Recommended for Americana Fans: Amanda Ann Platt and the Honeycutters

When I saw Kelly Willis, Brennen Leigh, and Melissa Carper about a year ago, Brennen started the evening by mocking the term Americana. She said it seemed to her to be a term used by those feeling that pure Country music wasn’t cool, by those who wanted to distance and differentiate themselves from what is called Country music. She said Country was already cool.

But of course Brennen was referring to "Traditional" Country, not the schlock now played on Country radio: "Bro Country". You know, the guys who drive down to the river in their pickup truck to drink beer with their baby. Duh.

There are those who call The Band’s second album---the s/t "brown" album---the first Americana album, and I guess that case can be made, though I don’t do it myself. I think of Americana as an umbrella under which may be collected the artists who combine elements of Traditional Country, Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Rockabilly, Hillbilly, Bluegrass---in other words, basically acoustic music played by whites. Plus maybe some Blues.

Lucinda Williams is a perfect example. Not really Country, only partly Folk, lots of Singer-Songwriter, and a fair amount of Blues. She was one of the first of the "modern" artists to include all those elements in her music, starting back in 1979, with her two albums on Folkways Records. Her later success with her breakout album Car Wheels On A Gravel Road was the first big-selling album in the "Alternative" Country genre. Earlier albums by the new breed of Alt-Country males (Steve Earle, Dwight Yoakam, Randy Travis, Lyle Lovett, Ricky Skaggs, Marty Stuart) is a different matter. They are all more purely Country, without Lucinda’s other influences.

I realize there are those whose introduction to what is considered Americana was with the No Depression gang of young fellas. Sorry, but Uncle Tupelo sounded like little boys trying to sing a man’s music. Jay Farrar of Son Volt is pretty good, but Jeff Tweedy of Wilco leaves me cold. I have a real problem with flat singing .

Marty Stuart and His Fabulous Superlatives don’t get nearly enough attention. The current best band in the world!

@bdp24

I was hoping you’d chime in.

I’ve not been a fan of Alt Country, but it generally seems to be accepted by reviewers as Americana and I haven’t felt confidemt challenging this characterization.

I don’t understand Ms Leigh’s objection. Apparently she believes Country "owns" a certain stylistic slice of American music. I’d love to hear her try to define what she means.

I feel the same way about flat singing.

@stuartk: Alt-Country was to me guys who grew up on Rock, and at some point suddenly discovered Gram Parsons. Then Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, and Hank Williams. Thinking you can suddenly play Country music after growing up on Rock is delusional. The two require completely different approaches, different attitudes, different feels (many Rock drummers can't "swing"). The drummers in the original Alt-Country bands simply did not understand what the music calls for from their instrument (and not just them. Gene Parson's tenure with The Byrds is a glaring example of inappropriate drumming). I certainly didn't when I heard Music From Big Pink. The playing on that album was a foreign language to me. For about a year. Once I "got it" (the music), I dove in head first, basically starting over on how to play the drumset. As in what the music calls for, and how to play as a member of an ensemble.

Artists like Steve Earle, Marty Stuart, Buddy Miller, Lucinda Williams, Emmylou Harris (in the 70's she had the best band in the world---The Hot Band), Rodney Crowell---and all the other's "we" like---understand the commonality between Country and Rock, as well as what differentiates them, and hire players who also do. It's what separates the men from the boys.

in the below video, listen to and watch how the drummer provides the feel of the song (in the style Levon Helm referred to as the "half-shuffle". Its not a full on shuffle, but has a hint of it. It's a great feel, one elusive to do well), as well as how he responds to what the other players are doing. Then listen to how all the guitars drop out during the piano solo, until the final bar, when they roar back in, the drums leading the way with a perfect single-stroke roll. Superb Musicianship and ensemble playing!

https://youtu.be/KnqBH7jLb0I?si=GEtMTfugdnoSLYwS

@stuartk  

The "dividing line" is a hard one for me. Ever since musical genres became very mixed around the 90s and going forward, I don't feel confident in my classification skills but choose to highlight some artists here that seem to me have merit as Americana.

The Hiatt video seems to me to be more Roots/Country but couldn't that be an Americana description as well?

@slaw

It can be hard for me, too.

But not in the case of that Hiatt album. I wouldn’t call it Country. There’s just as much Blues influence and some Folk, too, which for me, is makes it unambiguously Americana. You can clearly hear the Roots genres it draws from, but it doesn’t adhere to any single Roots genre. As @bdp24 asserted, Lucinda Williams is a great example of this.

@bdp24

Alt Country always sounded to me like Alternative Rock guys trying to play Country, as opposed to Classic rockers. Hard for me to put my finger on the difference, but I do hear a difference.

As a guitar player, I tend to focus on guitar. Limiting habit! But I hear what you mean, re: the drumming, now that you’ve pointed it out for us.