Alt-Country - Search and Destroy

I've been SERVED. at least it's by someone w/a good username :)

But here are a few:

The Be Good Tanyas
Okkervil River
Damien Jurado seconded.

And Huck, are Royal City considered alt-country? This whole (sub)genre confuses me, as I used to be one of those (annoying) people who said I love all music except country music (I was raised in the UK and just thought it was redneck music out of Nashville and therefore said nothing to me). Now, I may still be annoying, but the "alt" has brought me closer to country (not to mention the late Mr. Cash), even though half the time I don't know which is alt and which is mainstream. Like, is that Wilco/Bragg thing, Mermaid Avenue, considered alt or straight country?

The first three Old 97's albums are fantastic alt.country (the last two are also great, but not so country). Son Volt's Trace is close to perfect through "Drown," kinda forgettable after that.

In the Iron & Wine/Will Oldham vein, The Baptist Generals are good.

Besides, like any clever genre tag (emo, etc) it's only embraced by those who will never make any kind of original mark anyway, and the bands know this, so they distance themselves from it. I think Jeff Tweedy would sigh a heavy sigh and look very disappointed if you asked him how he got started writing 'alt country songs.' While you're at it, ask Jawbreaker or Guy Picciotto how they feel about starting emo rock.

But since you asked: Freakwater changed my life, as did the Drive By Truckers. Half of the bands on Bloodshot are worth a gamble (and the other half veer towards bluegrass / rockabilly, which i don't really dig so I'm no authority).

fibrotown "s/t"
Royalchord's "I gave you a mountain"
hired guns "between here and the night"

anyway, here is a review of my favorite recent alt-country record, followed by reviews of two non-alt-at-all country records, the latter of which genre i usually (but okay, not always) much tend to prefer:

http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0405/eddy.php

unless drive-by truckers count (at least when they play loud.)

Powerpop and indie rock are both brilliant genres. Particularly Powerpop. The entire ideology behind Powerpop is so completely right.

Hee. OK, but that all depends where you draw your lines. I mean, by No Depression definitions, Lucinda Williams and Steve Earle are alt-country royalty. They both have detractors, I know, but it seems like a stretch to call them timid, bland, whitebread -- or even arhythmic (I actually like Steve Earle's country-reggae bits, "Rivers of Babylon" and "Johnny Too Bad"). It's always seemed to me there were distinct schools of alt-country: the Uncle Tupelo/Jayhawks Midwest/California division, and then separate (though sometimes overlapping) circles in Nashville, Austin, Chicago and elsewhere. If you're going to limit the definition specifically to the Farrar/Tweedy school, OK, I can see the complaints (although all those guys have written some good songs, and Mermaid Avenue is a classic on any planet). But I'm guessing that's limiting the definition way more than anyone who actually listens to it does.

Anyway, people not yet mentioned, besides Earle and Williams:
Lonesome Bob
The Bottle Rockets
The V-roys (and Scott Miller solo, especially his first album)
Kelly Willis (I guess her MCA stuff is hard to call alt-, but her more recent stuff qualifies)
Jason and the Scorchers
Lone Justice (especially the first album)

And lots of other things not leaping to mind right now.

For whatever record exists for someone who posts with a fake name, I don't like a lot of the alt-country superstars like Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams & Ryan Adams. Can't stand 'em! Mainly cuz they seem to believe their own press. Or maybe cuz a bunch of people I think are fuckfaces absolutely fawn over them. So, like, suck-by-association.

Anyway,any music label will ultimately be proven false or redundant unless it is at heart meaningless (the label, like say, crunk or gobot-pop (good-time music made by cars that turn into robots with very few moving pieces).

Well, the Eagles having made better records than Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, the Bottle Rockets, Casey Chambers, Ryan Adams, Jason and the Scorchers, Lone Justice, Alejandro Escovedo, Wilco, Son Volt, Uncle Tupelo, the Jayhawks, Lambchop, Iron & Wine, and just about everybody else mentioned on this thread *might* have something to do with it. But that's just a wild guess.

I never liked the Goats much, myself. Or Lubricated Goat, for that matter. Or Lambchop, though I guess we already mentioned them. Or Lamb, for that matter. Or the High Llamas. I think I like the Mountain Goats okay, though (and not just because John Darnielle might be reading this), but I need to listen to them more. And I definitely think "I'm on the Lamb But I Ain't no Sheep" by Blue Oyster Cult is an excellent song, for whatever that's worth.

just read this excellent article which is a few weeks old: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/far-from-the-old-country-music-1643705.html

the assessment of alt country at the end rang 100% true for me

yes, Bush totally OTM here, and I think this is well put...

Bush can barely hide his impatience at alt.country's arrogance. "The songs that will survive 40 years from now will have to do, not with their excellence at how they interpreted post-modern Appalachia, but how they interpreted the human condition. And in the end, as much as I'm a huge Wilco fan, no one's going to remember them. They're going to remember Katy Perry's "I Kissed A Girl" – because that story is true. There'll be another girl sitting at a window who's kissed someone and that song speaks to her. And really, (Wilco and ex-Uncle Tupelo singer-songwriter) Jeff Tweedy singing about being lonely and poor and dumped, all these things which he is not...

"There are only so many thirtysomethings who'll emotionally connect to style over substance, which a lot of (modern) Appalachian stuff is. I'm a huge Gillian Welch fan, but she's from Malibu, California. I'm from Dolly Parton's hometown Sevierville, Tennessee. I should be playing what she's playing, according to our histories. Our song "Baby Girl" deals with some sort of human archetype, anyway, a story of the hero. It just rings differently in your bones. Country music is unafraid of that human substance."

BUT...and this is a big but...dude is the heir to the Bush's baked beans fortune! Black pot, meet black kettle...

The Vulgar Boatmen. Oh man if you don't know them you are in for a treat.

Dean from the Waco Brothers has been putting out great stuff the last few years, mostly for free:
https://deanschlabowskemusic.com/ramblin-deano

Lots of clever commentary on the state of America with great guitar and fiddles.

been on a Lydia Loveless kick lately

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wXjxNbJjYag

Sarah Shook is pretty cool on the honky-tonk side

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M25-mPSPm5I

xpost yeah and check Lydia Loveless thread. Havn't gotten into Shook yet, despite hearing a couple albs. Caroline Spence has thread appeal--from my Nashville Scene ballot comments:
Caroline Spence, Mint Condition: A country folkie who has no prob with (better) rockin' beats (contrast somewhut w Hayes Carll, later on on here), kind of a modern day Mary McCaslin, is Caroline Spence, whose 2019 Mint Condition judiciously updates her 70s Neil-Emmylou buckskin diaries, with recurring bits of nocturnal Beach House keyboard harmonies, for inst. More on her later maybe. RIYL Lee Ann Womack. This one is maybe better for listening to than writing about, opposite of so many theoretical commendables.
What I said on here about her 2017 alb:
"Softball" is a good example of how Caroline Spence's little x wiry voice can put one over the plate with no excess effort: she says that when she invades the boys' team, it ain't gonna be softball no more, and she's right. Not seeing personnel credits for Spades and Roses, except for a mention of the drummer(-arranger of the occasional, never-overdone strings) also being the producer. He discreetly keeps thing moving right along, even when there are no drums, plus she's got the supple tunes and words ("Southern Accident"!), although "You Don't Look So Good (Cocaine") seems too naggy. wouldn't change my way of life for sure. Overall, reminds me a bit of early 70s Emmylou and Neil (incl. mix of acoustic and electric, although no big solos), but it's all life lived, incl. some straight thought-talk to self and other, also bits of wistful thinking, incl. looking ahead & back ("There might have been some eloquence/In the very last words I said...") Also gets a bit folkie-solemn with the hopefulness sometimes, but goes with the lost evenings w wine and guys(for instance)--she's concisely candid enough about impulsive and compulsive elements. Philosophy as drug: speaking of yonder 70s West Coast associations.
Edd Hurt responds on, ILX's Rolling Country 2017 thread:
Talking about Caroline Spence: she's doing a residency in January here at the Basement. Wrote this about her recently:
Virginia-born singer-songwriter Caroline Spence released a remarkable track about the limits of Nashville songwriting on her 2013 EP You Know the Feeling. "Whiskey Watered Down" takes down a shallow tunesmith who, Spence declares, will never be "Parsons, Earle or Van Zandt." What makes "Whiskey Watered Down" a definitive song about a particular strain of Music City songwriting is her choice of role models, but the tune also equates bad songwriting with bad relationships. A Nashville resident since 2011, Spence continued to work in classic singer-songwriter mode on her 2015 full-length Somehow, which includes a full-band rendition of "Whiskey Watered Down" that I find less effective than the acoustic reading she performed on the 2013 EP. I admire Spence's writing on this year's album Spades & Roses, which contains the excellent track "You Don't Look So Good (Cocaine)" and the equally fine "Softball," about sexism and what it takes to become a big-league songwriter. Spence, who recently released a five-song EP called Secret Garden, has potential — she bears watching. EDD HURT
Also search term Hipster Kisses on ILM for thread re ladies from canyons, not all of them ancient, but all justified.

A few words of thanks.

Regrettably, it is time for this phase of Bloodshot Records to come to an end. I will no longer be a part of the label I started over 25 years ago as an impossibly ill-conceived hobby. It’s not what myself, the staff or the artists wanted, but few get to write their final chapter. That we lasted as long as we did—an indie roots label, too rock for country, and too country for punk, in Chicago—was nothing short of miraculous. It has been a humbling privilege to be able to intuitively concoct a record collection I really loved and have so many follow along for the ride. You trusted us, and that always meant the world to me. I personally never took that for granted. Thank you for all the support and good cheer, for enabling this strange endeavor, for letting us be a part of your lives and communities, and for being—as a friend and former Hideout bartender characterized Bloodshot fans—polite, sloppy, and good tippers.

Little did I know that a journey that started with having my brain rewired at a DEVO show in Detroit in 1980 would lead to such a wonderful and challenging life in the world of independent music. I am filled with nothing but gratitude for the artists on whose behalf I worked. I had a hand in releasing some truly remarkable music over the years. That artists would entrust me with their creations was a responsibility I took very seriously. I’ve made friends with some enormously talented people along the way, too numerous to mention, and some were even heroes of mine long before Bloodshot was even a drunken gathering of neurons in my head: Dex Romweber! Alejandro Escovedo! Rosie Flores! Graham Parker! Mekons! Barrence Whitfield & the Savages! It boggles my already boggled mind when I think about it. And that so many of them have reached out to myself and the staff with tear-inducing words of support the past couple of years—you know who you are—for that I am further in your debt.

From the early days of the Old 97's, Lounge Ax and Delilah’s all the way through to up-and-comers Rookie, a new generation of cool venues like Sleeping Village, and, well, Delilah’s, it was never boring. Tedious? Sure. A giant pain in the ass? Often. A quixotic and sisyphean exercise? You betcha. But what a kick! What an absolute improbability! Often, I’d find myself standing at a show watching the crowd connect with the music—that special and thrilling two-way relationship between band and audience—marveling at the whole thing and that I was allowed, in some small way, to help. I was a record geek version of Charlie in the Chocolate Factory.

Well, we had some fun, right? I am sad there wasn’t a chance for a proper goodbye and that we weren’t able to whip up a wake, a celebration or one last party. I seem to remember a few good ones over the years. I have no doubt forgotten a few of them, too. I hope we brought some fun into your lives over the years and were pleasant members of the community.

I would be deeply remiss if I did not offer praise and everlasting thanks to the former staff of Bloodshot who endured a great deal of undeserved and unrelenting darkness the past two and a half years. They remained steadfast to the core purpose of the label and shared my principles of integrity in supporting music and artists we cared about deeply. Hannah Douglas, Mike Smith, Nina Stiener and Josh Zanger (and even Lisa C and little Billie): They rarely got the spotlight, but they were as much in the fiber of what Bloodshot was as any music. Any label—or any business—is lucky to have them on staff; any artist is lucky to have them on their team; and I am so proud of the job they did under very difficult circumstances. Their kindnesses and fierce loyalty to the ideals of what I thought Bloodshot should be is something I will carry with me always. I learned so much from them about what is really important during this time. If you see them, thank them, buy them a delicious cocktail—or in Mike’s case, a Malört. They have the hearts of lions. I miss seeing them in the trenches every day; I miss watching them perform feats of creativity with the same dedication and zeal that led me to even consider starting a label. There will always be a big hole where what we could have done over the next few years should be.

Finally, whatever happens to the Bloodshot name moving forward, whatever form the company takes, and wherever the artists go, it is, as always, the music that remains important. Support the musicians you discovered or enjoyed on Bloodshot in any way you can, as directly as you can. Furthermore, keep supporting all independent labels, artists and businesses (be they record stores, book stores, presses, breweries, bars, restaurants, apparel shops, bakeries and beyond). They are what keep life interesting. They are what make our communities vibrant and unique. It is through them that we can keep the forces of Bezos-ization and Kardashianing at bay. We would all be poorer without them.

Take care of yourselves and each other, believe the women, work for justice and accountability in your neighborhoods and, to paraphrase the ever relevant Joe Strummer: Search out the good stuff, go underground and don't buy what's shoved in front of you. Amen.
Thank you again, for everything. Maybe I’ll see you again at a show sometime.

Rob Miller, Co-Founder, Bloodshot Records

Damnit, and we don't even get an epic 25th anniversary compilation!

I hope Rob finds something equally rewarding next, he was always engaging and happily answered emails I sent him.

That’s too bad. RIP.

such a bummer situation

wait ... Josh in Chicago ... are you the same Josh that works/ed for Bloodshot?

blink once for yes, twice for no

No, not me!

Backstory, of excruciating relevance, posted by Josh on the Lydia Loveless thread; have your barf bag handy---bet they still owe several/all? artists money:
https://chicagoreader.com/music/will-bloodshot-records-stay-in-the-saddle/

RIP. Massive impact to the American Alt-Country scene, the city of Chicago, and to me personally. Too bad they couldn't put a Hideout show together to say goodbye.

Just give everybody their damn work back and shut it down already. Christ. https://t.co/ccSRM4CoOn

— Jason Isbell (@JasonIsbell) October 20, 2021

I don't know if he wants to put the work into making Southeastern a bigger label but that would be a cool home for the Bloodshot artists getting screwed.

That would have to be a bigger label indeed! Meanwhile, I suppose something like a class action lawsuit would be like Bloodshot from a stone---?

would accomplish little more than enriching the lawyers i'd imagine

Maybe they could use the kind who ONLY GET PAID WHEN YOU DO (true ambulance chasers, but Chicago must have some)

With same financial results, but some vengence----maybe whoever defendants might be would settle? They prob don't have shit, unless it's under mattresses etc

I'd imagine any lawsuit would instantly throw Bloodshot into bankruptcy, then I'd assume any music rights/publishing would be auctioned off to the highest bidder

Reading some of the comments under the Isbell tweet, particularly a couple from people who would know, it sounds like Nan might be the problem.

The settlement might well be, at best, "Here's your masters"---but with an auction, as you say----or would those in effect or fact be auctioned too?

https://chicagoreader.com/music/bloodshot-records-is-bought-by-exceleration-music/

i love the butthole surfers alt cunt tree song! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Is0hVNZJTOU

Rob Miller's such a good writer, even if most of what I've read from him has been during PR crisis times. Would love it if this freed him up to do more of it publicly.

Been getting some emails from the 'new' Bloodshot Records. Let's see if they can recapture the original spirit...