The Alt/Americana Thread

[PhantomRouge]

I don't know about you guys, but this is by far my favourite genre, but discovering new artists is quite hard, as there's so much out there.

How about we have a list of our favourite artists and recommendations for each other to check out?

I'll start off with:

Ryan Adams (and the Cardinals) - The undisputed leader in americana.
Lucinda Williams - The inspiration for this thread.
Uncle Tupelo - I'm listening to 89/93: An Anthology as I type. So far, so good.
Son Volt - Old school, but still good.
The Jayhawks - Also old school
Jakob Dylan - His solo records are a lot more folk inspired than The Wallflowers (best band ever!!), but perhaps not americana per sé.
The Bottle Rockets - Another old school band.
Gurf Morlix - Thanks to koneguitarist for the recommendation. Quality stuff.

It seems most of this stuff came out in the nineties. Who's making quality music these days that's worth paying attention to?

[Not_the_DJ]

There's some great Canadian stuff. Check out Kathleen Edwards (mentioned in another thread) and Jim Bryson (whose written/toured with Kathleen).

How about Wilco (Jeff Tweady from Uncle Tupelo).
Jessie Malin is worth checking out too, a punkier Ryan Adams (and they're drinking buddies)

[PhantomRouge]

I'm listening to Kathleen Edwards as I write. I like it a lot.

I'll check out the others later too.

Keep the recommendations coming!

[koneguitarist]

also worth checking out is Slaid Cleaves Broke down (with Gurf Morlix )
and Chris Knight the first album Chris Knight (with David Grissom, awesome player )
Jack Ingram, Hayes Carll, Buddy Miller and Todd Snider are all worth a look.
Saw Hayes Carll with Buddy Miller in a little church gig in Bristol, fantastic.

[Not_the_DJ]

Got any Steve Earle?

[PhantomRouge]

Got any Steve Earle?

I don't have any, but I quite like some of his stuff. Any particular record we should look at?

I'm going to check out some of these artists over the next few days.

Can I also add Josh Ritter to the list. He's more folk, but it's all much the same.
And if you like Ritter, then check out Alexei Murdoch. I really like his stuff.

[Not_the_DJ]

For Steve Earle I prefer his later post jail albums.

El Corazón and it's follow up Transendental Blues are my favorites. You'll love those if you're into the Jayhawks and that sort of stuff.

His earlier stuff is a bit more Country, the debut Guitar Town has it's moments, and Copperhead Road should be in any decent record collection.

[ICBM]

Calexico. Absolutely amazing. Very varied musically, to the point that after I bought about three of their albums, whenever my iTunes was on random play and something that I didn't quite recognise but was totally brilliant came on, it was always Calexico! They're fantastic live too. One of my favourite bands ever, let alone from this type of music.

I also like a lot of stuff that's at the gentler country/folk end of the Americana scale, like...

Adrienne Young
Brooke Fraser
Clare Burson
Holly O'Reilly Figueroa
Kate Maki
Little Pink

(No apologies for these being all women! There's something about female vocals that really works with this type of music, for me.)

Also check out The Waifs - they're Australian, but I think you might like them too.

And Bright Eyes - a little weird (and not female-fronted) but they have a sort of twisted charm that I really like.

[historyisjunk]

Great idea this.

Most of my Alt favourites have been named already but a few more for the list:-

You might also like, in no special order & all still going as far as I know-
Jennie Stearns (Birds Fall record produced by Gurf Morlix I think)
Gina Villalobos
Gillian Welch
The Willard Grant Conspiracy (sort of a collective around main man singer Robert Fisher)
Iron & Wine (Basically one guy, Sam Beam, playing with others, notably some members of Calexico, not sure if they are frequent collaborators though)
Two Cow Garage
James McMurtry & the Heartless Bastards.
The Legendary Shack Shakers, who cover just about every form of music from the southern USA. Try their album Swampblood


Not sure if you'd count these but anyone who likes Lucinda W & old Jayhawks might like:-
Green on Red, sadly not really together now- & their former guitar player Chuck Prophet, who is still very active.
Similarly, The Long Ryders (I prefer G O R personally, but worth a listen)
Not necessarily my thing but also worth a listen- Giant Sand.

I like something from all Steve Earle's records, seconded El Corazon though & I'd also stick up for his second record Exit 0, it's quite country but I'd still say definitely Alt.

Blackie & the Rodeo Kings. I dunno what category these guys are (which is good) but not straight ahead country like the name might suggest. (They're also canadian).
I love this song- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8KtHySl61I

Finally, others feel free to disagree on him being listed here but have you checked out JJ Cale, especially his older stuff?

Regarding Chris Knight, not sure if anyone remembers, or more importantly liked, a guitarist called Mike McAdam who used to play with Steve Earle? I just found out from YouTube he seems to be playing with Chris Knight.
Annoying video "techniques" but this is well worth a look, sound is good. The audience look pretty unimpressed & very sparse, maybe it was a work night...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=az8AJI_wXOU

Hope some of these are of interest, there's loads of new stuff in this thread for me.

[PhantomRouge]

Good stuff, guys! This'll keep me in new material for weeks!

+1 for Iron & Wine, although his latest record betrays his roots, in my opinion. I much prefer his acoustic folk records, although you do have to be in the mood for listening to him, otherwise it can be heavy going at times.

(No apologies for these being all women! There's something about female vocals that really works with this type of music, for me.)

+1 to this! I've been trying to get in to more female vocalists, so thanks for the tips.