Every time someone adds to our line-up, it reminds me of a dozen more names that cannot be ignored: Doug Sahm Michael Nesmith Blaze Foley Shooter Jennings JJ Grey & Mofro
Robbie Fulks Old 97s Handsome Family Calexico Long Ryders Rave-Ups Euro-Americana: First Aid Kit Chitlin Fooks Broken Family Band
Awesome list, JL; the first 4 names on your list are all faves of mine. Can't believe I went over 2 pages without mentioning any of them! BTW, have you heard Rhett Miller's new album? Really nice, and highly recommended.
Very true! Although I’m a big fan, I forgot to add Gretchen Peters, especially her albums “Hello cruel world” (2012) and “Blackbirds” (2015).
Hi everyone, great thread idea. I just want to encourage everyone to post links of some songs along with listing their favorites. It helps other's to further explore this great music, or maybe we could convert some people who have never really listened before.
The vast majority of my favorite bands mentioned here... How about a few more? Has Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers been mentioned? If so, I missed it scanning the thread. The V-Roys (And Scott Miller & The Commonwealth and Mic Harrison & The High Score) Ryan Adams Dan Baird (and Homemade Sin) The Bluefields Bonepony Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band And I would also include Webb Wilder, The Shack Shakers, Southern Culture On The Skids, Marah, Los Lobos and Seasick Steve... But, I can understand if they're not quite right to fit the "Americana" label.
I can't believe that not a single poster ''including me'' has mentioned Mr. Americana himself, the great Ryan Adams, also Ray LaMontagne.
Ryan Adams has been mentioned repeatedly, along with Whiskeytown. Considering how prolific he is, I guess he deserves to be!
Yeah, I love it -- heard about it here on The Hoff, as a matter of fact. And I'm glad I did because after his first couple failed to click with me, I had stopped paying attention to his solo albums, but this one as well as The Dreamer from 2012 are both a lot less slick and more pleasantly twangy and down-home-ish than the earlier ones.
And, honestly, you can't get more "Americana" than Indigenous. Literally. All them European interlopers come over here and start bastardizing the music of the native people. Indigenous still play "Americana" the way their ancestors did LONG before the Europeans visited these shores.
I didn't see Guy Clark, Joe Ely, Billy Joe Shavers, the Morells or Skeletons mentioned. This thread is the best in years.
I like a lot of this music, but not the marketing term Americana. I'd say American roots music covers it. Although I read No Depression magazine throughout its print run, I wound up not caring for many of the bands that were marketed as alt-country. Of the leaders of that genre, the band I liked the best was the Bottle Rockets because Brian Henneman tended to write about current topics instead of "fetishizing." They also had a bit different roots that included Cheap Trick. Their song "Welfare Music" was maybe the best one to come out of that '90s scene. "1000 Dollar Car" would be up there as well. I otherwise liked some of the between-the-cracks bands like Blood Oranges, Blue Shadows (Billy Cowsill's band), the Volebeats, and Hazeldine. I guess you can add the V-Roys though I considered them as more than just alt-country. Same with Fred Eaglesmith and Chris Knight. An album I would include is Richard Buckner's 'Devotion + Doubt.' It's one of the great divorce records.
Thanks for the word of encouragement, Dennis! I'm really excited about the response this thread has gotten, especially since I've only been on the forum for 2 days. I'm hoping this can be a thread that we discuss new Americana releases on for months to come.
I've got a pretty good Black Lillies album that I downloaded for free from CDBaby: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/blacklillies
The Morells' 'Shake and Push' was one of my favorites from my college radio days. Also from those days were the bands that created the template for alt-country: Jason & the Scorchers, Rank & File, the Long Ryders, Lone Justice, and even The Mekons. The two bands from that era that had the biggest impact on me are The Blasters and Los Lobos. They completely changed the way I approached listening to and purchasing music. They are two roots music acts that added their own thing to music from the past. That's the way it should be done, in my view. Dave and Phil Alvin will have a new album out on Sept. 18. It's strange how Los Lobos has never even been nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
