if you like sugarland,.....check out sunny sweeny
if you like dierks bentley,......check out cross canadian ragweed
if you like the wreckers,.......check out lori mckenna
if you like tim mcgraw,......check out chris knight
if you like rascal flatts,.......dont tell anyone,......and check out honeybrowne

Country sux ****. it's a bunch of people singing with bad accents. and all they sing about is how there wife left them, or about there truck, or about there dogs, or about there guitars. It's total crap.

Listen to country that isn't the standard radio-friendly crap, and you should have a different opinion then. Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Willie Nelson, George Jones, and many other country musicians don't fit that stereotype.

Carrie Underwood
Rascal Flatts
Johnny Cash
Alan Jackson
Great Big Sea

Not really my area (not sure I can even think of 5) but nevertheless;

Johnny Cash
Emmylou Harris
George Jones
Gram Parsons

Johnny Cash
Marty Robbins
Merle Haggard
George Jones

1. Kasey Chambers
2. Lucinda Williams
3. Martina McBride
4. Dixie Chicks
5. Carrie Underwood

i might have a small crush on kasey chambers

I'm going to have to be difficult and split my answer into two parts.

Traditional/Mainstream Country Music
1. Willie Nelson
2. Dwight Yoakam
3. Sara Evans
4. Brooks & Dunn
5. Elizabeth Cook

Fringe/Folk/Alt Country Music
1. Courtney Leigh Heins
2. Justin Townes Earle
3. Old 97's
4. Kasey Chambers
5. Ryan Adams