Country Strong: The 3 Best Performances in Country Music Biopics

Even if you're not a fan of country music, you must admit that it's lent a perfect backdrop to some of the best biopics of our time -- and Country Strong (coming soon!). Ahead of tomorrow's country gala on ABC, we're revisiting our three favorite country biopic performances. You know all three roles well, but it's never too late to reacquaint with these effervescent, Oscar-friendly performances.

3. Reese Witherspoon in Walk the Line

Our beloved Tracy Flick took home the Oscar for recreating June Carter Cash's onstage gusto and offstage traumas. The formulaic approach of Walk the Line's narrative may be dismissible, but Witherspoon's showmanship and ebullience are more than compensatory.

2. Jessica Lange in Sweet Dreams

Patsy Cline is the ultimate country legend, and Jessica Lange's Oscar-nominated performance as the "I Fall to Pieces" matriarch is haunting, note for note (if sometimes awkwardly lip-synched).

1. Sissy Spacek in Coal Miner's Daughter

Was there any doubt? Spacek's authenticity as the feisty, resilient Loretta Lynn makes Coal Miner's Daughter one of the definitive biopics of our time. To rip a line from Roger Ebert's review of Sophie's Choice (in which he discusses Meryl Streep's accent), Loretta Lynn adopted a patois here that I want to hug.