History of Country Vol. 22 – 2007-12
Alternative country (known in the style of the Internet newsgroups that championed the movement as alt.country), or Americana, combined the genre with its close cousin folk, just as its patron Emmylou Harris had done two decades earlier. Some artists who started off in country”s mainstream found themselves confined to the Americana ghetto, such as Steve Earle, Townes van Zandt, John Prine, Nanci Griffiths, Lucinda Williams and Jim Lauderdale. The birth of alt.country may be pinpointed to the 1990 release of the album No Depression by Uncle Tupelo (featuring Jeff Tweedy, later of Wilco, and Jay Farrar and Mike Heidorn, later of Son Volt). The album”s title itself is symbolic, borrowing from a song by the Carter Family, the immensely influential group of the 1920s and “30s which mainstream country had long forgotten.
Back then, the genre in which the Carter Family and their contemporaries recorded was known as folk, before the title country began to stick in the late 1940s. Woody Guthrie, the godfather of folk, was part of that tradition. Half a century later, alt.country and Americana drew from both the country and folk traditions, as well as the cowpunk sub-culture of the 1980s, with some acts impossible to define.
Other acts, such as Bright Eyes and Tweedy”s Wilco, move across genres. Other acts still move from other genres into country, sometimes temporarily, such as Ben Kweller, the Texan prodigy who in 2009 released a most exquisite country album after a decade in singer-songwriter pop.
The terms alt-country and Americana have fallen out of favour, even as no alternative names have gained currency. Perhaps it is right to call artists such as Tift Merritt, Shelby Lynn or Allison Moorer just Country; it is singers like them, Krauss, Lambert and Wilson ““ surely not the likes Taylor Swift ““Â who help keep the traditions of country music alive.
This concludes the History of Country series.
There is a mix, of course. Download link and PW in the comments section.
TRACKLISTING
1. Sarah Borges and the Broken Singles – Stop & Think It Over
2. Gretchen Wilson – One Of The Boys
3. Brad Paisley – I’m Still A Guy
4. Miranda Lambert – Love Letters
5. Patty Griffin – Long Ride Home
6. Lucinda Williams – Fancy Funeral
7. Wilco – Either Way
8. Tift Merritt – I Know What I’m Looking For Now
9. Jordan Trotter – I Want You
10. Rodney Crowell – Sex And Gasoline
11. Drive-By Truckers – George Jones Talkin’ Cell Phone Blues
12. Shelby Lynne – Old #7
13. Justin Townes Earle – Working For The MTA
14. Dylan LeBlanc – 5th Avenue Bar
15. Willie Nelson – I Am A Pilgrim
16. Gillian Welch – Six White Horses
17. Alison Krauss & Union Station – Miles To Go
18. Lori McKenna – The Luxury Of Knowing
19. Ashton Shepherd – Where Country Grows
20. Gretchen Peters – Hello Cruel World
21. Mary Chapin Carpenter – What To Keep And What To Throw Away
GET IT: https://rapidgator.net/file/03df248adc9f9a55e755301c1564be77/Cntry07-12.rar.html
(PW in comments)
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PW: amdwhah
Find your sets fascinating….. in the soul stuff I have maybe 75% of your posts, but would never drag out those Lps & Cds without the memory jog….. also some of the stuff I am not familiar with that I like, Amazon is my next stop…. Thanks again for all the trouble you go to. Appreciated.
This series is so fantastic and gives me so much inspiration.
Thanks for all the effort you put into this – and also the artists should be grateful for the additional sales generated through your work.
deruf
This is a marvelous list. It would be great if country radio in the States played this kind of thing, but only Paisley and Lambert get anything like consistent airplay. The rest of the typical country radio playlist is made of up of pretty boy rockers like Luke Bryan, Jason Aldean, and Eric Church, empty vessels like Kenny Chesney and Toby Keith, and an ever-shifting parade of anonymous pretty girl singers and bands fabricated out of focus group results. I can see why people like it (in much the same way I can see why people like Taco Bell), but out of fairness to the music’s history, it shouldn’t be called country.
Hi,
Once again, a large thank you for the HoC compilations. However, I still miss Joe Ely or the Flatlanders.
All the besst from Stockholm, Sweden
PS Your soul compilations are also great
Great list,I wish the link provided access to the rar file download rather than downloads of file downloaders.
Hi,
What a great job you made to present us the country music of all times. I made many discoveries that led me to buy CDs (around 34 or 35 just for this serie and I’m sure i’m not the only one). So, that music industry, who try to stop the creativity of the sharing bloggers, just don’t understand that these bloggers are their last chance to sell their stuff and survive.
Speaking of downloading, it’s the first time I just can’t get your last offer… all the links provided by uploadmirrors try to install a software that cannot work on my linux installment or on my old Mac. Is it possible that you or any of your followers can upload a direct link on Rapidshare or, better, on Zippyshare so that I can get this last part of your History of country music. Thanks in advance if anyone can help me, either on this site or by sending me an email at jean.francois.trepanier@oricom.ca. Sorry for my poor english writing…
I’m afraid multiple upload sites is the only way. There are now companies that hunt down download links with great efficiency. The following seem to be working still for this mix.
http://uploadmirrors.com/redirect/10TVGYA9/9
http://uploadmirrors.com/redirect/10TVGYA9/12
http://uploadmirrors.com/redirect/10TVGYA9/8
This is an outstanding series from the tracks to the write-ups to the covers. I thank you for your hard work putting it together. Your other contributions are darn good too.
What a great series. Wide choice of artists and really intelligent notes. Many thanks for all your work. Really like the soul music too and my guilty pleasure, the In Memoriam.
Thanks Again.
If you enjoy this sort of American stuff, I heartily recommend digging in to the (brief) career and catalog of The V-Roys. Their two studio albums (produced by Steve Earle) [“Just Add Ice, “All ABout Town”] and final live album are excellent top to bottom.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_V-Roys
@spinetingler
Americana, not American.
here is another back up/repository of the complete series
http://wezyam.blogspot.nl/
Dead link.