I'll start by saying this was damn good year for country music. There was releases from alt-country staples (Old 97s, Drive-By Truckers, Ryan Adams, Steve Earle) as well as exciting releases from some relatively young guns (Hayes Carll, Josh T. Pearson). I'm lucky to have been covering this type of music in a year so ripe with good releases and it was hard to widdle it down, but these are my top 5:
5. Ryan Adams: Ashes and Fire, Capitol
After parting ways with his backing band, The Cardinals, and releasing some metal albums via his website that I don't think even Mandy Moore took the time to listen to, Mr. Adams found himself going back to the basics with his new album. I don't mean this in a bad way in any means, because his basics (great, insightful lyrics laid over mostly acoustic guitar) suit him just fine. It's a great autumnal record, and I look forward to having it in my rotation this winter.
Key Tracks:
Ashes and Fire
Chains of Love
Lucky Now
4. Robert Earl Keen: Ready For Confetti, Lost Highway
Much like Mr. Adams, Keen harkens back to what makes him great in the first place: insightful lyrics that equally hit dreary wistfulness and wry country wit. He hits both of these amicably many times throughout this album and though it's certainly not his best album, there's few times throughout the album the he misses the bullseye.
Key Tracks:
Black Baldy Stallion
I Gotta Go
The Road Goes On and On
3. The Old 97s: The Grand Theater, Volume Two; New West
Resulting from sessions in Dallas and Austin early last year, TGT V2 was the second set of songs after last year's The Grand Theatre, Volume One. Much like that album, this album finds the Old 97s perfectly executing the thing that made fall in love with them (and eventually alt country) in the first place. When Ken Bethea's guitar storms in with that signature dropped-down-two-steps tuning on "Brown Haired Daughter", you know the 97s are right back at what they do best. This album stands perfectly on it's own and even more interestingly as the companion to TGT V1 and these two albums are my favorite work of theirs since Wilco was still an "alt country" band. Anyways, just go them live already I'll see you there.
Key Tracks:
The Actor
No Simple Machine
How Lovely All It Was
2. Drive-By Truckers: Go-Go Boots; ATO
The Truckers do here what they always do. Deliever an album rich with stark storytelling on Hood's part, great one liners on Cooley's, and sounds simultaneously fresh and indicative of the band. I don't have too much to say about this one DBT speaks for themselves in many ways. It's gritty, grimy, insightful, poignant,.... it kicks ass.
Key Tracks:
Go Go Boots
Cartoon Gold
Used To Be A Cop
Ray's Automatic Weapon
1. Hayes Carll: KMAG YOYO; Lost Highway
Relative newcomer Hayes Carll firmly planted himself as a songwriter to be reckoned with by putting out the perfect country-rock record. It's got boot-stompin' ragers, whiskey-soaked honky tonkers, and genuinely sweet and insightful slow numbers. On this album, he's the perfect purveyor of country wit, drunken rambles, and genuinely sweet balladry. This is hands down the best beginning to end album of the year and I look forward to seeing where this guy goes from here as he's obviously found a formula that works to a tee.
Dirty politicians, dead judges, blue collar tribulations, and multiple other variants of social decay. If you're partaking in such things you're likely doing one of three things: watching The Wire, reading the work of Charles Dickens, or listening to the Drive-By Truckers. That's not to say these guys are a bunch of sad sack rednecks who do nothing other than talk about how much the world sucks, but these guys certainly don't mind hanging out on Gram Parsons' iconic "dark end of the street". I've always envisioned that if Bruce Springsteen was not on the streets of New Jersey but instead in the grimy swamps of Alabama, he would certainly be one of the Truckers.
The Drive-By Truckers are one of the last remaining examples of the "Alt-Country" movement that took off in the 1990s, and the dead genre certainly couldn't have a better living, breathing remnant then the Drive-By Truckers. I've always considered them the yin to the Old 97s yang in quintessential alt country harmony. Where the Old 97s display the sharp pop-conscious songcraft of the Beatles and Buddy Holly, the Truckers wield the raw grit of the Rolling Stones and Lynyrd Skynyrd with the lyrical weight of the aforementioned Boss. I'll be frank, this is one of my favorite bands so bias here will be apparent. I whole-heartedly believe Patterson Hood and Mike Cooley (the two principal songwriters and vocalists) will become recognized as one of rock music's all-time best songwriting parternships as time passes and retrospection will help to bring to light -- as it so often does in any artform-- the genius that's been churning out of Northern Alabama throughout their career. Despite the confounding effects that come with being associated with a niche genre, the Truckers' deep and rich catalog -- Allmusic has scored all of their albums, besides their first, with over four stars -- spanning over 15 years transcends any such titles as "Alt-country" and will leave them remembered as one America's great rock and roll bands.
Similar to the 97s, their first album is their weakest album as a whole with them exploring the sounds and songwritng ethos that would come to define the band. Though cheekily titled Gangstabilly, the album still explores emotionally heavy and effective songs, such as The Living Bubba, a song about a friend of theirs who after learned he was dying aimed to play as many shows as he could before kicking it in. Such songs display a beautiful heartfelt ode to their love of music and the people who play it alongside them.
Heavy songs such as this are however balanced by wittier and more upbeat numbers such as 18 Wheels of Love, a song that may be the most authentically country love song ever written in the most literal sense of the word. The true story of front man Patterson Hood's mother and step father -- this version live from Austin City Limits comes with Hood at his most Springsteen telling the story of the song's origins -- it displays the effectiveness of Hood's songwriting even when it's not gut wrenching, and points to the promising future the band has ahead.
The band's sophomore effort, Pizza Deliverance, begins them truly finding their ethos and perfectly walks the line between folksy country ballads and rowdy whiskey-charged stompers that sound like Hank Williams spent some time hanging out with the Sex Pistols. This duality is displayed right off the bat with the first two tracks:
Bulldozers and Dirt
Nine Bullets
Undoubtedly the most important thing Pizza Deliverance did was give Mike Cooley his proper introduction as Hood's perfect songwriting and vocal foil. Where Hood's voice is rough, raspy, and jagged, Cooley's is smooth, deep, and cool; where Hood's songs can be idiosyncratic and at times abrasive, Cooley's songs can be genuinely sweet or laced with charming rural wit. Uncle Frank, one of his songwriting masterworks, captures all the things that define a great Trucker's song in a tragic character sketch about a man whose left with no option but suicide after his limited skills and resources leave him confined to a world which long since changed and left him behind.
Arriving at the near end of the Alt-Country proper era, the Truckers 3rd studio album became the masterwork that elevated them above the confines of the niche genre they emerged from. 2001's Southern Rock Opera was a sprawling double album that was explored classic 1970s rock, racial politics, and modern Southern identity tied together with a loose story about Lynyrd Skynyrd. With a powerful "3 Axe Attack" from guitarists Hood, Cooley, and Rob Malone and intellectually evocative and thought provoking lyrics, the album became a powerful opus for the band that stands in the upper realm of Southern Rock. In what may be the only song that's ever told a narrative about a widely popular song while simultaneously defining an authentic regional identity, the album's proper opener "Ronnie and Neil" becomes essentially a mission statement for the band's attitude about the place from which they come as it explores the duality metaphorically displayed by Neil Young's "Southern Man" and Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama".
"And Neil helped carry Ronnie in his casket to the ground
And to my way of thinking, us southern men still need both of them around."
They continue to explore this ideal of the duality of the southern identity throughout the album and the track, "The Southern Thing", is written with the depth and complexity of a grad student's dissertation but with the efficiency of a 5 minute song.
Divided into two acts, the album tells the partially auto-biographical story of a boy (Hood's fictionalized self) growing up in the south where sports heroes are idolized instead of musicians and eventually setting out on tour with a Skynyrd-esque rock band. The second act's lead off, "Let There Be Rock", taps the breaks on the socio-political philosophy and is a pure cathartic celebration of music that can easily set alongside the best work of the legends that inspired the band.
Naturally however, Hood's fictional character comes to his end in a plane crash as the album comes towards it's end with Cooley and Patterson putting the gas to the floor with three tracks that discuss the dreams and hope life as a musician can offer and the tragedy of the those dreams barreling down into a fiery crash before they're fully realized.
So with Southern Rock Opera, the Truckers elevated themselves above "another alt-country band" with critics and music fans alike applauding the intelligence and ambition the band displayed on SRO. The success and buzz of that record led a recording contract with New West Records, a mainstay of Americana, Alt-Country, and other forms of rootsy music. Now the band was faced with always difficult, often impossible task of creating a follow up to what many considered to be a masterpiece. With 2003's Decoration Day however, the Truckers did just that.
After guitarist Rob Malone's departure from the band, they found a replacement in the young Jason Isbell. Isbell not only proved to be an excellent compliment to the guitar work of Hood and Cooley, but also took the songwriting and vocal duties on two of the albums. His songs, more traditionally pop based than Hood or Cooley's, contrasted beautifully alongside the grittier tracks of the two primary songwriters.
As a whole, the album is their loosest and grittiest to date with most of the tracks being recorded live on the first or second take. This lack of polishing proved to be the perfect companion to the hard bent family-based subject matter of the album, leading to some of the band's most aggressive and powerful songs on record.
One of my favorite songs by the band, "Sink Hole" takes a traditional Johnny Cash-esque song structure and super charges it with power and intensity. The track to follow, "Hell No I Ain't Happy", demonstrates these will likely always be to heavy to appeal to mainstream country radio but also exemplifies their unrivaled and unique passion in which they hammer heavy emotion into their songs.
As usual though, the band has a knack more balancing out the heavier tracks and dip into pure cathartic irreverent joy, exemplified by Cooley's "Marry Me":
"Rock and Roll means well but it can't help tellin' young boys lies"
The album continues on to tell stories painting life in the South, both past and present, with the heart-wrenching pathos seen in the works of William Faulkner. Along these lines, Hood tackles the disintegration of a family on the slowed down mid-album highlights "Heathens" and "(Something's Got To) Give Pretty Soon".
By 2003, the Old 97s had been dropped from their label, Wilco was delving into all types of experimental realms, and Ryan Adams had all but abandoned his rootsy ways. It seemed as if alt-country was dead once and for all. Scene or not however, the Drive-By Truckers churned on and Decoration Day was again heralded by critics and fans alike.
Always the working band, the Truckers shortly returned to the studio with Jason Isbell's new wife, Shonna Tucker, on bass and recorded what is, in my opinion, their definitive masterwork. 2004's The Dirty South has everything the band does best with stories about the oft-bleak nature of the land they hail from delivered with intense and genuine passion. Cooley opens it up with the breath taking moonshiners tale "Where The Devil Don't Stay":
Isbell ups the ante with his songwriting as well, with the metaphorical "The Day John Henry Died" exploring the death of the blue collar:
In his "Southern Springsteen" fashion, Hood delivers a stark story of good people being pushed into doing bad things on the intense "Puttin' People On The Moon":
The noir tone abounds as Hood and Cooley lay down a three-song set told from the opposite perspective of Alabama's most famous sheriff and the gang battle that provided the story for the film Walking Tall.
The album ends on perfect juxtaposition, with the heavy hitting live-staple "Lookout Mountain" and what maybe the Trucker's most tender song ever recorded, Isbell's "Goddamn Lonely Love": The Dirty South became the band's best selling album to date, and again garnered high praise from critics (it was even named in Pitchfork's list of best albums of the decade!)
Since 2004, the band has continued to consistently release quality material at an alarming rate. Despite a near break up, occurring after the departure of Jason Isbell following 2006's A Blessing and A Curse, the band continues to evolve and approach each new album with a fresh stylistic approach. As I believe all great bands do, every album the Truckers put is unique in it's sound and style while all easily falling under the umbrella of the essential ethos and approach. Anyone who's curious to discover and fall in love this music I've been covering so fondly should most certainly start with these guys. I think time will go on to further expose this band as one of this era's truly consistently great rock bands, sub genre distinctions aside. For anyone interested, I'll leave with some of my favorite cuts from their albums from the past five years. However, I'm more comfortable highly recommending Truckers' entire full discography than any band I can think of, as the joy in discovering their deep and diverse well of music is a thrill that would be selfish to keep to myself.
Last The Rolling Stones released an excellent remastered version of their 1978 classic Some Girls and it got me back into listening to alot of the Stones over the past week. The Rolling Stones certainly have a special place in my musical heart as they, in their most quintessential form, represent one of the purest forms of Rock and Roll, that being a steady mixture of blues and country. I've always found it funny that though they hail from the other side of the pond, throughout their career they've put out some the most "American" sounding music to date. Mic Jagger and Keith Richards have often stated their inspiration not only coming from Chess Records American blues, but also from what they've referred to as "hillbilly music". Needless to say, they in turn have inspired a multitude of bands too numerous to count, and their raucous attitude and approach is certainly seen throughout a lot of the alternative music I'm so fond of. Having said that, I thought I'd through out some of my favorite Stones tunes when they're fully channeling their inner hillbilly.
Beggar's Banquet's "No Expectations" (1968):
Country-Fried version of "Honky Tonk Women" off of Let It Bleed, "Country Honk" (1969):
Let It Bleed's beautifully rollicking title track (keep in mind this came out a good 5 years before Bill Withers' "Lean on Me") Sticky Fingers' classic "Wild Horses" (Keith even tunes his guitar to the 'Nashville Tuning' for this one):
I posted country legend Townes Van Zandt's cover of this earlier who put his own spin on it; however the Stones version is just as effectively executed. Sticky Fingers' "Dead Flowers" (1971):
And perhaps my favorite country cut of theirs, "Sweet Virginia" off of Exile on Main Street (1972); see you next time:
Ahh Thanksgiving, that wonderful time of year. Whether going to your home or off to a relative's, the holiday for most almost always involves coming together with family both close and distant. Depending on the dynamics of one's family, this holiday can bring many ups and downs. Often spending time with the extended fam carries with it the baggage that almost any family has within it, and the joy found in seeing relatives not seen in a while more times than not is coupled with the difficulties in coping with these complicated familial and generation dynamics. This is the theme that the Drive-By Truckers' Patterson Hood explores in "The Thanksgiving Filter" off of this year's excellent Go-Go Boots. In line with many great country songs and particularly the characters in the Truckers' universe, nothing helps this problem better than a nice stiff drink; the titular "filter" that helps Hood's character get through the holiday. The aforementioned juxtaposition is portrayed perfectly in the tonally dark verses and the cathartic and conflicted joy of the chorus (with lines like "I sure wish I had smoked me a joint" serving as a great irreverent lead in). Despite the seemingly jaded content, the Truckers deliver this in a fun and relatable way and it serves as the perfect companion piece to the unique experience that is the holiday season. Happy Thanksgiving.
So today we talked about our love mixtape song in class. If I was staying true to my blog's genre I would have picked this one:
Or perhaps this one: A reworked version of The Replacements' "Can't Hardly Wait" by Steve Earle's son, Justin Townes Earle:
Robert Earl Keen's latest album, September's Ready For Confetti, certainly displays the Texas Country legend finding familiar territory from his earlier days. I definitely mean this in a positive sense. A friend to me once described Keen as "Texas' Jimmy Buffet", a title he meant in a complementary way but that I vehemently disagreed with given his masterworks throughout the late 1980s and 1990s that were littered with beautiful observational songwriting and stylistic explorations that ranged from blues, folk, and traditional country (and I f***ing hate Jimmy Buffet). Even his most well known and party-ready anthem, "The Road Goes On Forever (and the Party Never Ends)" has a gripping subtext and star-crossed love story that breezes over the average passive listener. This stripped down on-air performance from the early Nineties displays this better.
In retrospect though, I can see how much his work throughout the Aughts (especially his bigger hits) would lend some from my generation to think this is the case. That's not to say these albums didn't have songs I enjoy (see "The Rose Hotel", "Ride", "For Love"), but they were spotty at best and failed to reach the potential that albums like his 1987 masterwork, A Bigger Piece of Sky, or 1997's Walking Distance achieved. That said his new album is his most enjoyable work from end to end in years. Beginning with "Black Baldy Stallion", Keen starts off a the right note by setting the wandering-drifter tone beautifully displayed on albums like A Bigger Piece of Sky. The second song and title track slides back into the "Texas Buffet" territory, but will likely be able to cross-over a get him some radio play eventually. The third track and first single though, "I Gotta Go", is perhaps the album's best with classic Keen aspects. With a bluesy lead riff and Keen-esque storytelling lyrics, I'm glad he or whoever chose for the lead off single to show he's going for a more organic feeling on his new album.
The record hits its mid-album stride with solid tracks like the emotionally charged "Lay Down My Brother" and the biting yet cheekily self-aware "The Road Goes On and On". He starts the finally stretch with a cover of extremely underrated country-folk artist Todd Snider's "Play a Train Song", something that doesn't depart too far from the original (it doesn't really need to) and is a nice nod to friend and fellow alt-countryer. He also questionably reworks his own "Paint the Town Beige" off of Sky without much changes either. However with some of my favorite lyrics in country ( like "I traded for a songbird a bigger piece of sky"), hopefully this can point some of Earle's younger fans to his older work. The album closes with the emotional "Soul of Man" that serves as an effective bookend to the album.
All in all, this is his easily his best and most solid album in years and by this point has become his best selling as well. Hopefully this album will continue to help him keep his audience both of old school alternative country and also of fans from the Texas country movement of the best years. Either way, this Keen doing his thing and doing it well. Here's an old acoustic performance of "Paint the Town Beige" because, well, it kicks ass.
Though Steve Earle came onto the music scene long before the days of the "alt-country" proper movement of the 1990s, he's always been embedded in the same ethos, never biding to strict genre lines. By now, Earle certainly has cut out for himself a solid following amongst music fans; however, his career has often been indicative of the alt-country dilemma: making music that's too country to hit the Rock mainstream, and too rock to hit the Country mainstream. Despite this, Earle is and always has been a musician's musician and his influence and approach can been felt throughout country music over the past 30 years.
Earle was a country black sheep straight from the get-go. Growing up in a small town outside of San Antonio, Earle was a 16 year old highschool drop-out with a rebellious attitude and self-destructive lifestyle. After giving music a try in Houston for a few years in the early 1970s -- where he befriended later teacher/role-model/friend/songwriting icon Townes Van Zandt -- he moved to Nashville at 19 in 1975. Donning straggly long hair, a heavy lifestyle (thanks Townes), and anti-Vietnam sentiments, Nashville and mainstream country execs certainly didn't take to him right off the bat. Luckily, his songwriting chops didn't go unnoticed and he soon made a decent living as a songwriter for legends such as Guy Clark and Carl Perkins along with artists like Johnny Lee, Vince Gill, Steve Warniner (he was also hired to write a song for Elvis Pressley but unfortunately The King didn't show up to the recording session).
Growing tired of Nashville, Earle moved back to Houston and began playing with his own band, The Dukes. Despite significant support from musicians and critics throughout Nashville, he had trouble finding a major label to support and had a contract fall apart with Epic Records who left him in their back pocket for a years but never produced a record for him. This was certainly indicative of the major label system that was coming to breaking point in the early 1980s, as labels weren't willing to risk producing and distributing music that didn't have an audience already in place. In the rock sphere the "indie" scene was in it's primitive stages and the idea of a country musician attempting the DIY approach seemed to be an effort in futility. However, a producer over at MCA finally caught wind of him and offered him a contract, giving way to the release of Earle's 1986 debut Guitar Town. With a unique "neo-rockabilly" and traditional country sound, the album captured the audiences of both the neo-traditionalist movement led by Randy Travis and Dwight Yoakam and fans of Bruce Springsteen's populist heartland-American rock.
"Gotta keep rockin' while I still can, gotta two-pack habit and a motel tan." Something about that lyric seems to encapsulate the mindset of a freewheeling lifestyle (like that of a young, traveling musician) and every time I hear it in my car I can't help but turn up the volume. The well of great lyrics as such and the fresh sound captivated the country music scene and with two charting singles ("Guitar Town" and "Goodbye's All We've Got Left") the album shot to number one on the US Country Billboard Charts (89 on the Billboard 200). Here's a cut of the latter single live from Austin City Limits.
So Earle finally got some of the mainstream attention many felt his songwriting warranted and the album received critical acclaim just for good measure. I readily admit that upon first listening to the album (my introduction to Mr. Earle's music), as a predominant indie rocker I fell on the "too country" side of the alt-county dilemma in my initial reactions. To me, the sound seemed a little too close to what nowadays sounds like mainstream Nashville, though Allmusic describes his first two albums as much "livlier stuff than anyone in Nashville was cranking out at the time". However (as with much of favorite music) it was the things I was uncomfortable/unfamiliar with on the first listen that have become my favorite parts of the music now. His sophomore album followed quickly in 1987, and Exit 0 (billed as Steve Earle & the Dukes) marked a sound that was nearing closer to a rock-based approach. Here's the lead track "Nowhere Road":
This more rock-based sound was reflected in the country music charts with a loss in sales compared to its predecessor. Nonetheless, it still garnered critical acclaim and did well enough for MCA to not lose anything on it. His third album, 1988's Copperhead Road, found Steve fully embracing his rock and roll sentiments and aggressive attack.
This song became Earle's third charting lead-off track in a row, though it wasn't the Billboard Country charts that grabbed onto it. Gathering significant airplay from rock radio stations, the album was his highest charting on the Billboard 200 (Number 56) with a unique sound that Rolling Stone described as "power twang" in their four-star review and the heartland rock sounds like John Mellencamp and Bruce Springsteen if they had grown up in the South. The album wasn't a pure rock album by any means though, as many songs still had his (slightly more powerful) country sound as heard.
Despite his steady success in multiple markets, by the late 1980s Earle's personal life was spinning out of control. At the time of Copperhead's release Earle was on his 5th marriage and was battling serious problems with alcohol and drug abuse. After an arrest in Dallas for an attack on a security guard at his own concert, multiple drug related incidents, and a paternity suits from past wives, the country music establishment was ready to turn their back on Earle. His fourth album, 1990's sporadic The Hard Way, showed signs of his wearing and though the album still received generally favorable reviews amongst critics, the album quickly fell off the charts. After this MCA released a live album of previously recorded material to finish out their contract and cut their ties with him after which.
With no record contract and nearly broke, Earle disappeared from the scene completely after slipping into a self-described two-year "trip into the ghetto" followed by a jail and rehab stint. Though at the time the music industry and fans alike thought Earle was gone for good, his influence was clearly evident in the alternative country movement that took off in the 1990s. Luckily though, alt-country's prodigal son would soon return home with a vengeance and solidify his place in country music alongside the contemporary artists he had come to influence.
Ahh the 1980s, what a beautiful time for American music. (?) It was a time of New Waves, Flocks of Seagulls, flying V's, and perhaps the last time the words men, tight leather pants, and badass could be used in the same sentence. It seems during this time everything was getting bigger: hair, guitars, amplifiers, and with new music media like the Music Television channel it appeared the industry was bigger than ever before. Hair metal and Madonna weren't the only things in the stadiums at this time either, as country music had crossed into the realm of arenas as well. 1989 saw the introduction of soon to be superstars like Garth Brooks along with the already established mammoths like George Straight, Lyle Lovett, and Reba McEntire all enjoying widespread popularity. Country music had a home in the big leagues with labels like MCA, Capitol, Columbia, Warner Bros, and Sire all putting out chart topping records by various artists.
In the midst of these country music juggernauts, a few boys from a small town in Illinois were looking for their sound. After playing in a few punk rock bands together Jeff Tweedy (who later went on to start that little country-rock band Wilco) and Jay Farrar decided to dip into some of the Rockabilly sounds of the 1950s along with traditional country like the Carter Family and see how that sounded against the punk rock like that of The Minutemen and Replacements. What they came up with was something that was unlike anything else that came before it and their debut album, No Depression, marked the beginning of a new movement in independent music and is recognized as a launching point for the alt country genre.
This lead track off their first album, Graveyard Shift, displays the genre-juxtaposition that came to define the alt-country sound. The entire album is, in my opinion, a little inconsistent as a whole; however it represented a fresh sound in country(ish) music that caught the attention of many people and the album name (taken from an old Carter Family traditional) became the name of the magazine that later began to cover the genre. Here's the more subdued and traditional sounding title track from the record.
On their debut, bassist Jeff Tweedy took the role of playing right-hand man to main singer-songwriter Jay Farrar, only taking lead vocals on a few of the album's 16 tracks. With their sophomore album Still Feel Gone however, Tweedy truly establishes his presence not only in the band, but retrospectively seems to be his introduction to the music world that would (much) later claim him as one of our most prolific (see Hipster Runoff) American songwriters.
After Still Feel Gone, the general music world began to take notice and R.E.M.'s Peter Buck stepped in to take the production helm on their 3rd record, March 16-20, 1992. This all acoustic album represents a full step away from the punk influenced sound of their earlier work into something much more in line with traditional country and folk music of previous decades. That's not say this album is main-lined country record by any means, with Tweedy's song Wait Up veering a folksy tune into some of the droning squalls that point to the work he would go on to do with Wilco.
Farrar's Moonshiner displays the band's connection with traditional country music, with a good-ole tear-in-your-beer tune about whiskey and women.
With this album however, tensions began to arise between Farrar and Tweedy as the two didn't see eye to eye on what their respective roles in the should be. Their fourth album, Anodyne, would be their last but -- as so often is the case in music -- the turmoil between the two in the studio produced their apex album and and an alt-country masterpiece. Anodyne shows the band doing everything that made their band unique in top form. There's few acoustic driven numbers along with sounds of their punk-infused country-rock; and without delving too far into either, the album finds the band putting forth their best and most consistent effort of their career. Here's their national televison debut on Late Night with Conan O'Brien shorty before they broke up (Wilco lover's should check out future bassist John Stirrat on bass and the next Jay that Tweedy would go to battle with -- Jay Bennet -- on drums; weird)
So that's where the genre I've come to love officially began, though there's many predecessors that lead up to these guys who I'll delve into later. As soon as these guys broke up, the sound they created took off and whole new wave of bands began to permeate the indie scene adopting their approach. In the face of the stadium filling all-stars, Uncle Tupelo brought forth the notion that country music could still be approached with a real and fresh approach; something that the genre seems to need every few decades or so.
As I continue to swim through the world of country music that doesn't conform to the aesthetics of so called 'pop-country', I usually won't be spending two posts on one band as there's a lot to be covered in the genre (or genres). However as previously stated, the Old 97's-- along with a few others-- bear particular importance to the music I'm covering and how I came to love it. Along with that, the 97s also have had a relatively long career in the Alternative Country genre that rose to prevalence in the 1990s and are in many ways indicative of the ways it fell and is possibly beginning to return.
Their major label debut and alt country classic, Too Far Too Care, came at peak time for the genre and reflected the ethos of the movement as a whole. However, when time came for their next album, 1999's Fight Songs, the genre had already began to fade and many the genre's staple bands like Wilco and Whiskeytown had began to take a more pop based approach. When I say pop-based I'm not referring to the type of country that was coming from Nashville at the time, but rather to a song structure and recording ethos that recalled that of Brian Wilson and The Beatles. Stemming from a likely combination of aesthetic choice and major label pressure for some kind of hit, Fight Songs shed much of the twang and rough edges of their earlier recordings and produced something much more polished with a tighter song structure.
That's certainly not to say this album sucks-- Pitchfork really likes this one-- or is any kind of sell out, as I particularly like the song above (Jagged, the lead cut off the album) as it retains the rolling bassline and harmonic backing vocals of Murray Hammond that still gives the 97s their flavor. The album is certainly different though and marked a new era for the band. Their next release, 2001's Satellite Rides, continued this approach and is one many of their older fans felt completely left behind their alt country roots. This album I feel is more than anything indicative of it's time, when power-pop rock was in heavy rotation in the mainstream with bands like Sum 41 and Blink 182 on top of the charts; and seems to be Elektra's last push to get the band to mainstream status. This album contains perhaps their most well known song, Question, one that features only Rhett Miller and his acoustic guitar and is the one that makes the ladies swoon.
I'm not particularly fond of this one (maybe when I have that special lady I can my own I will be, but that's neither here nor there) but the album still has some gems that retain a little of that 97s twang.
So in the early Aughts, the 97s certainly shifted from country band with a (traditional) pop influence to a kind of pop-rock band with a country influence; but their still remained a thread within their music that made them who they are. Despite this new direction however, the album wasn't mainstream or poppy enough for Elektra Records, and as the label was going through changes they did a little cleaning house which led to a drop of the Old 97s and bands from other alternative streams such as Austin's Spoon.
The drop led to a short hiatus for the band that saw a solo album from frontman Rhett Miller and was a time when many of the band members (now in their thirties) took some time to focus on their families. They returned however in 2004 with their most stripped down effort yet, Drag It Up. The band joined up with indie/alt-country label New West Records, the distributor for the Austin City Limits television show and a fitting home for a band who helped establish the musical stream which the label represents. With more creative control and a likely desire to get back to roots, Drag It Up is a bare bones album only recorded on 8 tracks (as opposed to 16 or even 32) and was done in just a few takes.
Though the album takes a much more back-to-basics approach, it is far from their best album and they seem to be carving out who they're going to be in the indie rock age. After a live album and a greatest hits compilation - my introduction to the band, and a comp that got a wait for it... 8.2 from Pitchfork-- , the boys came back to Dallas in 2008 to record Blame It On Gravity, an album that finds them mixing together everything they've been in the past to help define who they are in the present. This album more than anything marks a new era for the 97s, a band of veterans who know exactly what they do well and how to do it.
With a seemingly new found zeal, the band came down to Austin a few years to record a double album released in 2010 and 2011, The Grand Theater. For me, both of these albums are the strongest they've put out since Too Far To Care and fully solidifies they're sound, approach, and place in country music.
Since I couldn't find any studio recordings of their new stuff on YouTube I had to post some live stuff, which leads perfectly into my teaser at the end of the live post. As implied, The Old 97's are one of the best straight up rock shows one can go to. I know a lot of people say this about a lot of bands, but 97s bring an energy and passion to their shows that's not matched by many bands I've seen. There's no elaborate light set up, no drawn out 20 minute jams, no eyeliner, and no other stage gimmicks besides four dudes on stage pounding through almost 30 songs in a couple of hours. Whereas some of their studio recordings are a bit too polished up, none of that is present in their live show and the music showcases the thread that ties all of their different sounds together into one big kick-ass country rock throw down. I would recommend seeing them in Texas (particularly Dallas if you can), as flying cans of Lonestar and Shiner are the perfect and inevitable companion to any of their shows here. If you're into country music, Texas music, or have had a lifelong hatred of country music due to stuff that's on the radio, needless to say, I would recommend checking these guys out.
So there I was, just a young punk rocking teenager filled with youthful angst and energy and would never be caught dead listening to any of that schmaltzy crap people were calling country music in those days. At the wise age of 14, all I wanted to hear was either Green Day's American Idiot all the way through or spin one of NOFX's many, many rants against the status quo. One weekend I found myself on a boy's barbeque trip throughout central Texas with my youth group in a small bus and I was pissed because I didn't have my headphones and had exhausted my rights to song choosing at this point. It was around this time that a twenty-something year old guy named Wes through on a jam by a band called the Old 97's, a band from Dallas (where we were all from) which all the other twenty-something year old's seemed there to be happy to hear. The song was called Timebomb:
I remember being very confused and intrigued upon hearing this as a kid. It wasn't exactly country and it wasn't exactly the snot-nosed punk rock I was listening, it just seemed to ride the line somewhere in between the two (minus the snot-nosed aspect). At the time, I don't think I was quite emotionally ready for such a shake on my grasp in music so I went back to listening to the snot-nosed crap for a little while longer; however, the name stuck with me.
As I went through highschool in the following years I eventually moved away from the punk stuff and into the Indie Rock scene that was beginning to establish itself as a major musical force by the middle of the Aughts; you know Modest Mouse, The Shins, stuff like that. By my senior year I had tired a bit on that and was looking for something new and different. With my departure from the city only a year away I began to have a desire to discover some of the music from ol' D Town. I remembered the name the Old 97s (thanks in part to a very random shout out in the sub par film The Break Up) so I went up to Best Buy and bought a compilation of theirs; after popping the disc into my Nissan Sentra's CD player that old feeling of intrigue and confusion returned as the first chords blared through my speakers.
This one didn't quite have the breakneck speed and energy of Timebomb, and though I admittedly felt this number was a bit "too country" upon first hearing it, this was my true introduction to the world of Alt-Country.
I'll skip the rest of the crap (as I feel I've already done a little too much personal story time and not enough talking about the band) but needless to say, these fellas quickly became one of my favorite bands and single-handedly eased me into a whole genre of music I had ignored for so long. With a sound that is oft times described as "Cash Meets the Clash", the Old 97's are one the staple bands of the alternative country scene that took off in the 1990s. Incorporating some of the slack-vibe from 90's Alternative Rock bands like Pavement and mixing it with more traditional styles of folk and country along with a punk rock edge, the Old 97's-- along with some other bands I'll cover further on down the line-- the Old 97's brought a sound to the table that was fresh and very contrary the country that was dominating the charts at the time such as Garth Brooks' "Callin' Baton Rouge". The 97s first album, Hitchhike to Rhome (cleverly named for a small town northwest of Dallas), is certainly not their best; as they're still throwing a lot of different sounds and ideas against the wall and trying to see what sticks. Their sophomore effort, Wreck Your Life, brings them much closer to finding the sound that fits the aforementioned tag that has come to describe them; as heard in the first lick from album opener, "Victoria":
This album was certainly good, however it's their next effort and major label debut, 1997's Too Far Too Care (hey check out the year, weird), that is the best effort from their early years and has since become a staple of the Alt-Country genre. Too Far Too Care has all the elements that make the Old 97's who they are working in full force; and here they toe that line between rock and country as well as anyone ever has. It's an album with fast-paced stompers, tear-in-your-beer ballads, and tight song writing on Rhett Miller's part that seems to show equal influence from Buddy Holly, The Beatles, Johnny Cash, and Joe Strummer.
This album is certainly the best intro to the Old 97's and is solid introduction to 90's Alt. Country in general. Because these guys hold such a dear place in my musical upbringing, later on in the week we'll check out what these guys have been up since that whole Alt Country thing kind of died out, and I'll explain why I'd go to see 97's over U2 any day...
I'm from the city. Not any city either; I'm from smack dab in the middle Dallas, which is a pretty damn big city. Having said that, I absolutely despised country music growing up. In my adolescent mind I found no sentiments that could connect with songs about barbeque stains, friends in low places, or boot-scootin boogies. To add to that, I was a little punk rocker as kid and subsequently an indie rocker as teenager and the glitzy glamor that dominated the mainstream country music was something I tried as hard as could to distance myself from. I stood firm in these views up until about my senior year of highschool when my views began to change. I'll get into more of the specifics of this story later, as it involves one of the major players of the alternative country genre; the main point is that around this time everything I had ever thought about what country music is changed.
Unfortunately, there's more subgenre names for "country music that doesn't come out of Nashville" than there are sad Hank Williams songs. Alt Country, Americana, Country Rock, Folk Rock, Cowpunk, Outlaw Country, Roots Rock, Rockabilly, Progressive Country, Bluegrass, and "Cosmic American American Music" are just the first little handful that come to mind. However, this litany and subgenres and historical musical movements shows that within the umbrella of the term "country music", there's a well of music as deep and genre blurring as there is under the term "indie rock".
For a few years now, whenever I get into a music conversation with someone that goes a little deeper than the tired rhetoric of "I like everything"; I've always tried to explain this genre that I love as "It's like the Indie Rock scene of country music, only it's been going on for 60 years now". Over the semester I look to highlight specific artists within this broad umbrella of non-Pop Country, past and current, in order to further understand this stream of music that is so unique and tied to our country.
