I started this country band 'cause punk rock was too hard to sing
- Ryan Adams (Whiskeytown; Faithless Street)
Sometime circa 1999 I was looking for music on Napster. If any Feds read this, I was just browsing and definitely not downloading anything. Anyways, I was doing what I always do: looking for new music. I remember I would sometimes just search on random words, so I must have searched “whiskey” because the band Whiskeytown came up. I had never heard of them, but the name sounded cool, and I absolutely did not download any of their music from Napster. I did what any good law-abiding citizen would do, and I went down to the local CD store and bought their album “Faithless Street.” The song that had come up in Napster was “Wither I’m a Flower.” It wasn’t on their first album, but it had recently been included in the soundtrack for the movie “Hope Floats” – which is a forgettable movie with a pretty decent soundtrack. Whiskeytown was like nothing I had ever heard before, but at the same time it felt familiar. What had happened was I had just stumbled into the world of alt-country.
Whiskeytown formed in the Raleigh, NC area in 1994. The only consistent members were Ryan Adams and Caitlin Cary. Before splitting up in 2000, they recorded three studio albums. In the year 2000 Ryan Adams put out his first solo album “Heartbreaker.” He has proved to be one of the most prolific artists of my generation. Between 2000 and 2022 he released 16 solo albums. In 2005 he started working with a band called The Cardinals and they recorded 4 studio albums (one was a double album). So, between 1997 and 2022, Ryan Adams has recorded 23 albums along with an endless stream of EP’s and B-Sides. His albums range in style from alt-country to folk to rock and sometimes all of the above. Plus, he hails from Jacksonville, NC, my dad’s hometown.
After finding Whiskeytown, I found out about another alt-country band: The Old 97’s. Napster really was a great way to find new music, and I really did purchase albums of songs I found there because, as I’ve mentioned before, I’m a fan of the hard copy. In 1999 The Old 97’s had just released their album “Fight Songs.” It is a great album, but track one, “Jagged,” was the one. The previous year I had gone through a nasty break-up, and like the song says I would have given anything not to feel so jagged. Over the next few years, I bought several Old 97’s albums and anything and everything Ryan Adams did. Other than that, I lost the thread.
In 2012 I moved back to my hometown of Mint Hill, NC for a job. My job was a new position in the company. We had a baseline for what my duties would be, but expansion was anticipated. In 2013 my manager walked me back to the warehouse and showed me a row of shelves filled with material left over from previous jobs. The problem, he said, was that we didn’t know what was on the shelves because no one had been tracking it. My job was to pull every item and catalog it so we could either use it on future jobs or get rid of it. But, before I could get to the shelves, I had to go through about five feet of piled up materials in front of them. I physically could not get to the shelves due to the piles of stuff sitting in front of them. Sorting these things was something I did to fill in any gaps in my day. It took a long time. Lucky for me, I had an iPhone and the Pandora Radio app.
Pandora Radio is a music streaming app. If you don’t mind advertisements, you can use it for free. It is based off the Music Genome Project, a classification system that links music based on character traits and attributes. The idea is that the user creates a station from a specific song or artist and Pandora’s algorithm will play music related to the original song or artist. Theoretically, you should like everything you hear. One of my stations was Whiskeytown. The Music Genome Project really works. Bands I had never heard of like Turnpike Troubadours and JB & The Moonshine Band, to name a few, became new favorites. Alt-country had grown a lot while I was not looking.
Back in the early 80s a group of guys from a small town in the southern part of Illinois formed a Punk Rock band called The Plebes. Punk Rock wasn’t too popular in southern Illinois, so after a few years, some personnel changes, and a name change, the guys started playing mainly 1960s cover tunes. All the while two of the guys were writing their own music. When they decided to start playing their own music rather than cover songs, they changed their name again to Uncle Tupelo. Their first album “No Depression” is considered to be the first alt-country album. Listening to “No Depression” it is clear to hear the influence of punk rock and 60s blues & rock. When Uncle Tupelo split up in 1994, they had released 4 studio albums together. Second wave alt-country was starting up with bands like Whiskeytown, Old 97’s, Wilco, and Son Volt (the last two being the bands formed from the Uncle Tupelo split).
Though the term alt-country was first used for bands like Uncle Tupelo, Golden Smog, and The Jayhawks, you can go back through musical history and hear elements of it in artists like Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams, Creedence Clearwater Revival, The Band, Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, John Mellencamp, et al. In my opinion, it is one of the only genres today that has any serious song writing happening. Alt-country, short for alternative country, is pretty much what it says: an alternative to mainstream country music. I never really liked country music, but I soon learned that it is only one trait of alt-country. Other influences are southern rock, the Texas sound, red dirt, roots rock, indie folk, and cowpunk. Probably the only common characteristic is a lack of common characteristics. It just has a certain feel.
What I mean by “feel” is that it is relatable and unpretentious. Where modern country music feels manipulative to me, alt-country feels real. For instance, when Ryan Adams sings “Jacksonville is a city with a hopeless streetlight. Seems like you’re lucky if it ever changed from red to green. I was born in an abundance of inherited sadness, and .50 cent picture frames bought at a five and dime,” he’s painting a vivid picture of what it was like growing up in a North Carolina town. Contrast that to Tim McGraw singing “I’m gonna live where the green grass grows, watchin’ my corn pop up in rows…” Well, green grass grows everywhere: cities, suburbs, the country, Russia… it’s dumb and written in a way that is meant to manipulate you into feeling a certain way. What’s worse, to me, is that Tim McGraw didn’t even write the song.
Don’t get me wrong. There is some modern country that I like. The country elements of alt-country served as an entry point for me to enjoy some modern country music. The Best Playlist Ever™ has been great way to find classic country. Overall, the explosion in popularity of country music starting in the 90s has made it hard to distinguish between it and run-of-the-mill pop. In fact, some of the biggest country music stars today don’t even pretend to sing country. Sadly, it’s just another genre overtaken by a music industry that waters down everything it touches for mass appeal. Watch this performance by Zane Williams of “Sellout Song acoustic at Radio Texas, LIVE!” He hits the nail on the head regarding the current state of country music.
Alt-country has come a long way since the early 90s. Many of the second wave groups are still together, but newer artists like Turnpike Troubadours, Kevin Fowler, and Flatland Calvary are carrying the torch forward. Ryan Adams sounds more CA than NC these days, but there has been no drop off in quality or releases. He’s still one of my favorites out of any genre. I can’t say enough about Turnpike Troubadours. They recently came off a hiatus, and I am excited to hear what they do next.
There are too many great artists and bands to mention them all here, so I will leave you with my top 10 recommendations (not ranked in any particular order):
1. Heartbreaker – Ryan Adams
2. Faithless Street – Whiskeytown
3. No Depression – Uncle Tupelo
4. Diamonds and Gasoline – Turnpike Troubadours
5. Jugular – Vigilantes of Love
6. Fight Songs – Old 97’s
7. Mix Tape – JB & The Moonshine Band
8. How Country Are Ya? – Kevin Fowler
9. Hurry Home – Zane Williams
10. Homeland Insecurity – Flatland Cavalry
Photo Credits:
"Faithless Street, Whiskeytown 1998. CD cover." by sludgegulper is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
"Old 97's @ Webster Hall 8/1/08 #2" by Dina Regine is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0
"Pandora Icon for Fluid.app" by dview.us is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
"Turnpike Troubadours" by dave_hensley is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
"No Depression : Uncle Tupelo Release June 21st, 1990" by Howdy, I'm H. Michael Karshis is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
"Creedence Clearwater Revival, CCR - Willy & The Poor Boys" by Piano Piano! is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
"Tim McGraw" by sunnyd_57 is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
"Zane Williams" by dave_hensley is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.