Here's a typical progression in the Key of D Major that you'll find in the music of Dierks Bentley, Taylor Swift and Sugarland. We call it the key of D because it centers around the D major chord. You'll probably recognize that the chords are the primary chords (1, 4 and 5) from the key of G major. Because we use these chords but center on the D major chord as our main chord, it can be said that this is a "modal" progression. That's fancy stuff for country music, right?

All theory aside, it's time to power up with power chords and get the most powerful modern country sound we can get.