I’ve heard the term “alt-country” several times, but I unfortunately don’t know exactly what it is. I have formed a vague, personal definition, based loosely on my definition of “alternative rock”: Like country, but doesn’t get played on the radio around here.
In the last couple weeks, I’ve seen CMT broadcast the video of a song called When In Rome, by a group called Nickel Creek. I liked it so much that I purchased the song from the iTunes Music Store. The song has bluegrass instrumentation, but also seems to have some Indian (as in “from India”, not Native American) influence. And I’m in love with the young woman playing the fiddle and singing harmony
Today, I saw a video for a song called Boondocks, by a group called Little Big Town. Again, I really liked the song, because it was cool and it was different. It’s a country/gospel thing with heavy CSN&Y-style harmonies.
I’ve heard neither of these songs on my local country music radio station. iTunes classifies Nickel Creek as “country”, but Little Big Town as “rock”. Would these groups be classified as “alt-country”? I once heard Steve Earle called alt-country, but what little I’ve heard from him didn’t sound much different from other stuff that came out around the same time.
Alt-country (also known as “y’allternative”) is like pornography: you know it when you see/hear it. I tend to think of it as more rootsy than the overproduced glammy pop country coming out of Nashville these days – music from young bands who might still love Johnny Cash, Patsy Cline, and Hank Williams Sr. More of a twang, if you will. Often it will be crossed with other kinds of music, but not like the bland vanilla country-rock of the Eagles. There might be bluegrass influences (Allison Krauss and Union Station), or rockabilly/psychobilly (Reverend Horton Heat or Ghoultown), or punk (“cowpunk” like Hank Williams III), or Western swing (like Bob Wills or the more contemporary Asleep At the Wheel), or the reverb-drenched spaghetti Western soundtrack style of Ennio Morricone, conjuring up lonely, noirish desert images (as played by bands like Calexico, or Friends of Dean Martinez).
I find that despite these hybridized sounds, alt-country has a lot more in common with the country-and-western music of yesteryear than the Garths, Tobys, and Shanias that dominate mainstream country music radio. At the same time, it seems like it takes more risks than the pop-country. Often sadder and more heartfelt, usually ballsier and more raucous, stuff that sounds like it should be played on a battered honky-tonk jukebox or by a hard-working band playing on a saloon stage behind chicken wire. If you’re curious, also check out Neko Case, Kelly Hogan, Gillian Welch, the Old 97s, Bastard Sons of Johnny Cash, Trailer Bride, or any band on http://www.bloodshotrecords.com , an awesome Chicago-based alt-country record label. But you can’t go wrong with any of the bands I mentioned above. A lot of them fit in their own unique genres, but I think you could play any of them and please a self-professed “alt-country” fan.
Big Bad Voodoo Lou’s got a good overview of the genre.
If you’d like to hear a smattering, check out KEXP’s Swingin’ Doors, which has archived shows online. (There are probably other online sources, but I know this one’s good.)
No Depression is the magazine that kicked off the movement, and their website includes some links to MP3s.
Sadly, “Country” of the Kenny Chesney/Toby Keith style is so far removed from the actual genre of “Country music” that any traditional, modern Country and Western music is invariably called “alt-country” or the more recent term, “Americana.”
BBVL hit on some of the major subgenres, but I’ll throw in a favorite - Gothic Americana, in which bands like 16 Horsepower/Woven Hand, the Handsome Family, and Johnny Dowd draw influence from Flannery O’Connor and the darker side of country music and folk tales, writing songs about death and horror.
An excellent sampler of alt-country can be found in the Rough Trade Shops: Country, Vol. 1 compilation. It’s pretty expensive if you buy it off Amazon, but you can get it for fairly cheap used on half.com or in the Amazon Marketplace. (Or, of course, you can buy one in-store in London.) The comp has a lot of the “big names” associated with the genre (Whiskytown, Uncle Tupelo, Lucinda Williams) as well as lesser-known names (Jim White, The Handsome Family, Ella Guru) and rock bands that played some country-ish music (X, The Meat Puppets, Violent Femmes).
I should also mention Uncle Tupelo (after **Lisa-go-Blind ** already did) – they were one of the leading alt-country bands of the '90s, and when they broke up, two of their members formed influential bands of their own: Jay Farrar’s Son Volt and Jeff Tweedy’s Wilco. All are well worth seeking out.
Jack White of the White Stripes also seems influenced by old country. He covered Dolly Parton’s “Jolene” and has performed some country-ish material in the White Stripes (along with old blues, their other major influence). More recently, he also produced Loretta Lynn’s last album, Van Lear Rose, an award-winning career highlight for her that crossed over and entranced “rockers” as well as country diehards.
Finally, the O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack features some wonderful folk and Americana that anyone who likes music of any kind ought to listen to.
I’d put Trailer Bride in that category as well, VCO3. You’d like them if you don’t already. Neko Case’s solo stuff (especially her gorgeous Blacklisted album) belongs in there too.
I thought that Trailer Bride were ok, but I honestly don’t like a lot of the Bloodshot stuff. Call me a jackhole, but a lot of it seems really schticky and disingenuous to me, like they’re doing it for laughs or in the name of irony.
I just wanted to take advantage of that mention to repeat that “Lady Pilot” by Neko Case from that album is possibly the best song ever recorded, ever.
That entire album is one of my all-time, top-five, desert island favorites. Blacklisted was my first exposure to Neko’s solo stuff after hearing *Electric Version * (yes, before Mass Romantic), and I had to win a copy off eBay because I couldn’t even find it in any stores in Miami. But damn, do I love it like crazy. Never get tired of listening to it.
Sorry to be a pain, but I should also mention Rilo Kiley, a band on Saddle Creek Records. They’re definitely in the indie-pop vein, but they also have plenty of alt-country credibility, and a beautiful girl singer with a lovely voice, former child actress Jenny Lewis.
Some other recommendations for alt-country (in no particular order):
Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter (I looooove her country-noir sound, plus she’s a real sweetie)
Whiskeytown
Laura Veirs (she’s really alt-folk, but what the hell)
Carolyn Mark
Fred Eaglesmith
Wayne “The Train” Hancock
Blanche
Knut Bell and the Blue Collars
Alejandro Escovedo
The Knitters (these are the folks from X doing country)
The Walkabouts (the “Satisfied Mind” album)
The Damnations
Bill Frisell (he’s a jazz guitarist, but did a couple of country-flavored albums. Try “Good Dog, Happy Man” or “Nashville”)
Biller and Wakefield
The Supersuckers
Kelly Hogan
Wylie and the Wild West
Bobby Bare Jr.
Dave Alvin
Christy McWilson
Jo Miller and Her Burly Roughnecks
You can also go to the KEXP web site and look in the reviews section for a lot more names.
I’m going to use Alejandro to tie this post in with Big Bad Voodoo Lou spot on first post, in particular his mention of Bloodshot Records.
Whenever you feel like trying someone you’ve not heard before, you can order any album from the Bloodshot catalog and not be disappointed. That’s how I discovered Alejandro Escovedo. The man’s voice and the music will knock your boots off.
IF you get into the Old 97s, buy the albums in the following order:
Too Far to Care
Wreck Your Life
Drag It Up
Hitchhike to Rhome
Satellite Rides
Fight Songs
Early Tracks
The latter two where produced while they were trying to take some of the twang off their sound and get more mainstream popularity. Fortunately there are still some good songs on those discs AND with Drag It Up, the latest, they decided to get authentic again.
Dang it. I added “Early Tracks” at the end and forgot to edit the following graph. The mainstream experiment concerned Satellite Rides and Fight Songs.
Jusrt making a strong recommendation for *Dressed Up Like Nebraska * by Josh Rouse, who IIRC is a sometime collaborator with Lambchop, which I’ve seen described as “an alt-country collective.”
It seemed like an apt label for country that wasn’t doing pop like Alan Jackson and Garth Brooks. For a long time, I’ve been listening to Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakum, and considered that alt-country, even though it was probably closer to traditional country than what was being billed as country.
“Alt-country” already seems to be going the way that “alternative rock” went in the 90’s, perhaps with bands like “Drive By Truckers”.
When the frat boys and Jeep-driving Jersey girls start showing up with their molded straw cowboy hats, there ain’t nothing “alt” about it anymore.
Other favorites of mine: Wayne Hancock, Ray Wylie Hubbard.
I’ve heard excellent things about Kasey Chambers from people whose opinions I respect, but haven’t heard her myself.
