Good Country Music

Look at bands that get lumped under the alt-country banner, imo. Earle, Whiskeytown, Old 97's, V-Roys, Drive-By Truckers, Robert Earl Keen, Waco Brothers, Bottle Rockets, early Neko Case, Lucinda Williams, Gillian Welch, the Sadies, etc.

You missed George Strait in your list of good ones. I'm not a country music fan at all, but that man impressed me when I saw him live at a rodeo in Texas.

Alison Krauss and Union Station.


I also think Rascal Flatts, Brad Paisley, and Shania are good as well.

The worst is the flag waving crap like Toby and Trace Adkins IMO.

Off the top of my head: Gram Parsons/The Flying Burrito Brothers, Emmylou Harris, William Elliott Whitmore, Thrift Store Cowboys, Uncle Tupelo, Patsy Cline, Loretta Lynne, Cowboy Junkies, Son Volt.

Steve Earle is one of my favorite all-time artists, but you already mentioned him. There's a lot of Tom Waits stuff that could fall under the country banner.

ETA: How the hell did I forget Ryan Adams? As far as contemporary yet classic sounding country Jamie Johnson's album was pretty great.

Believe it or not, Darius Rucker makes a damn fine country singer.

Please check out Justin Townes Earle. Steve's son. He has an EP and two albums. I don't have the new LP yet, but the first two releases are very good.

I give highest possible recommendation to the EP -- YUMA. The title track is a melancholy gem.

I mentioned this in the concert thread, but I was really disappointed with the album of country covers (mostly) that John Doe and The Sadies released this year: not terrible, but compared to what I've heard them do, it just felt bland and by-the-numbers (compare instead how the Sadies combine with Neko Case and Kelly Hogan for a couple of Roger Miller covers on their live album of a few years back).

And the shame is that they're touring together: two acts I'd love to see, but not if they're going to spend the evening rehashing chestnuts that dozens of artists have done better.

One artist I haven't seen mentioned is Dave Alvin: it took him a few years to figure out how to sing, but he's always been one helluva songwriter. Recently, I've enjoyed his collection of cover songs about California (West of the West), his live album from Austin City Limits (which I think is about his sixth live album of the decade), and the self-titled album from his new band, Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women.

Also, The Flatlanders, alone or separately. Joe Ely writes better than he sings, Jimmie Dale Gilmore is vice versa, and Butch Hancock isn't the writer he once was, but they're still a potent combo, particuarly live.

Is James McMurtry country? How about The Handsome Family? Labels can be so messy...

And I don't know where you draw your personal line between country and rockabilly (or even Western swing), but I enjoy Big Sandy and his Fly-Rite Boys, Kim Lenz, Josie Kreuzer, and Rosie Flores.

And my favorite country song in some time is called "Cheater, Cheater," by Joey + Rory. Not blindingly original, but fun, and with a chorus that will give you a little giggle of surprise the first time through.

I echo Louris, El Gray and Bodhisattva's suggestions 100%. No one has mentioned early Wilco, and granted, the first album isn't the serious masterpieces they would later make, but it's still a fun country rock album. Being There moves away from country but there's still some twang on that record. And on the more rock side of country rock, Lucero is one of my favorite bands going right now.

And to go along with the outlaw country, believe it or not, Hank Jr's got a lot of good stuff on his mid-to-late 70s records (notably the albums Family Traditionand Whiskey Bent and Hellbound) before he delved into self-parody. I'm also a big proponent of George Jones. The guy's just great. ETA: Billy Joe Shaver who wrote almost all of Waylon's seminal Honky Tonk Heroes album...he's the real deal.


Not to threadjack, but I've always thought it would be a great idea to make an HBO show about the outlaw country guys like George, Hank Jr. Waylon, Willie, Johnny and Kris in the '60s and '70s as they saw the Nashville establishment changing, they all dealt with addiction and women and jail and trying to keep their careers going in the face of rhinestone suits and string sections. Those guys' biographies have some of the greatest stories you'll ever read.

David. Allan. Coe.

Todd Snider if he is country

dug him at bonnarroo

He makes a good rock and roll singer too, but the music elitists in here keep bashing me for liking Hootie and the Blowfish, so whatever.

What's the best album to start with?

A lot of his earlier albums are out of print, but as a place to start, there's something like two dozen different "Greatest Hits" collections. Just look for any of the ones with "Would You Lay With Me (In a Field of Stone)", "If That Ain't Country," and "Take This Job and Shove It."

Be aware that his deliberately controversial albums like "Nothing Sacred" and "Underground Album" can be pretty rough going (sample song title: "Nigger Fucker"), but he has said that he regards them as sendups of ignorance, racism and sexism. The one called "18 X-Rated Hits" is actually pretty funny.

You can't go wrong with a little Hank Williams III, Those Poor Bastards are a great sort Gothic/doom/experimental country band, Sons of Perdition are kinda like Nick Cave at his creepiest doing country, Bourbon Crow is some nice old fashioned outlaw country (check out the song "A Dead Body"). As for alt-country there's Elliott Brood, I guess you can lump Mike Ness' solo stuff into that category same with Murder by Death (but they may be consider more rock).

Field of Stone and Job would be my first song forays. Divers Do It Deeper is great. You've heard You Never Call Me By My Name, certainly. If you like him then go after his underground stuff. Fantastically raw and hilarious.

I got sick of alt country ages ago, but The Old 97's are still pretty awesome.

I love Charlie Rich, Ray Price, Charley Pride, Hank Snow. Agreed with Pompoussory that Brad Paisley is one of the better guys in the mainstream right now.

I compeltely forgot, I just recently discovered Drunken Prayer I've had the song "What Made Me Kill" stuck in my head for a while.

Also, for David Alan Cole I quite liked the Rebel Meets Rebel album he did with 3/4 of Pantera. For another hybrid of metal and country there was Dead Horse I haven't heard a band besides them to effectively pull off mixing thrash metal and country, it's too bad they are not a band anymore.

Yeah, I've heard a lot of Coe songs (had a friend who was a huge Coe fan in high school). "Field of Stone" is an amazing song. And yeah, I've heard a lot of the X-rated stuff...rough, but hilarious.

And to Old 97s fans: Murry Hammond has a solo album I Don't Know Where I'm Going But I'm On My Way that's pretty great. It really flew under the radar (can't even seem to find a review on Allmusic). It's old, old school country-folk songs about trains and Satan (mostly standards)...much closer to Uncle Tupelo's March 16-20 1992 (but with a lot more ambiance and high lonesome feeling) than anything Old 97s. Also, far better than most of Rhett Miller's solo stuff. http://www.myspace.com/murryhammond

Go get Kelly Willis' What I Deserve album, then send me some kind of thank you gift for recommending it.

I'll second the Todd Snider recommendation above. Start with his Near Truths and Hotel Rooms live record or East Nashville Skyline.

Yeah, Hammond's solo album is fantastic. As for Rhett Miller, his solo stuff plays much, much better live than on the albums.

Great voice, but I gotta say, I miss the neo-rockabilly of her first couple of albums.

Funny, in the light of this discussion about "good" modern country:

Tonight, while the wife and I were having coffee and dessert, my father in law had some country music video channel on the TV.

They played about five videos in a row by young female artists. They all looked exactly the same, their videos all looked like Victoria's Secret ads... and if not for the occasional pedal steel lick, all the songs could have been Stevie Nicks (nothing particular against Stevie).

Just another demonstration of how "country" today is more a marketing category than a musical one.

I was thinking about that same type of thing when a Taylor Swift song came on the country station today on the way home from work. I think she come's up with some nice, catchy pop tunes, but country she ain't. It doesn't even have the lip-service pedal steel.

Nobody has mentioned Conway Twitty, George Jones, Jerry Reed, Marty Robbins, The Statler Brothers or Buck Owens. Jamey Johnson should be mentioned again and I'll throw Dierks Bentley out there. David Ball had a pretty good album called Thinkin' Problem but that's about 20 years old now.

My biggest problem is that the vast majority of the country albums put out today are full of filler crap. Some folks will come along with a couple songs I like but the rest are just atrocious. It usually isn't worth the effort to wade through the new shit to find the good stuff. Of course, I'm talking about radio country because that is the only thing people listen to around here. It drives me crazy.

I mentioned George Jones, but good call on the other old timers. Jerry Reed in particular is someone whose greatness I've only just started to realize.

Well, bear in mind, the thread began with an acknowledgement of classic artists like Tammy Wynette and Johnny Cash, but posed the question: who are the contemporary artists that are worth listening to?

But if we want to talk classic artists that deserve to be better known by contemporary listeners, I'll throw out Tony Joe White and the Louvin Brothers.

Actually the original post didn't say anything about contemporary artists. It just said good country. Either way, it doesn't really matter.

Genres just change, though - no one taking a look at today's R&B charts will find much there that sounds like Big Joe Turner, nothing on the contemporary rock charts sounds much like Chuck Berry. I think it's interesting how Country has become sort've the last refuge for that sort of 70's/80's AOR sensibility; it's been a steady influence for more than a decade now, and though I'm not that into most mainstream Nashville musicians, as an attitude I kinda prefer it to the pedantic "AUTHENTIC country music just like REAL people used to make it" posturing most alt.country indulges in.

I'll throw in one more name via a Big N Rich lyric:

Charlie Pride was the man in black/Rock N Roll used to be about Johnny Cash.

I suspect that attitude's more common among fans, and journalists looking for readers, than it is among the artists themselves. And I've never seen or heard anyone use the term "alt country" except a journalist or record label.

Chuck Klosterman actually talks about that in one of his essays--how modern country speaks to the common man more than Uncle Tupelo does. That may be true, and that's probably why they sell out stadiums and still sell millions of CDs when the record companies are failing...but for me personally, I'd still rather listen to Whiskey Bottle or Houses on the Hill over Honky Tonk Badonkadonk.
And I'm not sure how much alt. country really exists anymore (if it ever did).

Let me second the George Strait love from earlier and throw in Joe Nichols. Some of his stuff is legitimately fun. Checl out Brokenheartsville.

Well, definitely, modern country speaks to the common man more than Uncle Tupelo. It actually has the opportunity to!

The way I see it, noting appeal to the common man and adherence to the roots of the music are both just attempts at establishing authenticity, which is, itself, of dubious worth when it comes to something as fluid as musical style.

Here's one I haven't seen mentioned here yet, Waylon Jennings. He had pretty solid output, I've been listening to the Waylon Forever album which has some really good tracks on it like "Outlaw Shit" and "I Found the Body".

When Rock N Roll lost its way, punk came in and kicked out all the bullshit and excess. Country needs such a revolution because the music--one of the cornerstones of American pop culture--is too important to be reduced to AOR sensibilities. I'm not sure why you'd even make this defense.

Why anybody would waste one second on Rascal Flatts or Alabama (or that Hootie guy), when there's like a century's worth of vital, magical music is beyond me. (Maybe I'm blessed to have the right friends, relatives, etc.)

My For What It's Worth Essentials:

1. The Carter Family-the blueprint
2. Hank Williams--haunted Soul
3. Johnny Cash--the embodiment of everything i believe or want to believe in
4. Merle Haggard
5. Patsy Cline
6. Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris--the originators of alt-country, "Love Hurts" shames anything Conway & Loretta rolled out
7. Waylon & Willie--Around 04, I had "Willie & the Family Live" in my player for about a year straight; If "Red Headed Stranger" is Sgt. Peppers, "Honkey Tonk Heroes" is "Aftermath"
8. Kris Kristofferson--at times, better than Dylan
9. Steve Earle
10 Dwight Yoakam

Honorable Mentions-

Bob Wills, Lefty Frizzell, Buck Owens, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Will The Circle Be Unbroken" Trilogy, Wanda Jackson, Loretta Lynn, George Jones, The Byrds "Sweethearts of the Rodeo", Jimmie Rodgers, early Charlie Daniels Band, and Kenny Rogers' "Love Will Turn You Around".

George Straight sucks.

(Except for "Amarillo By Morning")

Forgot to mention Doc Watson. Killer melding of country, blues, and folk!

Gary Allan deserves more success than he has had.

No mention yet in this thread of FREAKWATER, that needs to change right now! Raw and rootsy female duo with stunning vocal work. Lots of bluegrass influence, hugely underrated.

Also: 'Wrong-Eyed Jesus' by Jim White is a record that still sends shivers up my spine everytime I play it. Trippy supernatural country, if such a thing exists. Those lyrics will haunt you for years to come, check it out. Later albums are still good, but somehow he never managed to reach that sweet spot he hit with the debut. Chewers also should check out the documentary on the religious South he hosted, 'Searching For The Wrong-Eyed Jesus.'

And my pick for classic and a bit neglected country: Kinky Friedman! Seriously funny (token songtitle: 'They Ain't Making Jews Like Jesus Anymore'), but also a damn good songwriter. Hell, Bob Dylan has outed himself as a fan, won't argue with that. I understand he's meddling in Texan politics nowadays, don't know too much about that (and doesn't concern me, I'm European). But certainly give his old albums a listen, particulary 'Sold American'. You might also wanna check out his crime novels, they're equally hilarious.

Credibility. Shot.

Two comments on the 'Wrong-Eyed Jesus' film: a) it's not really a documentary, but it's certainly interesting. b) the best music in the film, the church sequences, didn't make it to the soundtrack album. Damn shame.

I haven't noticed that stance any more often from so-called alt-country artists/fans any more often than I've noticed it from the artists/fans of any genre towards the watered-down popular variant of their particular music. Uncle Tupleo fans don't seem to take any more antagonistic attitude towards Taylor Swift than fans of Mastadon do towards Nickleback. If you don't like that attitude, then fine, but it seems really bizarre to single out the alt-country folks.

Oh, it happens across the board to be sure (underground Hip-Hop spent a few decades whining about the mainstream while practising its tired A Tribe Called Quest rethreads, though that's died down quite a bit), but I do see a particular tendency amongst alt.country fans/critics to want to reclaim the genre and point out that the music they like is more authentic, like there's real Country and the other stuff. I don't doubt Mastodon fans as a rule hate Nickelback - I don't really know anyone who doesn't hate Nickelback - but I don't think there's a common ground that Mastodon fans accuse Nickelback of having betrayed, either; I mean they're equally uncomparable to Chuck Berry. So the roots discourse is less pronounced, if still present.

And what does watered down mean, anyway? Country has been taking in outside influences since before it was even a viable marketing term (Western Swing, for one, could be easily characterised as Country musicians letting their music get watered down by contemporary Pop tastes, but it's amongst the most joyous, vital music I've ever heard); it's kinda how genres survive.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AifXbzR4JMM

One of the great Grand Theft Auto in-game music selections. Somehow it complements the mayhem better than many of the rap or rock pieces.

Also, this thread is the perfect place to resurrect rhinestonecowboymugshot.jpeg to express disagreement.

My point exactly.

Really, music listening tends to be best when we're able to filter out the noise from the marketing departments, the articles that are little more than rewritten press releases, and ignore the labels that no musician (or writer or actor or director, for that matter) has any interest in applying to themselves.

Most of the popular music that gets wide exposure, regardless of genre, is aimed at people for whom music is not art, but fashion; people who listen to music in the same way, and for the same reasons, that they wear corporate logos on their clothing. And many (most?) of the singers who get pimped at us (again, in any genre) have no more to offer musically than does the penguin on someone's golf shirt.

So, yes, it is possible to mine the existing veins of great popular music, like country, jazz, folk, R&B, and create music that has more of a reason to exist than to mindlessly pass the time. The fact that a country artist gets on the radio and sells records doesn't automatically make him the equivalent of Bob Wills or Buck Owens. The majority of what's served up to the mass public IS crap, and the fact that it may meet their needs doesn't make it worthwhile, any more than all the TV advertising in the world can make Bud Lite into actual beer.

Well, the thing is, a lot of great art is made with the sole intention of making a quick buck! Intentions don't really matter to me when it comes to that - if I hear it and I like it, what does it matter to me whether it was made by Serious Artists who care about Their Work or some dude with a marketing department?

Basically music labels have always been about making money. That's what Motown wanted to do, what King wanted to do, what Chess wanted to do. The thing is that that doesn't really matter if the talent is there; in fact, more often than not, artists are stimulated by these constrictions, not frustrated by them. Having a more or less rigid formula demands that they find creative ways to work around it, and the tension resulting from that is often a lot more interesting than what would happen if the artist were left alone to pursue his self indulgence.

This is not a hard and fast rule, I mean, I'm not fundamentalist about it - I love my What's Going On and A Bout De Suffle and Gram Parsons as much as I love my Disco cash-ins and my pulp novels and my Nikkatsu action cinema. And of course sales by themselves are no indicator of quality - just because someone sells a million copies doesn't make him the new Buck Owens. What I find disasteful is the notion that, just because he's sold a million, he automatically couldn't possibly be exactly that.

You say that I shouldn't listen to press releases - but when it comes to independent music, fans and critics are basically the only ways to seek out new artists. And what got me ennervated with alt.country back when I was still following the genre was how many reviews praised artists for upkeeping some supposed outlaw tradition and not sounding like evil commercial Nashville and blah blah blah; it was almost like bands got a free pass just for being in the genre. Which I can understand - it's always been a pretty small style, and I suppose if you're a giant fan of this particular kind of music you'll be thrilled everytime you discover a new band within it - but it doesn't lead to a very rewarding musical experience when there is so little quality control around.

I know, being popular doesn't make something bad. But in today's musical environment, it means that it's been cultivated for reasons that have little to nothing to do with music, to a degree that was never the case before, because the mass-market techniques necessary to homogenize the music didn't exist on such a pernicious scale.

It's not all relative, and the Victoria's Secret bimbos I mentioned upthread are not as relevant or important as The Carter Family as long as people like them. People like Big Macs, too, but that doesn't make them any better for you.

Sure, popular art thrives on the clash between art and commerce. But artists for whom there IS no clash between art and commerce, who surrender before the fight even begins, aren't adding anything to the musical landscape but empty calories. And that's the only kind that the Clear Channels of the world (and look how few of those there are anymore) are interested in. It was never "easy" for quality art to get on the radio or TV: I contend that today, it is institutionally near-impossible. It's not a case of what goes around comes around, or same as it ever was: thanks to corporate consolidation, things ARE worse today than they have ever been, in terms of mass-marketed popular music. I'm willing to risk a few independent artists getting overblown reputations if it allows them to give us an alternative.

I believe that it is possible to take the musical forms that began with guys like Hank Williams and produce something more than jingles that wind up on beer and car commercials. And Trace Adkins and Kenny Chesney aren't going to do it: they're just going to offer up what's selling (and sold in lowest-common-denominator form, for the most part). You don't have to believe that modern Nashville is "evil" to believe that what they're serving up isn't particularly worthwhile.

As for some artists getting a "pass"... well, hell, the entire Nashville establishment is its own giant free pass for whoever's got the right look and hat and accent. Sure, it's always been about making money: but the convergence of the music business (recording, radio, concerts) into fewer and fewer hands means that there's even less chance for something worthwhile to hit the mainstream than it was in the days of Sam Phlips and Leonard Chess. Would those guys have missed out on a lot of great art if they'd had today's tools of mass marketing? Very possibly. But we can't ever know. We CAN, however, be pretty sure that today's mass market would spit out Howlin' Wolf before he'd got past the receptionist.

Howlin' Wolf would be having Crunk club hits.

I understand what you're getting at, but what it comes down to for me is that, even with the monopolization and ClearChanneling you speak of, there's still been far too many creative, fascinating and downright weird chart hits this decade (not to mention far too much granola sameishness within the different factions trying to oppose it) for me to accept this theory. Still, this is probably all quite off-topic by now, so I'll stop.

Nah, it was perfectly on topic: the question was where's the good country music, and you responded that sometimes it's right in front of our collective face, on the country music charts.

Recall around the first lollapalooza tour Anthony Keidis was asked what he thought about NIN. He couldn't dig, because he couldn't hear the connection to black music/roots in thee sound; or see a thread going back to Muddy Waters or the Blues that all rock n roll's based on. He wasn't sure if NIN was progress or losing the way.

The problem with country music today is you can't feel the heritage in the music. It's not the soundtrack of the common man. It's for boring suburbanites who drive a SUV.

Back in the day, country trends like Western Swing were taken from other vital forms of music like jazz and blended into something special. With something like the Outlaw Movement, it was again, radical.

What are the bland artists on contemporary country radio's sound taken from? Eagles? The AOR 70s era? Not exactly vital music. And a slap in the face to the legacy of The Carter Family, Hank Williams, etc.

Listening to, and/or accepting what the radio is regurgitating out, is the first sign of creatively and intellectually giving up! (Dig a little deeper)