Alt-Country / Americana

http://www.reverbnation.com/vivalevox wrote:Viva Le Vox is an experimental punk rock roots band from Lake Worth, Florida. The influences are diverse, though the most predominant are early 20th century jazz, 1950s Rock-n-Roll, and 1970s punk rock. The music has been described as a mix between Gogol Bordello and Tom Waits, or Django Reinhardt meets The Clash- either way a gypsy jazz punk rock-n-roll stew no matter which part of the last century you're familiar with.

http://www.kningdisk.com/index_kd090.htm wrote:El Rojo Adios music conjures up images from wild west landscapes with frostbitten cacti and with Titiyo Jahs way of singing the listener will be reminded of Joni Mithell and folk icon Vashti Bunyan. Crystal clear, powerful and mesmerizingly beautiful.

http://therisingstorm.net/country-joe-mcdonald-thinking-of-woody-guthrie/ wrote:During the reigning years of San Francisco headband Country Joe and the Fish, singer and songwriter Joe McDonald took some time out to head to Nashville and record a pair of solo albums with the city’s top session men. Released on the iconic Vanguard Records, these two albums saw McDonald take a broad left turn, away from psychedelia and deep into the traditional folk and country music that had helped inform his earlier years as a radical-political folksinger. Indeed, the first of these two albums, Thinking of Woody Guthrie, was a heartfelt, play-it-straight tribute to the daddy of them all (the radical-political folksingers, that is).

http://www.last.fm/music/Grant+Lee+Buffalo wrote:Grant Lee Buffalo is a Los Angeles-based rock band, consisting of Grant-Lee Phillips (vocals and guitar), Paul Kimble (bass) and Joey Peters (drums). All three were previously members of another LA band, Shiva BurlesqueGrant Lee Buffalo has an Americana-tinged sound, clearly influenced by the likes of Neil Young and elements of old-fashioned country music, and often tackled political and social issues in their lyrics

http://www.last.fm/music/Hyacinth+House wrote:The band formed as the solo project of singer Mack Johansson 2003 when he studied to become a producer and sound engineer at the university of Växjö. Consequently the debut album involves no less than 17 musicians! However, during this process the band started to take shape under the working name “Hyacinth House”. The name never changed but instead seemed very fitting, hinting towards the jam sessions that toke place in “hyacinth houses” during the golden age of jazz in New Orleans, rather than the Doors song.

http://www.last.fm/music/Brown+Bird wrote:Brown Bird is an American acoustic band. Pulling from the influences of the blues, outlaw country, roots rock, early American folk, Gypsy and Eastern European music, Brown Bird offers harmonized voices, haunting lyrics and diverse rhythm and instrumentation, which surges in waves that often swell into high-spirited, foot-stomping madness.

http://www.last.fm/music/Viarosa wrote:Imagine if Stuart Staples of Tindersticks was born in the mountains of West-Virginia and that, with a fascination for the 80’s wave, he started to focus on mixing this music with the roots music of his birthplace. If you think this is an interesting thought you should listen to debut Where The Killers Run (Pronoia/Tarnished). In the English press, they are described as a countrified Echo & the Bunnyman or as a cross between Cash and Cave. The music of the sextet Viarosa is dominated by the deep voice of composer/guitarist Richard Neuberg, the violin of Josh Hillman (who is also part of the Willard Grant Conspiracy) and the banjo, mandolin and lap steel of Rob McHardy. The second vocal is from Emma Seal. In the only up tempo song All This Worry (Will Soon Be Over) she is allowed to take the lead vocals. The lyrics of the 11 songs are rather dark (did I tell you it was Country Noir?) but this does not deter from the conclusion that we are talking about a small masterpiece.

http://www.last.fm/music/Jay+Munly wrote:Jay Munly (also credited as munly and Munly Munly) is a banjo player, guitarist, singer, and songwriter based in Denver, Colorado. He has played a role in the development of the “Denver Sound”, music that mixes elements of country, Gothic, and gospel. He is a member of Slim Cessna’s Auto Club and Denver Broncos UK as well as the leader of his own band, Munly & the Lee Lewis Harlots. Prior to working with the Harlots, Munly released several solo albums recording with a vast array of musicians. Some of these performers included members of Slim Cessna’s Auto Club, DeVotchKa, and future members of Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots.

http://www.last.fm/music/Mandolin+Orange wrote:Andrew and Emily met in Chapel Hill in January of 2009 and have been playing nonstop ever since.

Andrew entered the Chapel Hill music scene while completing his first album there in 2008. Emily grew up in Chapel Hill and has played bluegrass in the area since age 14.

Aside from the occasional bluegrass standard or familiar cover, Andrew writes a delicious array of songs. They span genres from folk to swing (and everything in between) with powerful lyrics and haunting melodies.

Emily will bow your heartstrings on the fiddle and occasionally pick up the guitar. Andrew keeps rhythm and picks a tasty lead on both guitar and mandolin. Local fans can’t get enough of their on-stage chemistry and the blending of their voices.

Whether as a duo or with a band to back them, Mandolin Orange always fills the stage with melody and charm.

http://www.last.fm/music/Appalachian+Karma wrote: Nourished on old folk songs, Appalachian Karma is the folk/rock project of the french songwriter Pierre Souq. Known as a singer, guitarist and banjo player in Paris, he’s following the footsteps of American Primitivism to compose folk songs and murder ballads, evoking the american spirits he loves (ghosts, poets, animals, indians, slaves, cowboys) with voices and instruments.

http://www.last.fm/music/Steve+Earle wrote: Steve Earle (born Stephen Fain Earle on January 17, 1955 in San Antonio, Texas) is a singer-songwriter best known for his country music and rock ‘n roll tinged “alt-country.” He is also a published writer, a keen political activist (particularly in protesting against the death penalty in the U.S., as in his song “Ellis Unit One” from the movie Dead Man Walking), and has written and directed a play. Earle also had small roles on the HBO television shows “The Wire” and “Treme”. His sister Stacey Earle is also an acclaimed singer-songwriter, as is his most recent wife, Allison Moorer, whom he wed in 2005.

http://www.last.fm/music/The+Sumner+Brothers/+wiki wrote:In the words of Bruce Springsteen, “nothing feels better than blood on blood”. The Sumner Brothers know this in the most intimate of ways; they make music together. They are a partnership and they are friends, and they are a band. The trust shared between front-men Brian and Bob Sumner is a trust that is hard to come by. It is a trust that requires no words, no flattery, and very little effort; it is a force and an inspiration, and it is what keeps the brothers, and their music honest and authentic.
This honesty is the bloodline of The Sumner Brothers music. Like many of their heroes before them; Johnny Cash, Townes Van Zandt or Neil Young, their songs aim to pierce hearts and dig deep beneath the skin. If the Brothers don’t own a song, if it does not live in the depths of their hearts and come from that place of true raw emotion, it doesn’t come at all, if they don’t believe it, you won’t hear it from them.
It is this commitment to authenticity that first drew the brothers to the songs of country, folk and blues, to roots music. Somehow banjos, harmonica’s and steel string guitars seem to lend themselves well to the notion of truth. These sounds coupled with the devastatingly low baritone of brother Brian, and the hauntingly sorrowful croon of brother Bob’s tenor, collide to form a sound, both unique and powerful.

http://www.jessesykes.com/index_frameset.htm wrote:
Seemingly living up to its name--the collective of musicians, lovingly christened "Jesse Sykes And The Sweet Hereafter" in 2001 was born out of a chance meeting a few years earlier in Seattle Washington, and led to an enduring musical partnership, spanning more than a decade- that continues to this day.  Jesse Sykes and The Sweet Hereafter have traveled extensively in both the US and in Europe, and have had the pleasure of touring with: Black Mountian, Earth, Sparklehorse (rip), Bright Eyes, Iron And Wine, Marissa Nadler, Laura Veirs, J. Tillman, Great Lake Swimmers, and many more.They have shared the stage with acts on opposite ends of a vast spectrum of genres, ranging from Sunno))), Boris, Nicolai Dunger, Coco Rosie all the way to Steve Earle,  Lucinda Williams and Gillian Welch. The core  still remains singer-songwriter Jesse Sykes and guitarist/ writer Phil Wandscher. Past and sometimes present members have included long timer William "Bill" Herzog, Eric Eagle, Anne Marie Ruljanchic and Kevin Warner. All three previous releases in the US are on  Barsuk Records, and in Europe all releases remain on Fargo Records. The most recent album "Marble Son" was self released in the states in 2011 and is the bands fourth full length. Over the years they have worked with the wise ears of Tucker Martine, Martin Feveyear, Mell Dettmer, and Randall Dunn.

http://www.last.fm/music/Kal+Cahoone wrote:Kal Cahoone was raised in Colorado and studied piano as a young child. Her mother had a passion for folk music .

After receiving a degree in Spanish she ended up in Valparaiso, Chile, living on a hill (Cerro Alegre) in total solitude with nothing but a typewriter and a beautiful view. It is here that she began writing songs at age 26.

Six months later she took a bus across the Andes, arriving in Buenos Aires. Within a few days she met composer Christian Basso and they began recording together and eventually married. Their song “The Movement” can be heard in the film “Dot the I” starring Gael Garcia Bernal.

Some years later she returned to Denver and immediately formed band Tarantella with John Rumley (Slim Cessna’s Auto Club and Hush) where they also shared a meaningful co-writing situation. Since 2000, Kal has recorded with Lilium, and has appeared doing back-up vocals for locals Munly and Roger Green. Kal has been onstage to play keyboards for Woven Hand and has appeared with The Denver Gentlemen.

Cahoone’s music is airy and ghostlike. In composition her songs are unpretentious but always in possession of some frightening complication that bubbles just beneath the surface. You can feel this complication. Nearly see it.

http://warrenjacksonhearne.bandcamp.com/album/eleutheros wrote:Warren Jackson Hearne's) dark singer-songwriter material seems increasingly fascinating when compared to the sort of popular local nature folkies he and his band could musically chew up and spit out if necessary.

https://www.facebook.com/thecrowandthedeadlynightshade/info?tab=page_info wrote:The Crow & The Deadly Nightshade is a three person musical band born in Paris (France).

The group started in 2006, taking root in a seventy rock (The Doors, Led Zeppelin, Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, Big Brother and The Holding Company, Quicksilver Messenger Service) and in the ninety Denver sound (16H, Gun Club, Violent Femmes, Slim Cessna Auto Club, Creedence Clearwater Revival, etc.).

Rough guitars, deep voices, heavy drums, though bass, strident banjo, all together draw an old cotton song and create a mystical dance.

They released a firt E.P. (2008) and a single with Les Boutiques Sonores (2009). Another E.P. has been released in 2010 (Devil's Ruin Records U.S.) and a double L.P. in 2012.

http://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/2520-porcella/ wrote:If bands could be pieced together at will, with wildly disparate influences snapping into place like lego bricks, every record would sound like a Deadly Snakes album. Expertly fusing classic rock, soul, blues, lo-fi, and punk into one throbbing machine, the Snakes mish-mash aesthetic inadvertently landed them in garage rock bins across the globe, rubbing stickers with the Hives and the Dirtbombs, shaking off the Standells and the Nuggets box, trying their best to reinvent the scrap-heap in a post-Beck universe.
Porcella, the band's fourth full-length since their Toronto inception nearly a decade ago, is a funhouse, all warped mirrors and sliding floors, mellotron gurgles and trumpet hoots, too sinister to giggle away, too compelling to ignore. Much has already been made of the Deadly Snakes' self-proclaimed departure from their garage-rock roots-- but it turns out contemporary genre distinctions are actually just slippery (or meaningless) enough that the labels the Snakes are now so desperate to eschew (unlike the majority of garage revivalists, the Deadly Snakes are sophisticated songwriters and astute players) never really applied to them anyway. Consequently, Porcella is the next logical step in the Snakes' careful evolution-- dark, slinking, and packed with revelations.
Porcella jerks from country-blues throwdowns with "Jeeee-sus loves me!" lyrics and typewriter drums (the semi-ridiculous "Let It All Go") to classic Snakes soul-tomfoolery (the freewheeling, honk-heavy "Sissy Blues"), but never pauses for reflection or righteousness. Porcella may not be as explicitly "garage" as the band's previous records, but it still delivers the same beautiful, scrappy mess. Produced by vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Age of Danger (aka Max McCabe), Porcella sees Danger and Andre Ethier trading microphone duties, which provides interesting texture-- even if Ethier is the more interesting of the two.
Mostly, Porcella is at its best when it's at its creepiest: "High Prices Going Down" opens with clanking metal (think chain gangs) and a loping bassline, before Ethier starts to wail: "I read the news and I heard it said/ There's 200 already dead/ High prices going down/ And the king gave up his crown/ High prices are going down/ My mind was abuzz like a swarm of bees/ And I did just as I pleased." Ethier's throaty, desperate howls bounce off smarmy mellotron, while the grim details of his looting grow more and more topical. "High Prices" is followed by single "Gore Veil", a wisp of a song that delivers despite itself, all goofy ba-da-ba-bas and trumpet exaltations. It's a strange juxtaposition, but that's what Porcella is all about: laying the laughable alongside the profound. The Deadly Snakes may be incessantly compared to the Kingsmen and the Kinks, but Porcella, like all of their records, packs a healthy dose of Dylan, too-- particularly the band's penchant for dark, awkward poetry and seizure-inducing blowouts, often showcased in the very same song.

JonJuan76 wrote:

Not sure how to move this to Americana :/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_97%27s wrote:The Old 97's are an alternative country band from Dallas, Texas. Formed in 1993,[1] they have since released ten studio albums, two full extended plays, shared split duty on another, and have one live album. Their most recent release is Most Messed Up. They are recognized as pioneers of the alt-country movement during the mid to late 1990s along with bands such as Uncle Tupelo, Drive-By Truckers, Whiskeytown, The Jayhawks, and The Bottle Rockets.