In last week's review of Wilco's "The Whole Love," which drops on Tuesday, I used the term "alt-country" multiple times to describe the band's early sound. While one could argue the genre has been around since the days of the Allman Brothers and Willie Nelson, the term was only coined and gained heavy use within the past two decades. In the '90s, bands like the Old 97's, the Jayhawks and Uncle Tupelo which included band members who eventually formed Wilco created sounds that combined the best of alternative, folk, punk and country. Today, the genre has grown from encompassing music produced by a few bands to including music of a wide range of sounds by a wide range of artists. Many serious artists, from Beck to Bob Dylan, have at least dabbled in the genre.
It seems this year was the year of the alt-country originals. Just last week, the Jayhawks released "Mockingbird Time," their newest album since 2003 and their first album with original founders Mark Olson and Gary Louris since 1995. Back in July, the Old 97's released "Grand Theatre, Volume Two." The two bands have largely kept their original styles intact, sounding familiar to old fans. Wilco's sound, however, has famously evolved throughout the years to become more experimental and hard-rocking. Still, certain tracks off "The Whole Love" retain and resuscitate the band's original sound in ways that their previous records have not.
Yet no matter how much things stay the same with alt-country, they change even more. The list of groups labeled alt-country has grown in the past few years. These groups now cover a wide range of sounds and styles. From the subdued sound of guitarist Ryan Adams to the dirty electric-acoustic sound of the alt-country supergroup Middle Brother, the only criteria for being labeled alt-country seems now to be the use of guitar.
One reason so many of these guitar-based groups and artists are labeled alt-country may involve the shift of the mainstream country industry to a more pop-oriented and production-heavy approach. As newer strains of country become more pop, traditional country sounds have come to seem "alternative," such as those of the Avett Brothers, who play banjo and guitar way better than Taylor Swift can. Rarely if ever will you see them perform on Country Music Television or hear them on a prominent country radio station.
In the 1950s, the predominant style of country music was Rockabilly, a fusion of rock and hillbilly music. The style dominated airwaves as legends like Elvis Presley and Johnny Cash cranked out rockabilly songs that topped both country and popular charts. This same rock-country fusion today seems to be relegated to college radio stations and music blogs.
Another reason that so much country music is "alternative" these days may be a sort of geographical bias. As music becomes more readily available and distributable, country musicians come less and less frequently from the South. Dawes, a group that produces old-school country rock and Americana, is fronted by two brothers from Los Angeles. The Tallest Man on Earth, a haunting Appalachian-sounding folk guitarist, is also known as Kristian Matsson, who, although he is from Sweden, sings in a convincing American drawl. A truly southern pop-country artist such as Carrie Underwood is more likely to be labeled simply "country" than be grouped into a sub-genre or hybrid genre.
Whether bending the country genre or keeping its time-honored conventions, alt-country musicians create solid and timeless country music. The alt-country label, however loose and all encompassing it may be, seems only to apply to talented and soulful artists. This is the genre for anyone who enjoys singing along to Old Crow Medicine Show's "Wagon Wheel" in a frat basement. I assume this is all of us.
