My Favorite '90s Country Songs

• Check Yes or No - Garth Brooks
  Little kindergarten me thought this song was the end-all, be-all relationship goal. My dress made a full circle as I twirled through the living room to it. It's the first song I remember loving.
• Whose Bed Have Your Boots Been Under? - Shania Twain
  My mom and her boyfriend would disappear, leaving four of us kids alone at home. Our second-favorite unsupervised nighttime activity? Calling the local country station to request Shania Twain songs. She has many greats, but this one is my favorite.

  (For the record, our #1 favorite activity was pelting my older brother with couch cushions as he walked in the door from his late shift at Wendy's.)

• Strawberry Wine - Deana Carter
  I'm 17 and it's summer. I'm in a parking lot drinking Strawberry Hill Boone's Farm passed down by someone's older sibling. I have a little bit of money, nowhere to be, and a '97 Dodge Ram of my very own to get me there.

  Not quite what Deana was going for, but that's the bittersweet nostalgia that this song evokes for me.

  (It must be noted for my own street cred that "Strawberry Wine" wasn't actually on my radar at 17. In that parking lot I was listening to whatever indie rock albums Pitchfork told me to like. "Strawberry Wine" to Strawberry Jam. Still, this is a retroactive favorite.)

  (It must also be noted that the picture I'm painting here expresses a sense of ease and coolness that was in reality completely absent. Any pulls from the bottle came with a grimace, and the cool kids hung out in cornfields, not the Walmart parking lot.)

• XXX's and OOO's (An American Girl) - Trisha Yearwood
  Abysmally styled title notwithstanding, I like this one. On the genius.com page, the line "Well, she's got her God" is annotated with: "hoe is religious."
• Neon Moon - Brooks & Dunn
  My sister and I saw Brooks & Dunn live. It's one of the only things we've done alone together as adults. Way up in the rafters, this song was the most fun to sing.
• Boot Scootin' Boogie - Brooks & Dunn
  This song is my dad and his brothers donning ridiculous hats and disappearing to who knows where until God knows when. In '95, my dad came back with a new wife. She collected clown figurines. Good times.
• I Can Still Make Cheyenne - George Strait
  Leaving it all behind to become a rodeo star? Can't say I don't see the appeal.
• Heads Carolina, Tails California - Jo Dee Messina
  Greyhound buses, U-Hauls, gas stations. Fleeing a small town. Add in a coin-op laundromat and you have the recipe for my favorite kind of vibe.
• Friends in Low Places - Garth Brooks
  A jolly drunken singalong that invites everybody to drop pretense and be a doofus in a bar. Why would you even want to be in high places if all the fun people are in the low ones?
• Independence Day - Martina McBride
  My mom is the reason I know and love so many '90s country songs. I wish she'd taken this one to heart one more time.
• Chattahoochee - Alan Jackson
  The music video for this song gives me more joy than almost anything else on the planet. A mulleted, mustachioed man waterskiing in tight denim is exactly what I need to see after a long day at work.