Country Music’s Bar Exam – Songs About Drinking

Cause one's too much and twelve just ain't enough. 

- Moe Bandy 

Country music and good strong alcoholic drinks seem to go hand and hand. It seems wild when you consider country music, for the most part, started with people singing in church. 

There are bars, juke joints, honky-tonks, night clubs, watering holes, the list of what those places where live music and cold beer meet is endless. In a lot of those locations, it’s country music you’ll hear.  honky-tonks are often credited as the places live country music started.  

But that’s not completely correct. The origin of the term honky-tonk originally referred to bawdy variety shows in the Old West -  Oklahoma, the Indian Territories and Texas - and the theaters that allowed the shows on their stages. 

The first real music genre to be referred to as honky-tonk was piano music. It was related to ragtime and had an emphasis on rhythm more than melody or harmony. Before World War II the music industry referred to this music as “hillbilly music” and it was played from Texas and Oklahoma all the way out to the west coast. Soon, they started calling it honky-tonk music.  

In the late 1950 is known as the Golden Age of honky-tonk music with the arrival and popularity of Webb Pierce, Hank Locklin, George Jones, and Hank Williams. 

From there, it was only a small step from variety shows to hillbilly music to drinking in the honky-tonks. 

Once Jones, Williams and other took their music to Nashville, people took to the honky-tonks, looking for places to go after work to socialize, just wind down after a long day, and have a cold drink or peddle illegal moonshine from the trunks of the cars. The hillbilly/ honky-tonk music was the soundtrack.  

The music was songs featuring heartbreak, hard times and drinking as a coping mechanism. That really sealed the deal bridging honky-tonk and country music 

Drinking songs mean different things to different people. For most it’s a sad country song recalling a long lost love. It’s a song you listen to when a relationship breaks up or breaks down. It’s a song you listen to when the bills are due and there’s not enough money at the end of the week. Drinking songs are sad songs and a lot of sad songs are country. 

Ernest is a country artist who writes with today’s biggest stars, such as Morgan Wallen, Hardy, and Lainey Wilson, once said sad songs made him happy. I feel the same way about drinking songs. I started digging through my playlist of drinking songs and came with a few of my favorites that hit rye whiskey hard: 

A good drinking song is one you’d find a cover band playing in a honky-tonk, a festival, or a fair. They are found on a jukebox or on a night when it is just you, a bottle of whiskey, and a Merle Haggard record.