All this talk about Tweedy and bands moving away from alt-country
is linked, methinks, to the larger trend of the ghettoizing of alt-country.
My own case in point: At the college radio station I work at, the
alt-country stuff in rotation gets precious little attention - rockabilly
like Rev. Horton Heat, with an occasional exception like the Old 97s, is
the only thing that gets more than a couple of spins. However, when I go
get a Green on Red, Rank and File, Blasters, or even Dwight album
out of the record library, it's clear that they used to get a lot
of airplay back in the day (and no - they're not just a little
tattered - they have lots of initials documenting that people actually
played them). A large part of this trend is a big swing towards
techno music and the like amongst the other djs. Maybe it's just the
djs at my radio station, but I think the roots-rock of the 80s was
more acceptable to the alt-rock (wasn't it called college-rock back then)
hipsters of the mid 80s than it is today. And since, as we talked about some
time ago, mainstream success, when it comes for alt-country/country bands, is
much more likely to come from a country audience than a rock audience - it's
not that surprising that the alt-country tag might start to get a little
frightening for some bands that have probably seen themselves as always
closer to the rock side of things. There was another point I wanted to
make, but I'm getting kind of sleepy.
Evan Cooper
