Recommended for Americana Fans: Amanda Ann Platt and the Honeycutters

@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.

@bdp24 

re: video, I still enjoy listening to Rodney's first solo album, which was my first exposure to this tune. Lots of great players on that one! 

@stuartk: Rodney Crowell first became a National name as the leader of Emmylou Harris’ Hot Band. He played acoustic rhythm guitar and sang harmony with her, and her band included the likes of Tony Brown (later becoming a major Country music producer), Albert Lee (everyone’s favorite Tele player), Emory Gordy, Jr. (later in Dylan’s band), guitarist/mandolinist/singer Ricky Skaggs, and pedal steel master Hank DeVito (and writer of "Playing With The Queen Of Hearts", the best version being that of Dave Edmunds). Buddy Miller now serves Emmylou Harris as her bandleader.

It is my opinion that to qualify as Americana, the music has to have the "Southern" feel, as does Country. I don’t know how to characterize "Southern", but I know it when I hear it, and know when I don’t. It is conspicuously absent in the music of many of the Alt-Country artists and bands. To hear it, listen to the music containing the playing of The Swampers, the renown Muscle Shoals studio band.

There is a good book entitled Country Music: White Man’s Blues, written by John Grissim and published in paperbook in 1970. Highly recommended.

John Hiatt is almost a genre unto himself (as is Dylan, Richard Thompson, Van Morrison, and other unique and unclassifiable artists). John Hiatt’s Bring The family was for years my favorite album, and is music making at the highest level. Hiatt isn’t Country, being more of a Blue-Eyed Soul singer and writer. But remember, in the 1950’s Blues was considered a form of Folk music. In the South, all musical forms tend to get integrated. Elvis’ five Sun singles (and 78’s) contained a Blues on one side, a Hillbilly on the other. Hank Williams learned to play guitar from a local Blues street musician.