Friday Playlist - C2C Headliners 2013-present

How do I sum up 25 years of country music in 12 tracks? With difficulty. Perhaps I should restrict myself to acts who have headlined Country2Country (C2C), given that the artists chosen to close each day’s entertainment are the market leaders or close to the top of the market.

Given these parameters, which 12 songs would I pick as an introduction to country music for someone who knows Johnny Cash and Dolly Parton but not, say, Thomas Rhett.

Thomas Rhett – Die A Happy Man

You know Thinking Out Loud by Ed Sheeran? This is exactly the same song, right down to the explicit (rather than potentially plagiaristic) mention of Marvin Gaye. TR headlined C2C in 2023, with a poppy setlist that he will reprise this weekend (July 31-August 2) at Wembley Stadium warming up 80,000 people at a time for…

Luke Combs – When It Rains It Pours

In 2022, so-called Luke Combs fans gatecrashed the O2 Arena with forged tickets. It besmirched the venue’s reputation for me and was instrumental in convincing me to swerve big gigs. At least Wembley Stadium has watertight policies in place, so that people can enjoy bellowing along to this kiss-off.

Tim McGraw – Live Like You Were Dying

If you were terminally ill and had no idea what to do, here’s a bucket list guide: bull-riding, skydiving, smelling ‘sweeter’. McGraw will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in October. He headlined the first C2C in 2013 on his own and returned in 2018 with his wife Faith Hill.

Chris Stapleton – Whiskey and You

And here’s a song originally cut by McGraw and performed as an acoustic torch song by its writer. The O2 Arena fell to a hushed silence when I saw Stapleton perform the song in 2016, and then a drunken lout ruined it when he headlined C2C in 2019. Other than through freebies or under duress, I don’t go to see music there…

Brad Paisley – The Mona Lisa

Which means I miss the Mona Conga, which started after Paisley headlined C2C for a second time in 2017; he did so in both 2014 and 2025. Before Luke Combs came over and sold out stadiums, Paisley was one of the few who could sell out arenas with songs like this, an anthem of country music attendees.

Lady A – Need You Now

This simple and elegant song stands out as a very rare duet among the bestsellers of the last 25 years. You believe that singers Charles and Hillary need one another, and the piano riff lures in listeners who might not think country is for them. I caught them headlining C2C in 2019, and they came back in 2023 when their time had passed.

Little Big Town – Girl Crush

As with the opening piano motif of Need You Now, a roar of recognition greets the arpeggiated intro to this song. It must delight the quartet, who in the mid-2010s finally had an all-conquering career song after 20 years in the business. I saw them headline C2C in 2018, where they followed the great Emmylou Harris.

Carrie Underwood – Velvet Heartbreak

People like Underwood’s ballads, but I like the ferocious ones. This was my favourite song from the year it came out, 2022, even though Underwood had already put together a Vegas show’s worth of hits. By the fourth C2C in 2016, she had already headlined twice; she needs to come back to the UK when free of American Idol commitments.

Keith Urban – Where the Blacktop Ends

Like Underwood, Keith Urbahn (his real name) is more or less his own genre and has headlined C2C twice. He put out a live album in 2025, the year his divorce from Nicole Kidman was announced, but he remains the true rock’n’roll star of country music. Rather shamefully I have only just discovered this song, an early single.

Darius Rucker – It Won’t Be Like This For Long

The guy from Hootie? A country star?! You bet, ignoramus, and he can do proper country, too. Here, Rucker plays a father who learns that his kid will grow up and leave home, so he should cherish fatherhood while he can. A C2C headliner in 2022, he played the deathless Wagon Wheel, which will feature in a future Friday Playlist.

Miranda Lambert – The House That Built Me

While we’re on ballads, Lambert cried when she heard this song because it articulated her life. Having spent five years singing about kerosene, gunpowder and lead, she slowed things down and proved herself to be a brilliant interpreter of song. Another 2016 headliner who returned in 2022, Lambert may well be back for 2027.

Kacey Musgraves – Rainbow

Lambert’s Texan acolyte is already booked into Wembley Arena for next February. She will play this modern standard which ended her perfect album Golden Hour and which made me cry when I heard it. And to think she left it off her first two albums because it wouldn’t fit!

Honourable mentions which may feature in future Friday Playlists

Lainey Wilson – Heart Like a Truck
Cody Johnson – Til You Can’t
Zach Top – There’s the Sun
Dierks Bentley – Drunk on a Plane
Old Dominion – Some People Do
Zac Brown Band – Colder Weather