The Top 20 Trace Adkins songs come from the 14 studio albums and multiple greatest hits packages he’s released since he left the offshore Louisiana oil rigs in 1996.

The common trend is for an artist to reach their peak during the third or fourth album, and then fight to maintain a spot among country music heavy hitters until deciding to slow down. Adkins has been something of a late bloomer, however — while he scored four Top 5 hits early on, he cooled off until releasing Comin’ on Strong, his fifth studio album, in 2003.

Songs from that album begin what we call Phase 2 of his career. Rowdy, often risqué rock-country songs including “Hot Mama,” “Rough & Ready” and “Honky Tonk Badonkadonk” helped build him into a headlining country artist. A decade later he was fully committed to more pensive, often thought-provoking ballads or mid-tempo love songs including “You’re Gonna Miss This,” “Muddy Water” and “Jesus and Jones.”

All of these songs appear on this list of Trace Adkins’ best songs, which we have ranked. When you dive into his catalog you find that his risk-taking didn’t always pay off — in fact, sometimes he failed in spectacular fashion. You also learn he embraced a wide range of styles, influences, subjects and structures.

From his early ’80s-influenced sound to his too-soon country-rap vocals to his late-career wisdom, these are Trace Adkins’ best songs.