Question:
As I first heard the term "alternative country" applied, reluctantly and
for lack of a better term (a search for a better phrase was underway but
never found) to bands & musicians who didn't, for one reason or another,
fit into the prevailing "Hot New Country" format, either because they
were "too country" or because they added the "wrong" kind of rock music
to their mix -- on one hand, Jimmie Dale Gilmore; on the other, Clay
Blaker, and on the third hand, bubbling-under artists like Kevin Welch
or Steve Earle; artists who, furthermore, weren't part of a discernable
genre like bluegrass or rockabilly, except where they were filed under
"folk" by default, my question is;
If they're not "alt country" or "alternative country" according to the
UT/No Depression revisionism, er, I mean yardstick, then, we're back to
the original problem being batted around back then (and when *did* this
start, btw? Bob Soron?) which is:
What DO we call this stuff?
The Other Alternative Country, Whatever That Is?
And what DO we do call country that is too country for either mainstream
radio or "alt-country?" That has negligble rock content, and hews close
to the *country* side of things?
"Real Country" isn't acceptable, apparently. "Hard" gets mixed up with
"Alt." "Traditional Country" doesn't work for several reasons. "New
Traditionalists?" Oh wait, that was tried. "Post-Traditionalist
Country?" "Neo-Classic Country?" "Post-Classic Neo-Traditionalist
Country?" "Too Country For YOU, Buddy?" (Not you, Buddy. <g>)
Just WONDERING.
Seems like an awful lot of country-type music falls through the cracks
between mainstream radio and the UT/No Depression camp.
--Cheryl Cline
P.S.: Coming Soon: Boomers and Gen X, Tailbusters and Teenagers: Pfui.
Plus! Reactions Arising From Assorted Buttons Being Pushed; and Chips
Residing on Shoulders Reactivated and Proving Troublesome.
(Later, though. After lunch. After work. Maybe Monday. <g>)
