4 Country Legends Who Had Successful Comebacks

Country artists have come and gone through the years. Many have made it big and still have solid country music careers today. And for others, their careers have moved with the ebb and flow of the industry, and their comebacks have been ultra-successful. Let’s look at a few country legends who had successful comebacks!

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1. Johnny Cash

There’s no doubt that Johnny Cash was one of the biggest country singers of his heyday and one of the most influential artists whose legacy still endures today. Cash enjoyed quite a successful career from the 1950s to the 2000s. However, no career is ever perfectly consistent. 

Cash had to make a few small comebacks through the years, notably after a dry spell in the 1980s. He left Columbia Records and made a major career comeback in the 1990s. And he did it all on his own. American Recordings was famously recorded in his own home in 1994.

2. Sara Evans

This country music starlet first hit it big in the 1990s with the major country hit “No Place That Far”. She went on to deliver dozens of hit singles through the years that have charted well on the Hot Country chart. 

Evans’ career hit a lull after releasing her greatest hits album in 2007. In 2011, she came back to the country game with the album Stronger. The first single from the album, “A Little Bit Stronger”, became her first platinum single.

[See Sara Evans Live In 2024]

3. Shania Twain

It’s not a country comeback list without mentioning Shania Twain! Twain was the biggest country star in the world in her heyday of the late 1990s and early 2000s. Her career was cut short in 2004 when she suddenly decided to quit performing live. Allegedly, Twain suffered from a “weakening” voice and wanted to move to Switzerland to enjoy some peace after her intense but short music career.

Almost ten years later, she came back with the hit album Now. In 2015, she kicked off her farewell Rock This Country Tour, and fans couldn’t get enough of it. 

4. Tanya Tucker

Tanya Tucker experienced fame early on in her life, which might have led to the downfall of her career. Her first hit was “Delta Dawn”, which was produced when Tucker was only 13 years old. She enjoyed less than a decade of success before her career waned in the late 1970s. Unfortunately, like many child stars, Tucker suffered from drug problems in her teens, and her career was thought to be over by the early 1980s.

Luckily, things started looking up for Tucker in 1986. The song “One Love At A Time” was a huge hit, she finished rehab, and by the 1990s she delivered a full-on successful comeback.

Photo by David Redfern

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