A hard-nosed honky-tonker with an effortlessly wide and twangy vocal range, Faron Young was the first to popularize a number of now-classic country songs and, by extension, country songwriters. Among the best-known are a very young Willie Nelson’s “Hello Walls,” which Young apocryphally recorded after Nelson pitched it to him at Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge in Nashville, and Don Gibson’s “Sweet Dreams,” which would become the signature of Patsy Cline and every ensuing woman in country music attempting to prove her vocal mettle. Though the Shreveport native would endeavor to follow Music Row trends into pop crossover, his greatest success was always with traditional honky-tonk, from the edgy “If You Ain’t Lovin’ (You Ain’t Livin’)” and “Live Fast, Love Hard and Die Young” to the already nostalgic “Wine Me Up” and “It’s Four in the Morning.” Young never got too far from the nearest dance floor, helping create a catalog of catchy classics that get boots scootin’ to this day.