@stuartk: Your comment about mine regarding Americana and the South had me reconsider the matter. Perhaps instead of using the term Southern, "rural" is more of what I'm taking about.
I've thought in terms of Southern for a number of reasons, first and foremost because that part of the U.S.A. is after all where the Hillbilly, Rockabilly, Bluegrass, and Blues first fermented. Also because when I started meeting and being around some musicians from the South, I noticed that they not only spoke English differently than do we Northerners, Westerners, and Easterners, but they also even walk differently. And when I played music with some (Bill Pitcock IV from The Dwight Twilley Band, Evan Johns), they played with a feel very different from what I was accustomed too, being a California boy.
But now that I think about it, one problem I have with the younger, Alt-Country guys is that they play in a way that feels very much of what I call "suburban". I grew up in and started playing in San Jose, California, which is not really a city, but rather one big suburb, very much like the San Fernando Valley of Southern California (San Jose is in the Santa Clara Valley). Not a city, and not at all rural. I have for years viewed The Swampers as the prime example of the Southern feel in music, but perhaps their style and feel are a result of the rural influence, not the Southern.
In a related matter, whenever the subject of the "best" American songwriters, singers, and musicians comes up, many consider Canadians not eligible for consideration (no Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Joni Mitchell, or The Band?!). I disagree. Canada is, after all, part of North America. Close enough, ay? And now that the stable genius has declared he wants to make Canada the 51st state, perhaps the matter is moot. 