RE: HNC

[Brad Bechtel]

Blah blah categorizing things blah blah drawing boundaries blah blah muddying the waters blah blah exact criteria by which the players are placed in column A or column B.

Column A(=bands w/fiddle and/or steel) Column B (bands w/o fiddle and/or steel)

mainstream country acts, alt.country acts,
e.g., Garth Brooks e.g., Bottlerockets

Blah blah there is the occasional steel-carrying alt.country act, and there are some mainstream acts that don't carry one, but all in all that's a reasonably accurate map.

Interesting you should say this, Jon, as it seems to me that some alt.country acts exist within this description precisely because they have the fiddle and/or steel that makes them "country rock". For example Richard Buckner wouldn't sound quite so alt.country if he didn't have Lloyd Maines on steel all over his recordings.