Ok, clue me in to some good country and western. I've always liked Willie and Waylon (no, I've never been to Lukenbach, TX), Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Hank Williams Jr., Asleep At The Wheel, John Prine, Lyle Lovett, Merle Haggard, George Jones, etc. And I loved the soundtrack to O Brother, Where Art Thou. However, I'm not a fan at all of Dolly Parton and that style of country. Can anyone give me some pointers on good stuff to acquire to round out my collection of music?
You probably already know this but....Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt probably fit into the "alt country" category and are both very good.....but from my avatar you can see I'm a bit biased.
Lucinda Williams' "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" is probably my fave country album of the past 10 years.
Which albums? Thanks! I just bought it on the iTunes Music Store. I love (and hate) being able to do that. Love because the instant gratification is fantastic. Hate because I already spend too much money on music.
Three favorites of mine: Alison Krauss & Union Station Gillian Welch Emmylou Harris I'm also a big Albert Lee fan.
Seconded. If you liked O Brother, you'll probably like Allison Krause's stuff. However, I'd steer clear of her more recent work in favor of something like "Too Late to Cry." Her more recent albums (with Union Station, an excellent bluegrass band in their own right) have her doing almost nothing but soft--even syrupy--ballads while the men take the faster vocals, which is a damned shame. She can really go get it when she puts her mind to it. John Hiatt is not really a country musician, but his Crossing Muddy Waters is in the crossover alt country vein and has a lot of great breakup songs. There's The Mavericks first album What a Crying Shame. Their later stuff is killed by Raul Malo's love of pure sugar. Del McCoury is always good. I've got to go run a staff meeting is not a music album, it's what I have to do now. edit: writing that agenda took less time than I thought. Toss in BR549 for some pretty good, relatively recent rockabilly. Their first album, named after the band, is a good start.
Bluesgrass: Old Crow Medicine Show’s “O.C.M.S.” One of my favorites from 2004. Bluegrass with a bit of a snarling punk attitude. Country: Lambchop’s “How I Quit Smoking” Very mellow but sonically beautiful with dark twisted lyrics. Nashville’s equivalent of the Velvet Underground; not in terms of sound but in their approach to the genre. VU did a dark artistic revamping of 60’s bubble gum pop while Lambchop is doing the same to current country pop. Western: Calexico’s “Hot Rail” This album gives you the feeling of driving on a dark deserted highway in the Texas panhandle. Everybody that I know who has listened to this album has enjoyed it. That’s a good start but there is a lot of great stuff out there.
For Uncle Tupelo....probably Anodyne or March....although I believe there is an anthology out as well now. Son Volt....I would probably go with Trace.
For Uncle Tupelo, I'd suggest No Depression. But you could ask a bunch of UT fans the same question and get a different answer from each.
Do you have this one? It's from 1990, but I liked when I first heard it then, and still like it today. I kind of like the "Bakersfield Sound"-which I think this is in that style that Buck Owens and some of those guys first developed years ago.
Mike-- its almost reasonable to make a distinction between "Texas" and "Country," and just live with the places they overlap... "Country and Western" is one of those classifications created by someone looking to classify records for a rack jobber-- much like Rock and Roll is has several different strains... Dolly Parton is fairly "mountain-music" influenced, so you may not want to try the Carter Family... but you'll miss out on the Louvin Brothers if you stay away from it altogether.... Dixie Chicks probaly won't be your cup of tea either... Rough classifications below-- almost anything here could reasonably be argued to belong in at least one other group... Of all of this, from what I know of your taste I'd recommend "Down on the Drag" or "Live Shots" from Joe Ely most. Ely was the artist the Clash selected to open their first american tour... they were given free choice and chose him. Old Stuff-- Hank Williams, Bob Wills, Spade Cooley hits packages, "Buck Owens and the Buckaroos Live at Carnegie Hall", "Johnny Cash live at Folsom Prison"... Delmore Brothers package-- you'd like one with "Hillbilly Boogie" or "Panamerican Boogie"... Nashville-- Rosanne Cash-- "Seven Year Ache," "Rules For Travel" Emmylou Harris-- "Quarter Moon in a Ten-Cent Town" Carlene Carter-- "I Fell in Love" Texas-- Guy Clark-- "Ol' # 1", "Texas Cookin'." Rodney Crowell-- "Ain't Livin Long Like This", "Diamonds and Dirt," "Keys to the Highway." Jerry Jeff Walker-- "Viva Terlingua" Gary P Nunn-- "Nobody But Me" or "Border States" Joe Ely-- "Down on the Drag" "Live Shots" "Must Notta Gotta Lotta" "Love and Danger." Ray Wylie Hubbard "Loco Gringo's Lament." Shaver- "Tramp on Your Street" Steve Earle-- you can't get it all in one album, you can't really miss on any-- I like "Shut Up and Die Like an Aviator" better than almost anybody else-- maybe try "El Corazon" to be conservative... Townes Van Zandt-- "Flyin' Shoes" or the self-titled release which opens with "For the Sake of the Song" Texas Tornados-- "Zone of Their Own" Tish Hinojosa-- "Homeland" for starters, though "Sonar Del Labyrinto" is her best... Michael Martin Murphey-- "Peaks, Valleys, Honky-Tonks and Alleys" if you can find it-- vinyl only... don't be put off by the cowboy campfire stuff-- in his youth he was great... Lyle Lovett-- "The Road to Ensenada," Nanci Griffith-- "Last of the True Believers" Robert Earl Keen-- "West Textures" (I don't care for Keen much as a performer, but he's too good a songwriter to ignore...) Terry Allen- "Lubbock On Everything" (lowest budget great album ever, weirdest great songwriter ever...) Bakersfield-- Dwight Yoakum-- "Guitars, Cadillacs, Etc," "Buenas Noches From a Lonely Room," "This Time" Gram Parsons-- "Grievous Angel" (usually packaged with "GP" these days...) Br-549 probably belongs here, though they're a Texas band named after the old Nashiville phone exchange... Merle Haggard package-- something with "Silver Wings" will probably get the rigth period... Desert Rose Band-- "Running" Foster and Lloyd-- "Faster and Llouder" Alt- I'm way behind the times here, but good old Alt includes: Blue Rodeo-- "Diamond Mine" and "Five Days in July." Cowboy Junkies-- "Dark Eyed Man" Jayhawks--"Hollywood Town Hall" Poco-- "Deliverin'" John Hiatt-- "Slow Turning" is the countriest, "Stolen Moments" the best... Goose Creek Symphony-- "Head For the Hills" Cowboy- "Reach For the Sky" Emmylou Harris' "Red Dirt Girl" belongs in alt but isn't really old or new... Bluegrass-- "Seldom Scene's Next Record" "15th Anniversary" Country Cooking "26 Bluegrass Instrumentals" Country Gazette "Don't Give Up Your Day Job" Run C&W-- "Row vs Wade" Ricky Skaggs-- "Bluegrass Rules" Cowboy-- Ian Tyson--"Cowboyography" For the very best of these besides the Ely: Hank Williams Sr, Seldom Scene's "15th Anniversary," "Grievous Angel," "Hollywood Town Hall," "Lubbock On Everything,"Loco Gringo's Lament."
Well, I have been to Lukenbach Texas. Or through it anyway.And how can you stand George Jones and that whiny gospel voice of his?
taosjohn's point about lables made me think about Brian Setzer's first solo album "The Knife Feels Like Justice." I guess today it would be found in the alt.country bin? It's still an album I really like-very underrated IMO
JD Crowe. Start with Live from Tokyo. Very much in the O Brothers Where Art Thou vein. He was one of the pioneers of blending the country and bluegrass sounds.
I don't think anyone's mentioned Bill Monroe yet, but he is to bluegrass what Bob Wills is to Western Swing. I'd highly recommend this and any Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. Re: Gram Parsons. He is sort of the grandfather of alt.country, so that "Grievous Angel/GP" double album mentioned above is very a good bet and a very good bargain as well. There's also his seminal album with The Byrds, "Sweetheart of the Rodeo" which is a classic and points to all this later stuff. But I'd also like to plug this excellent Parsons tribute album: IMO, the majority of tribute albums suck, with the better ones having about a 50% hit/crap ratio. But I don't think there's a bad track on this album. Track list: 1. She (Pretenders & Emmylou Harris) 2. Ooh Las Vegas (Cowboy Junkies) 3. Sin City (Beck & Emmylou Harris) 4. $1,000 Wedding (Evan Dando & Julianna Hatfield) 5. Hot Burrito #1 (The Mavericks) 6. High Fashion Queen (Chris Hillman & Steve Earle) 7. Juanita (Sheryl Crow & Emmylou Harris) 8. Sleepless Nights (Elvis Costello) 9. Return Of The Grievous Angel (Lucinda Williams & David Crosby) 10. One Hundred Years From Now (Wilco) 11. A Song For You (Whiskeytown) 12. Hickory Wind (Gillian Welch) 13. In My Hour Of Darkness (The Rolling Creekdippers) Plus you gotta love the cover close up of Parson's famous Nudie suit, complete with embroidered tributes to narcotics.
You should really go, it's quite a place... Asleep at the Wheel is actually pretty good, but I'm not too big on most of it.
A few albums you might enjoy (classic and alt): Ray Wylie Hubbard - Sweet and Lowdown Cliff Carlisle - A Country Leagacy 1930-1939 Rex Hobart & the Misery Boys - The Spectacular Sadness Of Louvin Brothers - Satan Is Real Handsome Family - In the Air Hot Club of Cowtown - Ghost Train Tom T Hall - 20th Centruy Masters Various - Decca Country Classics (3 cd set) Guy Clark - Dublin Blues