"Chris Orlet" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Dare someone try to explain why so many artists/bands (Wilco, Son Volt,
> Fulks, apparently Old 97s etc) are so intent on distancing themselves from
> alt-country, even to the point of making 70s/Beach Boy-esque pop albums?
Some people like country, and pop, and rock, and jazz, and blues, and
opera, and all of these things inform their music. That's what
alt-country is about, in my mind (rock and country and other
influences being synthesized to create something new). Songwriters
have phases and stages and the ideas that move them change over time.
I often feel that alt-country as a Thing is way too fickle. People
are demanding twangy jukeboxes in funny western shirts instead of
creative music and songwriting. That's sort of bogus. I'd want to
distance myself from it, too. Nobody wants to be rassled into being a
genre cliche.
Bill Gribble
