3 Male Country Singers With Unmistakable Singing Voices

There are many elements that make a country song great. The lyrics, the delivery, the storytelling, the details and, to isolate one in particular, the singing voice. While a keenly told story set to music can be terrific, if a singer has the right voice, he or she can recite the phone book over a slide guitar and it would be worth the price of admission.

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Here below, we wanted to examine three such examples. But we’re going to get even more specific and examine the male side of the bracket for now. Indeed, these are three male country artists with unmistakable singing voices.

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Johnny Cash

Like a holler in a canyon, Johnny Cash’s low voice roils and bellows as he sings the painfully honest songs that have since become country standards. For the Kingsland, Arkansas-born crooner, his voice was his calling card, both in its tone and timbre and in what it delivered. Songs about a boy named Sue, rings of fire, and walking the line. If your neighbor had sung these tunes, they wouldn’t be nearly as effective. But with Cash’s cavernous croon, it made all the difference.

Hank Williams

Perhaps the definition standard of a male country singing voice. Cowboy hat and all. Hank Williams had twang and spitfire in his delivery. He looked like he might lasso you and then pull you in for a big wet sloppy kiss on your forehead. But with that guitar and rolling zoom of a voice, the Butler County, Alabama-born Williams helped to define what 20th-century country music would be thanks to songs like “Hey Good Lookin’ and “I’m So Lonesome I Could Cry.”

Chris Stapleton

For the Lexington, Kentucky-born Chris Stapleton, singing is like parting the clouds. Usually lightning shoots downward, but when Stapleton sings, it goes in the other direction. He has range, clarity, and growl. He can belt out lyrics and back it up with guitar solos or he can sway and roll like a river, as on one of his signature hits, “Tennessee Whiskey.” Stapleton, who seems to win award after award every year, is, well, a staple of country music thanks to his incredible vocal instrument.

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