Based on this thread so far, and despite all the great bands being mentioned, “alt-country” is a spectacular sprawling ill-defined mess whose borders resemble one of those crazy gerrymandered congressional districts that don’t make a lick of sense. ‘Twas ever thus in the nebulous land of ersatz sub-genres.
The new album, first to be released on Record Store Day: “Day of the Doug is a tribute album to Doug Sahm. It features 12 songs that span Sahm’s career as a solo artist as well as his work with Sir Douglas Quintet and Texas Tornados. The Intro and Outro tracks are phone messages that Doug left Jay Farrar over the years. This is a brand new record from Son Volt. 1. Doug Intro 2. Sometimes You’ve got to Stop Chasing Rainbows 3. What About Tomorrow 4. Beautiful Texas Sunshine 5. Float Away 6. Yesterday Got In The Way 7. Keep Your Soul 8. Dynamite Woman 9. Huggin Thin Air 10. Juan Mendoza 11. Poison Love 12. Seguin 13. It’s Gonna Be Easy 14. Doug Outro —-end paste—-
The whole Chance and Circumstance record is really great and still sounds timeless (to me) today. Always glad to see a fellow fan!
I think Uncle Tupelo often receives credit for launching the genre with "No Depression", and it's a good one:
Lucinda Williams particularly Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. Sessions were originally produced by Steve Earle whose Copperhead Road is a classic of the genre.
Too much country for the rock and rollers and too much rock and roll for the country music fans... Pretty much describes Joe Ely for me. If The Clash hadn't picked Ely to tour with them it probably would have taken me a lot longer to come around to his music. Glad I got there when I did!
Old 97s were definitely my favorite alt-country band--Hitchhike to Rhome, Wreck Your Life (their best, IMO) and Too Far to Care are all amazing. But let's not overlook the amazing Waco Brothers!
I prefer Americana, only because it has a wider reach. Alt-country to me is 1990-2000, maybe a little later.
(This is going to devolve into one of those who-started-heavy-metal-threads; venomous chaos!) But, yes, I know what it is.
My idea of it is probably a little different to most people's. A lot of the stuff posted here I'd call Americana or just Country Rock. Alt-Country is a mix of Country and Indie that was around in the mid 1990's. I should know as I had perhaps the only UK Alt-Country band at that time. I didn't know of any others. Here's the Geraldine Fibbers to show the way.........
Some of us have posted what was known as "roots rock" in the 80s. Most of those bands broke up or simply disappeared into the 90s. At which time, No Depression came along (and then Paste) to give band loosely based around the genre something those 80s band didn't have: national publications that gathered the tribes and gave fans a source to discover even more, newer bands. I simply define it as good music that doesn't quite fit either the rock or country genres, falling somewhere between and more than likely not making it on either of those genre's main charts. Of course, the guys in the 80s had earlier influences (Nesmith, The Band, The Dead [mainly self-titled and American Beauty], Doug Sahm, Byrds going country, Flying Burrito Brothers, Gram Parsons, Stones doing country songs, etc.), so it's hard to pin down when, how and what it was or is. As Zeki notes, if you're an aficionado, you tend to know "it" when you hear it!
