Country Stars Exquisite Homes

Country music makers often come off as more down to earth than other famous musicians. In the past it was almost a requirement that country musicians grew up in humble homes, and some of them even kept their digs low key once they got famous.
Other country stars, especially nowadays, opt for housing that is not quite so basic or cozy—for example, young Carrie Underwood just purchased over 400 rural Tennessee acres to call home for about $3.4 million.
The same trials and tribulations of life that provide endless lyrical inspiration for so many country songs—love, betrayal, heartbreak, D-I-V-O-R-C-E, and death—also affect the living situations of the people who lived the lyrics—country music makers. They move in and they move on, so their homes on the market are often fodder for discussion on real estate sites like Realtor.com (who provided many of the images for this slideshow). Once in a while, as you’ll see in the following slides, country musicians even move out of Tennessee.
It’s a sure bet that many of the following structures will become immortalized in country music lyrics, or they already have. The Rosanne Cash song "House on the Lake" has this lyric inspired by the selling off of the longtime home of her famous parents: "There’s nothing left to take/ But love and years are not for sale/ In our old house on the lake."
Check out these country music stars' homes:
Taylor Swift
Location: Nashville, Tenn.
Price: $1,450,000
Beds / Baths: 4 / 5
Size: 4,929 square feet
Acreage: .60

Taylor Swift is active in the Nashville real estate market. Photo: realtor.com | Inset: AP

Word has it that young miss Taylor Swift bought this 1925 house in historic Whitland for her family. Now, just a year after the purchase, the home is back on the market. It features vaulted ceilings and exposed beams, original hardwood floors, and so on. Perhaps more interesting to ponder is the amount of real estate girlfriend has amassed in her short period of fame: a $2 million, 4,000+ square-foot penthouse apartment in Nashville’s Adelicia luxury residence, and a $3,550,000 fairy-tale-esque 1941 Cape Cod Colonial in Beverly Hills that looks as darling as the singer herself.
Alan Jackson
Location: Franklin, Tenn.
Price: $28 million
Beds/Baths: 6/7 full, 2 half
Size: 19,000 square feet
Acreage: 135

Alan Jackson repriced his Franklin, Tenn. home due to market conditions. Photo: move.com | Inset: AP

Last year, Alan Jackson downsized from his famous mall-sized estate home on 135 acres, Sweetbriar (pictured here), selling it for $10 million less than the original asking price. Features include a wide fieldstone-floored wraparound porch, outdoor fireplace, children’s playground and playhouse, stables and fenced pasture, a pond and boathouse with roof deck, an ATV track, an airplane runway, enough garage to house a car collection numbering 20, and a rustic guest cabin for when the mansion’s occupants need to get away from it all.
The couple has a house on the market in Key West and another home in the celebrity enclave Jupiter Island, Fla.
Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban
Location: Beverly Hills, Calif.
Price: $3.34 million
Beds/Baths: 4/5
Size: 3,977 square feet
Acreage: 1.25

Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban have lived in New York and Beverly Hills. Photo: bing.com | Inset: jeaneeem

Keith Urban and Nicole Kidman purchased this updated midcentury home for $4.7 million in 2008, and the couple has since moved on to another residence. Prior to the sale, they sold their circa-2004, 10-room Nashville McMansion for $2.5 million. (LeAnn Rimes was a neighbor.) The pair also has homes in New York City and in Nicole’s homeland, Australia.
Emily Robison
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Price: $1.5 million
Beds/Baths: 4/3
Size: 4,788 square feet

Dixie Chicks' Emily Robison sold this San Antonio loft. Photo: Jason LaVeris | FilmMagic | Getty Images

Late last year, the Dixie Chicks’ Emily Robison sold her handsomely appointed contemporary San Antonio loft, located in the former Duerler Candy Factory, in a warehouse area close to downtown. The original structure dates to 1926 and it was converted to condos in 2005. The semi-open space still has some enclosed rooms for privacy, and features include an enormous walk-in shower, a soaking tub, and industrial touches such as polished concrete floors, exposed metal air ducts, and restored original windows.


Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash
Location: Rose Hall Resort, Jamaica

Johnny Cash's winter home in Jamaica. Photo: RoseHall.com, interior: Suki MacDonald | Inset: wikicommons

One home Johnny Cash owned in Tennessee burned down in 2007 but this one remains intact: Cinnamon Hill, the family’s winter home at Rose Hall Resort, Jamaica. Johnny purchased the circa-1747 sugar plantation great house from a friend in the 1970s. This is the site of the 1982 home invasion detailed in the autobiography "Cash." The Cinnamon Hill Golf Course surrounds the property.

It seems even in times of national debt and high foreclosure rates that there area still people willing to pay large sums of money for a classy home. These country stars remind me of the baseball players like Derek Jeter who has a 30,800 sqft home in Tampa Florida, and Ryan Howard who plans to build a 17,000 sqft home with Venice, Italy style canals thorough out.

Again...When is it enough?