This Billboard feature marks the 25th anniversary of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks by revisiting country music songs written in response to the tragedy, in which 2,977 people were killed and nearly 6,000 injured across New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania. The article argues that country artists were among the first to channel the shock, grief, anger and unity felt by Americans into song, offering listeners a way to process the attacks in the years that followed.

Key tracks discussed include Alan Jackson's "Where Were You (When the World Stopped Turning)", a reflective, apolitical ballad that won a Grammy and CMA song of the year after debuting less than two months after the attacks, and Toby Keith's more combative "Courtesy of the Red, White & Blue (The Angry American)", which topped the country charts despite its polarising tone. Also featured are Aaron Tippin's "Where the Stars and Stripes and the Eagle Fly", written before 9/11 but recorded and released for radio just days afterwards (donating proceeds to the Red Cross), and Hank Williams Jr.'s reworked version of "A Country Boy Can Survive" with new patriotic lyrics, first performed at a CMT benefit concert in October 2001.