Your seminal alt.country album

[RootSkier]

For me, it would be Whiskeytown's Faithless Street.

So many awesome songs, such a young band, and just totally classic.

Also in the running,

Uncle Tupelo Anodyne.

Discuss.

[Steven S. Dallas]

Anodyne.

[BLOOD SWEAT STEEL]

[Big Blue]

Faithless Street is really good. I might have to go with The Trinity Session though. I just love the sound of that album.

[RootSkier]

Harvest

No no no. That is not alt country. That is the real deal, or some subcategory of country and rock. Like Graham Parsons, or Workingman's Dead, etc.

Good try, though.

[lemon boy]

Dreamin My Dreams (Jennings) but I have a feeling you'll pooh pooh that so I'll go with Bigger Piece of Sky (Keen) as my backup.

[Woodsy]

Vas deference and the Vesicles spooj on your mama I think was the most seminal...
oh wait you mean seminal, sowing the seeds for later development? You cant discount Neil Young, Parsons or any of the "outlaw" country guys of the 70s (willie, Merle, etc.)
now if you mean the naescent/foetal alt country album of the now defined genre,
well I would lean towards Tupelo's live in the studio from 1992, the one with the dates on it.
It set the stage for Anodyne, Faithless street and Wreck your life.a few years later.

[ill-advised strategy]

you should buy it, the guy on the left could use the money. seriously.

2020 edit: reanimated photo, and nevermind about the money. Don’t need no money in heaven.

[BLOOD SWEAT STEEL]

Maybe I'm missing something here. By seminal, one would assume you are referring to your favorite album that helped pave the way for the "current" alt/rock musicians. No? I mean, Faithless Street is a great album and all... But wasn't that released in like '94 or so? Perhaps we've got a failure to communicate.

Anyways, I'll keep trying.

[MarsB]

Dark Bar and a Jukebox
JB Beverley and the Wayward Drifters

[RootSkier]

Maybe I'm missing something here. By seminal, one would assume you are referring to your favorite album that helped pave the way for the "current" alt/rock musicians.

Good fucking point. I would argue, however, that the NRPS first and eponymous album was better than Panama Red.

[uncle crud]

There's as many forms of alt.country as there are forms/flavors/makes/brands of whiskey and bourbon.

Whikeytown's Faithless Street is an excellent pick. Ryan Adams wrote some good stuff when he was young, even if he did try a bit too hard to sound like Jeff Tweedy when he sang.

Uncle Tupelo's Anodyne is good if your main touchstones for alt.country are Wilco and Son Volt, because the schizophrenic nature of both Tweedy's later Wilco music and Farrar's later Son Volt music are well displayed on Anodyne. But my favorite Uncle Tupelo album, the one that got me hooked on them, is Still Feel Gone.

For earlier stuff (about 10 yrs old or more) I really like The Crying Tree by The Blood Oranges, Hollywood Town Hall by the Jayhawks, and the Bottle Rockets' first album, Bottle Rockets.

Richard Buckner's first 3 albums definitely count as alt.country in my book and they are outstanding. Bloomed. Devotion + Doubt. Since.

And then there's Cheri Knight's The Northeast Kingdom, a fantastic album of rootsy twangy smart songs.

Those about cover it for me.

About 15 years ago there was a good alt.country discussion group in AOL's music discussion groups. I got some great music recommendations there, as well as some good bro-brah ticket hookups for sold-out shows. I was living in the NYC area and went to the Mercury Lounge quite a bit after discovering it through that AOL chat room.

And of course those AOL alt.country discussion forum folks introduced me to Miles of Music -- one of the best spots to find small label alt.country & roots, as well as some pop and no-genre stuff.

++++++++++++

BLOOD SWEAT STEEL and Yeti Man are clearly of the old guard, the pioneer weeds of the alt.country prairie. They'd point us to Guy Clark, The Byrds, and those other clowns whose album covers they've displayed above. Might even tell us about the Lubbock TX boys, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock. Sneak in a little Townes Van Zandt maybe?

[BLOOD SWEAT STEEL]

BLOOD SWEAT STEEL and Yeti Man are clearly of the old guard, the pioneer weeds of the alt.country prairie. They'd point us to Guy Clark, The Byrds, and those other clowns whose album covers they've displayed above. Might even tell us about the Lubbock TX boys, Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Butch Hancock. Sneak in a little Townes Van Zandt maybe?

FKNA some Townes Van Zandt, and I'll raise you a lil' Steve Earle. (Besides Merle of course,) he's one of my all-time favorites.)

Does Hank Williams III count as far as the new guys go? I think he might. Always did like me some Hank III. After all, my dog is named after his damn grandpappy.

*Obligatory Hank shot, since I'm in a picture posting mode.*



How about Drive By Truckers or Son Volt? They count, right? Mama Ran Off With A Trucker always did catch my fancy. We speakin' the same language now?

[H-man]

Lost Trailers.

[nest]

Sort of on topic. What is the best old97s album? I just got hitchike to rhome an it kicks ass. Any other albums of thiers that I should pick up?

[Odin]

gurge.. gurge... gurge....

obscure.. gurge...

(and for a second there I thought someone was talking about keen the soft rock emo band)

put two a twp togwther


edit - fuck niel young btw. never saw him in the wheat fieldss

[Tippster]

I'll see your Neil Young, your NRPS, your Workingman's Dead and raise you:



If we're talking about current-ish bands (when do you consider Alt-Country "starting?") I'll agree with the UT crowd (but would go with their excellent first album) - this changed what College kids in the South were listening to:



followed by thw Peter Buck (REM) produced "Live" studio masterpiece:

[RootSkier]

Yeah, I mean No Depression pretty much started the alt.country thing, no? At least the term 'alt.country'.

There is nothing alt about Johnny Cash. Jeezus, that is as real and authentic and pure as it gets.

[Tippster]

You compare him to the other country performers at the time and he was an absolute Rebel.

[uncle crud]

You compare him to the other country performers at the time and he was an absolute Rebel.

Yeah but so was Pat Boone.

[BLOOD SWEAT STEEL]

:drops needle on Dave Dudley 45:

[warthog]

Don't know much about alt.country.
Probably not Seminal, but-
Southern Culture on the Skids always was a fun show. Do they count?

[Odin]

Look, Hank Numera Uno was considered a rebel in his day until homoginized into "Classic Country" within the last 20 years or so by revisionists who like to straddle both sides of the fence by only playing his "so lonesome I could cry" on the golden radio station even though 50 years ago or so they banned him from the opry.

Alt country is merely a way of saying, music that doesn't get played commercially.

And while I enjoy the likes of the ccrw and the dbt the REK, I will be the first to say (that much like my voice but better) the DBT crew has some shitty ass voices.

now... I like that in my country.

but.... does that make Shooter Jennings Alt.Country?

Or perhaps his Daddy?

I know that we can all agree that Tim McGraw is not country, but what about Chris Ledoux? Is he alt country? Or is his wild west country?

I guess my point is.

Listen to Chris Ledoux.

and Waylon.

and Hank #1

and David Allen Coe.

the Ride... hell yeah.

"It's a long hard ride......"

[lemon boy]

I know that we can all agree that Tim McGraw is not country,

?que? Tim McGraw isn't country?

[Odin]

?que? Tim McGraw isn't country?

He is a mutant, from the flan galaxy.