Alternative Country-Rock

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Not to be confused with Alternative Country, which is a country music form, Alternative Country-Rock is essentially rock music, a continuation of the rock oriented hybrid that first appeared in the late 1960's.

The first country-rock era, which started with Gram Parsons, Gene Clark, and the Byrds, saw its heyday from about 1969 through 1976. A major label phenomenon, country rock sold in big quantities and dominated the top-40 until the punk, disco, and new wave eras rendered most country-rock obsolete. By 1977, most country-rock groups had either broken up or seen their sales plummet rapidly; The Eagles abandoned it completely on Hotel California, bands like Firefall took it into such pop territory that it lost most of its country influence, and by 1980, country-rock was nearly as dead in the U.S. as progressive rock and heavy metal had become. Early MTV did not take to country-rock, nor did rock radio.

Its slow return to relevance took up much of the 1980's, when a new generation of bands and musicians, nearly all of them recording for indie labels, began exploring Americana and roots-rock which inevitiably led to a rediscovery of rock's country roots. These musicians approached from two directions; some were punk-influenced bands who embraced either rockabilly or Byrds/Parsons style playing first, leading them in a more rural, rootsy direction. Others were often rural performers in the first place, with a natural country influence or background, who pursued indie rock careers. Thus, alternative country rock eventually came to encompass a wide variety of styles, ranging from rockabilly punk to neo-Parsons/Byrdisms to Texas blues flavored country to Neil Young influenced guitar based country rock to cowpunk to countrified jangle-pop. While some performers used country reference as shorthand for irony, many were dedicated and true to the spirit of country, giving it a respect it hadn't seen in nearly two decades.

The first alternative country rock performer to achieve relative mainstream success was Lyle Lovett, who was the first country performer in years to achieve a significant rock fans base as well, perhaps more so for his status as an outsider in the country music world than his actual songwriting and playing, he suggested new possibilities to indie musicians who were trapped playing music that was still unfashionable in the mainstream.

The real alternative country-rock era truly began in 1990 with Uncle Tupelo's release, No Depression, which was the first punk/country fusion to break out nationally. No Depression also became the title of the most influential alternative country-rock 'zine in the country and came to be the nickname by which the genre was known in the early 90's. Uncle Tupelo split into two groups in 1993, the more traditional-sounding Son Volt, and the experimental Wilco; taking country-rock in almost entirely opposite directions, they further illustrated suddenly horizonless possibilities in country-rock. No longer was it limited to adding a banjo to a rock lineup and singing like Buck Owens.

"No Depression" as a movement was short-lived, but alternative country-rock has essentially thrived since then, in a myriad of styles, from traditional, to punk, to dream pop. It's one of the few rock genres in the 00's that still produces interesting music with relevance.

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Some important/influential alternative country-rock artists/songs include:

1. Uncle Tupelo: No Depression
Belleville, IL trio Uncle Tupelo opened the doors with their 1990 debut No Depression. Still bearing a lot of indie rock influence, particularly in its tempos and guitars, No Depression nontheless is real country rock in the traditional sense. When it appeared, it was a real revelation; in the 80's most country rock sounded retro, borrowing cues from the 60's and 50's. No Depression borrowed just as many cues, but sounded fresh and contemporary and addressed real concerns in its lyrics; the alienated, directionless life in the Midwest in the post industrial era. "No Depression" was a Carter Family tune, one of two covers on an album otherwise written by the trio.

2. The Jayhawks: Blue
The Jayhawks hail from Minneapolis, which in the 1980's had one of the most fertile music scenes anywhere in the country. Beginning life as a bar band specializing in a country-folk mix drawing from Gram Parsons, Tim Hardin, and Dylan's country sound, they made their debut with The Jayhawks in 1986. Ernest but melodically rich, and known for their gorgeous harmonies, The Jayhawks' brand of country rock relied more on Parsons-style weepers and pedal steel than Uncle Tupelo's rock approach, and reached their peak with Tomorrow the Green Grass which incledes "Blue".

3. Tarnation: Game of Broken Hearts
Tarnation was a short-lived band in the mid-90's fronted by Paula Frazer, a Georgia-born, San francisco based singer/songwriter. Their sound borrowed from Frazer's rural roots and church choir experience, but mixed it with darker influences from San Francisco's indie scene. The resulting music is reverb-laden dream pop with country textures, released on British dream-pop label 4AD. "Game of Broken Hearts" is from the first of their two albums, Gentle Creatures, released in 1995.

4. Freakwater: Hero/Heroine
Led by two women, singers/guitarists/songwriters Janet Beveridge Bean and Catherine Ann Irwin, Freakwater are an arty but traditionalist country rock band with strong Appalachean and bluegrass influences, and they employ a wide range of traditional instuments on their records, including fiddles, madolins, and dobros. They recall a modernist Carter Family in sound, although the Kentucky pair had played in punk bands prior to Freakwater. Their first EP, Freakwater, was released in 1989, a year prior to Uncle Tupelo's breakthrough. Since 1991, they have recorded for experimental/avant-garde indie label Thrill Jockey. "Hero/Heroine" is from Old Paint, arguably their best album, from 1995.

5. Old 97's: Timebomb
Old 97's, from Dallas, bring some twangy Texan rock aggression to their brand of country rock, delivered with a bar band's no-frills straightforwardness on their first few albums, and with a power-pop influence creeping in on their most recent stuff. Rhett Miller's lyrical material is pretty rich in character sketches and run down, dingy surroundings, and his lonesome wail of a voice captures a good sense of lonely isolation on the road which grows chilling over the course of an album. Too Far to Care leads off their 1997 album Too Far to Care.

6. The Palace Brothers: You Will Miss Me When I Burn
Will Oldham's Palace Brothers, also known as just Palace and many other variations of the name, is usually just Oldham accompanying himself on his rough sounding guitar; other musicians generally appear on an as-needed basis. Days in the Wake, from 1994, is a completely solo album, save for a single cut. Lyrically, Oldham has fire and brimstone obsessions, typified in "You Will Miss Me When I Burn", one of a large body of songs of retribution, revenge, sin, and ruin. In the late 90's Oldham began releasing albums under his own name.

7. Cowboy Junkies: Misguided Angel
A Canadian trio built around the vocals of Margo Timmins and featuring her brothers Peter and Michael, Cowboy Junkies released their debut album in 1986 and The Trinity Session in 1987 broke them through nationally on the strength of their cover of the Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane". While "Sweet Jane" definitely isn't country rock, it fits in well with the rest of the Trinity Sessions, which is closer to Gram Parsons crossed with Hank Williams (who they cover). "Misguided Angel" typifies their windswept lonely country sound, and is an excellent showcase for Timmins' convincing voice.

8. Lambchop: For Which We Are Truly Thankful
Lambchop were one of the more experimental and reckless alternative country rock groups of the late 1990's. Using country as an ingredient in a stew that also plundered soul, jazz, and indie noise-rock, they were one of a number of bands that really weren't "country" but knew enough about the idiom to use it as a framework for more experimental ideas, not dissimilar to Wilco's odd evolution. "For Which We Are Truly Thankful" is from How I Quit Smoking, from 1996, which made their country influences explicit. The album is given a Nashville-like string treatment, and steel guitars, but also features an array of peculiar, subversive instrumentation.

9. The Bottle Rockets: Welfare Music
The Bottle Rockets are a long-lived group from Missouri, blending their country flavored roots rock with a 70's southern rock/boogie and Neil Young/Crazy Horse influence, putting them in territory more similar to Lynyrd Skynyrd than indie/punk. Upon relocating to Illinois, they became close to Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy of Uncle Tupelo befor Uncle Tupelo was launched. The topical "Welfare Music" leads off The Brooklyn Side, from 1995.

10. Whiskeytown: Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight
Whiskeytown was that Raleigh, NC based band that gave Ryan Adams his leg up in the world. They managed four albums over a five year recording career that was famously turbulent and rancorous. Whiskytown was one of many bands formed in the wake of No Depression, and bore a strong Uncle Tupelo influence as well as the requisite Byrds/Parsons. Faithless Street, released when Adams was just twenty, in 1996, is their best; spare, honest, surprisingly worldwise. "Excuse Me While I Break My Own Heart Tonight" is a highpoint, tender and aching, in young Parsons style.

11. Wilco: I Must Be High
In 1994, Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy of Uncle Tupelo split acrimoniously and set up competing bands. Farrar's outfit was called Wilco, and since their debut in 1995, Wilco has embarked on one of the strangest musical and professional odysses in rock history, releasing Yankee Hotel Foxtrot for free over the internet in 2001 after Warners wouldn't release it, and pursuing an experimental direction that has taken them far from their early country rock into the realms of space rock and electronica, similar to Radiohead's evolution. Still, their early stuff is real country rock, which displays the early manifestations of their eventual experimentation. "I Must Be High" is from their 1995 debut, A.M., and recalls the countrified early 70's Stones to a degree.

12. Son Volt: Windfall
While Jeff Tweedy was busy with Wilco, Jay Farrar founded Sun Volt, who made their debut in 1995 with Trace. Son Volt was in many respects the polar opposite of Wilco, highlighting the differences the two Uncle Tupelo founders had in that band's future direction. Where Wilco used country as a springboard into studio experimentation, Son Volt kept a back-to-basics roots sound that kept them in a traditionalist honky-tonk vein. "Windfall" leads off Trace and sums up the band's sound nicely. Although the band broke up in 2001, Tweedy revived the name for some projects in 2005.

13. Blue Rodeo: Fools Like You
Blue Rodeo are a roots rock band from Canada, where their popularity is greater than in America. Led by singer/guitarists Jim Cuddy and Greg Keelor, the band had a major hit in their homeland with their debut album Outskirts, from 1987. Their classic was Lost Together, from 1992, which blended their roots/country leanings with a pop sensibility that resulted in a collection of little gems that get progressive without losing their organic roots. "Fools Like You" leads it off.

14. The Walkabouts: Hole In The Mountain
The Walkabouts were from Seattle and recorded for Sub Pop but had nothing to do with grunge. Led by singer Carla Torgerson and Chris Eckman (and also featuring Eckman's two brothers), the band has released a large body of work since 1987; their best is an all-covers album of country covers, Satisfied Mind, from 1993. They returned to original material for their next album, Setting the Woods on Fire, which is a Stones-inluenced country rock/boogie album and includes "Hole in the Mountain"

15. Golden Smog: Pecan Pie
Golden Smog isn't really a band so much as a side project involving memebers of Soul Asylum, the Jayhawks, Wilco, The Replacements, and other indie names, the band has never really had a lineup set in stone. Formed in the 80's as a reaction against the limitations of punk, the band developed a club following that ultimately led to three Golden Smog albums in the 1990's. Down by the Old Mainstream was their second album, from 1995, and features Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, the Jayhawks' Gary Louris, and Soul Asylum's Dan Murphy. "Pecan Pie" is a Teedy song from the album, which is in a casual roots-rock/country vibe.

16. Neko Case & Her Boyfriends: Deep Red Sails
Virginia born singer/songwriter Neko Case was a hot item on the indie/country-rock scene in the late 90's and early 00's, attaining acclaim for her own albums as well as her work with Vancouver based indie pop band The New Pornographers. Blacklisted, from 2002, is her high point to date, a smokey sounding late-night album that recalls k.d. lang to a degree, but with a darker ambience that sometimes suggests Nick Cave. Her voice is her greatest asset, although she's a capable songwriter and knows how to wring the melody out of a tune. "Deep Red Sails" is a standout from the album.

17. Scud Mountain Boys: In A Ditch
Originally the Scuds, the Scud Moutain Boys represented a phenomenon that occured in indie rock in the wake of Uncle Tupelo; a rock band abandoning its rock idiom entirely, and beginning fresh with an acoustic based country sound. They only managed three albums, but each is a dignified and distinguished acoustic country album with shades of Son Volt that doesn't lean too heavily on the Americana angle. Massachusetts was their final album, from 1996, and is probably their best. "In A Ditch" leads it off.

18. Ryan Adams: Come Pick Me Up
Singer/songwriter Ryan Adams originally led the volatile combo Whiskeytown before embarking on a prolific solo career in 2000. Adams himself cites Loretta Lynn, George Jones, Merle Haggard, and Johnny Cash among his influences; to these he also has added a punky guitar-based approach that gave Whiskeytown its edge. Solo, he's toned it down a little, although his debut Heartbreaker still has a lot of his grit and swagger intact. It includes "Come Pick Me Up", a classic drinking song weeper.

19. The Waco Brothers: Cowboy in Flames
Formed by a group of British ex-pats, led by Jon Langford of seminal punk band the Mekons, The Waco Brothers were an outlet for his and the others' country leanings that didn't fit into their own punk bands. Intended as a vehicle to play live in the Chicago area, the Waco Brothers created a stir with their aggressive, tightwound country-punk, which they eventually parlayed into a seven album career that continues to this day. "Cowboy in Flames" is the title track to their 1997 album; it, like the album is a sweaty, gritty, tough-minded c&w workout.

20. The Blood Oranges: Hell's Half Acre
The Blood Oranges only lasted for three albums in the early 90's, but they were good ones, with a deep bluegrass influence to their music. The Crying Tree was their finhal album, but it displays all of their best points; Jimmy Ryan's songwriting and mandolin, Cheri Knight's singing and writing, and Mark Spencer, an excellent guitarist who could play fast runs. "Hell's Half Acre" is the standout.

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