Alt Country

If Nashville left its battered soul lying facedown in the gutter outside the Ryman Auditorium, who could blame an outlaw gang of punks, loners, and dreamers for stealing it for themselves? Way before it had a name, alt country had a voice in a Nudie-suited ex-Byrd, Gram Parsons; on "Return of the Grievous Angel" he matches his hangdog vocal to Emmylou Harris' sweet harmonies, like a briar round a rose. Uncle Tupelo's dustbowl-etched cover of "No Depression" (the Carter Family's pie-in-the-sky gospel remedy for hard times), gave birth to an entire movement before the band split in two. And producer Rick Rubin strips country legend Johnny Cash to the bone, on "Hurt".

In Next Steps, Essex goes alt country, in Woody Guthrie territory, and the results are sublime.

As you dig deeper, you'll hear how alt country isn't just alt from mainstream country — it's also alt from itself. Northern Alabama's Drive-By Truckers have made a point of holding on to analogue recording equipment (not to mention vinyl releases) and with "Ronnie and Neil", from expansive and ambitious 2001 double disc Southern Rock Opera, the band puts its own spin on the Lynyrd Skynyrd southern rock legacy. And our own Billy Bragg adds his valuable ha'penny to the American alt country canon by hooking up with Wilco for an album of original tunes set to previously unheard lyrics penned by folk legend Woodie Guthrie: check out the gorgeous "California Stars."

In Deep Cuts, a coal miner's daughter digs into her roots cellar, we find a daughter of the South in the Great White North, and more.

Alt enough for you yet? How about recording an album with someone old enough to be your grandma? White Stripes leader Jack White snatches country legend Loretta Lynn out of Butcher Holler and drops her in a garage for a smoky, bluesy, lo-fi workout on "Portland, Oregon," taken from her 2004 White-produced critical fave, Van Lear Rose. And just like the prairie, alt-country doesn't stop at the U.S. border: on "Six O'Clock News", Canadian Kathleen Edwards sets her small-town tragedy deep in the middle of the big country, where lost lives are set against the wheat fields' endless expanse, stretching along the interstate from nowhere to nowhere else.

Alt country defined itself just as much by what it wasn't as by what it was. From rebel country godparents, like Johnny Cash and Loretta Lynn, to no-depression demigods, like Uncle Tupelo and Ryan Adams, country's newest outlaw gang invoked the spirits of the Carter Family and the Louvin Brothers — not Alabama or the Eagles — for inspiration. And they dipped their ladle deep into America's musical gumbo, spooning out meaty bits of lo-fi, roots rock, gospel, folk, bluegrass, punk, Western swing, barrelhouse blues, and more. From the hills to the heartland, and everywhere between (including Kasey Chambers' Australian turf), we've got all the unfiltered, unembellished alt-country goodness that a restless soul (not to mention two ears) can hold.