Intentionally or not, this record has all the markings of a band (or a label?) looking to cash in on whatever limited buzz this whole alt-country thing has generated. The rural band name, the irrigation wheel on the cover, the band photo on the back with the four Harvesters walking through a flooded field in [...]

Will Giant Sand ever be a smidgen more definable? Will they ever sound slightly more commercial? Will they ever behave in an ambitious manner that behooves their potential greatness? It doesn’t seem likely. Flying in the face of corporate assembly-line logic, Giant Sand records music, somehow manages to release the recordings and quietly moves on. [...]

Libbi Bosworth is as hard to pin down as her music is to resist. In recent years, she has been based in both Nashville and Austin, where she split the recording for this debut album. She sounds equally split between the commercial center and the artistic fringes, with a sound so steeped in the country [...]

For a number of people, Al Anderson’s 1994 departure from the legendary NRBQ after 20 years was tragic. Just as Uncle Tupelo fans couldn’t imagine Jay Farrar and Jeff Tweedy in different bands, “Q”balls could never imagine that the parts would ever equal the sum of the whole. But just as Wilco and Son Volt [...]

Unless you’ve lived in Central North Carolina at some point over the last 15 years or you’re a big Dan Baird fan — and I’m guessing there’s some overlap there — you probably aren’t familiar with the name Terry Anderson. The former group would know Anderson as the drummer/part-time vocalist for quintessential bar bands the [...]

So, like, los bros Ween come out of the frat basement late one morning with this, like, totally cool idea that they’d seen a bunch of Hee-Haw night before and, dude, wouldn’t it be rad to make a country record before they went back to making another one of their really clever critically approved indie [...]

Given that Bob Dylan’s catalog has pretty much been interpreted to death by all manner of song stylists by now, an album of all-Dylan covers would seem a rather risky proposition, but Tim O’Brien proves more than up to the task with Red on Blonde. This 13-song collection of Zimmermannerisms ranges from classic (“Maggie’s Farm”) [...]

It’s fitting that the first sound emanating from this record is a buzzing chainsaw. It serves as fair warning for a record with a morbid fixation on violent deaths by car crash, suicide — and, yes, chainsaw. As the buzzing fades out, an acoustic guitar strums in and Angry Johnny proceeds to tell the tale [...]

On Euphonium, the Picketts capture what they have done onstage so memorably for years, which is to blend country, roots rock and wit into an infectious and knowing composite that’s damned appealing. It’s a combination many bands attempt, only to be undone by the vexing nature of that unwieldy third element. For the Picketts, wit [...]

Snooty-tootles, alternapardners, your tune-loon Claire O. has been running dither and yon all summer in pur-Nudie-suit of twangy little tales involving Aaron Tippin’s baccy and more festivals than you can shake a rainstick at, so I’ve missed like a fine spray any journalistic hoo-haw regarding this loser, baby. Heck, I know more about Breck than [...]