steve Wariner
• Lost Highway – Hank Williams
• Mama Knows the Highway – Hal Ketchum
• My Way’s the Highway – Roger Wallace
• Rollin’ Down This Highway – Mo Robson Band
• Too Many Highways – Merle Haggard
• Wreck on the Highway – Roy Acuff

Here’s a playlist of Christmas come-ons for your enjoyment and possible practical application in the coming week. It’s slanted heavily (okay, completely) mainstream and contemporary, mostly because that’s the stuff that was coming to mind. Feel free to comment with your own suggestions and take the list in any direction you please.

• All I Want for Christmas Dear Is You – Travis Tritt (Buck Owens)
• All I Want for Christmas Is You – LeAnn Rimes
• All I Want for Christmas Is You – Whitney Duncan (Mariah Carey song)
• Baby It’s Cold Outside – Lady Antebellum (new on iTunes this week)
• Blame It On the Mistletoe – Toby Keith
• Christmas Cookies – George Strait
• Christmas in Your Arms – Steve Wariner
• Hangin’ Round the Mistletoe – Alabama
• I Know What I Want for Christmas – George Strait
• I Only Want You for Christmas – Alan Jackson
• Just Love Me – LeAnn Rimes
• Just Put a Ribbon in Your Hair – Doug Stone
• Let’s Make a Little Christmas Tonight – Phil Vassar
• Meet Me Under the Mistletoe – Randy Travis
• Rockin’ Little Christmas – Brooks & Dunn
• Santa Baby – Kellie Pickler
• The Angel at the Top of My Tree – Kenny Chesney
• The Night Before Christmas – Alabama
• The Season for Romance – Lee Ann Womack
• Wrap Me in Love – Joe Diffie

• Amarillo Sky – Jason Aldean
  He says, “Lord I never complain, I never ask why,
  But please don’t let my dreams run dry
  Underneath, underneath this Amarillo sky”

• Amber Waves of Grain – Merle Haggard
  Can’t we save a bit of foreign aid for the farmer over here?
  Or the amber waves of grain may disappear
• Broken Plow – Chris Knight
  Take you one last look around, shed you one last tear
  For the broken plow, the broken dreams, and the life we’re leaving here
• Cafe on the Corner – Sawyer Brown
  They say crime don’t pay, but neither does farming these days
  And the coffee is cold and he’s fifty years old
  And he’s got to learn to live some other way
• Cloud of Dust – Brad Paisley
  He’s holding his ground, but it’s getting tough
  He’s keeping his faith in the Lord up above
  Praying for rain through a cloud of dust
• Country Ain’t Country – Travis Tritt
  The back forty was sold to make up for hard times
  Then sold by the half-acre lot overnight
• Daddy Won’t Sell the Farm – Montgomery Gentry
  He’s gonna live and die
  In the eye of an urban storm
  Daddy won’t sell the farm
• Don’t Sell the Farm – Junior Brown
  After all these years of trying to make a go
  This farming life is all we love, and it’s all we know
• Farmer’s Blues – Marty Stuart with Merle Haggard
  I work the land, I watch the sky
  I talk to God and wonder why
  But it’s the only life I know
  These farmer’s blues
• House and 90 Acres – Chris Knight
  But I’ve watched my tools and my tractor leave in someone else’s hands
  I grit my teeth and I let ‘em go, but I won’t give up my land
• In My Next Life – Merle Haggard
  The muscles in his arms, just like his run-down farm
  Soon withered up and slowly disappeared
• Song of the South – Alabama
  Well, mama got sick and daddy got down
  The county got the farm and they moved to town
• The Rain Came Down – Steve Earle
  So don’t you come around here with your auctioneer man
  Cuz you can have the machines but you ain’t takin’ my land

• Always Late (With Your Kisses) – Lefty Frizzell
• Careful Where You Kiss Me – Andy Griggs
• Every Time I’m Kissing You – Faron Young
• French Kissing Life – Kenny Chesney
• Give Me More, More, More (Of Your Kisses) – Lefty Frizzell
• Hold You, Kiss You, Love You – Toby Keith
• It’s Hard to Kiss the Lips at Night That Chew Your Ass Out All Day Long – The Notorious Cherry Bombs
• Kiss An Angel Good Morning – Charley Pride
• Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me – Kenny Chesney
• Kiss My Country Ass – Rhett Akins
• Kiss This – Aaron Tippin
• Kisses Sweeter Than Wine – Waylon Jennings
• Kissing You Goodbye – Waylon Jennings
• Long, Slow Kisses – Jeff Bates
• The Longer the Waiting (The Sweeter the Kiss) – Josh Turner
• Passionate Kisses – Mary Chapin Carpenter
• Shut Up and Kiss Me – Mary Chapin Carpenter
• This Kiss – Faith Hill
• You Can’t Find Many Kissers - Hank Williams Jr.
• You Shouldn’t Kiss Me Like This – Toby Keith

• Angel’s Hands – Rodney Atkins
• Back of Your Hand – Dwight Yoakam
• Daddy’s Hands – Holly Dunn
• Dear Lord, Take My Hand – Maddox Brothers and Rose
• Devil’s Right Hand – Steve Earle
• Does My Ring Burn Your Finger – Lee Ann Womack
• Does My Ring Hurt Your Finger – Charley Pride
• Fate’s Right Hand – Rodney Crowell
• Fist City – Loretta Lynn
• Hand in the Fire – Clint Black
• Hands On Man – Jeff Bates
• Humdinger on Her Finger – Byron Hill
• I Can’t Keep My Hands Off of You – Waylon Jennings
• In the Palm of Your Hands – Gord Bamford
• Jesus, Hold My Hand – Vern Gosdin
• On the Other Hand – Randy Travis
• Put Your Hand in Mine – Tracy Byrd
• Right In the Palm of Your Hand – Alan Jackson
• Right Left Hand – George Jones
• Slow Hand – Conway Twitty
• Stone Cold Fingers – Leland Martin
• There’s No Holes in These Hands – David Allan Coe
• Unwound – George Strait
• Wrapped – Bruce Robison
• Wrapped Around – Brad Paisley

• The Grass is Blue – Dolly Parton
• I Don’t Care – Blake Shelton
• I’m Over You – Keith Whitley
• I’ve Forgotten You – Rhonda Vincent
• Missing You – Brooks & Dunn
• Not That I Care – Willie Nelson
• She Thinks I Still Care – George Jones
• Cantaloupes on Mars – Sammy Kershaw
• I Won’t Need You Anymore – Randy Travis
• If I Don’t Love You (Grits Ain’t Groceries) – George Jones
• Ocean Front Property – George Strait
• When Pigs Fly – Kellie Coffey