Alt Country

Alt-Country is basically Hank Williams interpreted by bands who grew up on the Replacements. After Outlaw Country in the 1970s and Progressive Country of the '80s came Alternative-Country in the '90s. The style preserves the rural aesthetic in a more faithful fashion than the far more mainstream young country pop artists of the same era. It is perhaps best summed up in a lyric by Ryan Adams of Whiskeytown: "So I started this damn country band / Because punk rock is too hard to sing." Its first defining moment came with the release of Uncle Tupelo's debut album No Depression in 1990. Today, Alt-Country is a lot broader than its name implies, including the rustic pop of Uncle Tupelo spinouts Son Volt and Wilco, the retro Honky-Tonk of Dale Watson, and the country-tinged pure-pop-for-now-people of Kelly Willis. The influential No Depression fanzine (self-published fan magazine) helped define the scene, as whatever the 'zine covered became Alt-Country.