50 best alt-country albums of "all time"

They are wrong about Lucinda Williams, though. "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" is an absolute triumph.

 

This CD is solid, but no standouts like Alabama Pines or Speed Trap Town.

 

With "Car Wheels," you can see why it took Williams five or six years to record it. At first listen, it sounds pretty plain, but when you really listen you can hear how the instruments layer and build in and around each other to create a pretty great album. I played the hell out of that one several years ago.

I'd put it up there with "Trace," "Strangers Almanac" and the best parts of "AM" and "Being There." It's that good.

 

I really like "Something to Love."

 

It's going to take a bunch of listens before I develop a real opinion on the new record. Though "Anxiety" sticks out on first listen ...

 

He made it!

 

My issue is not with the lyrics, although a lot of them seem relatively forced. But the music is not doing anything for me. No more revelations.

 

But he did receive a strongly-worded letter from Dick Whitman to write catchier songs. That had to sting.

 

Isbell is no Patterson Hood.

 

Blame Pandora for making me a Lucinda fan. My base channel consists of 12 favorite acts I dumped in, and I get roughly three-song minisets based around one of them. I can usually count on the Lone Justice portion of the program to deliver an LJ tune, a Maria McKee solo number, and Lucinda.

 

That's a great album, whatever pigeonhole you want to stick it into. I tend to think of Ely as a Texas singer-songwriter more than "Americana", but he certainly fits the bill. I was living in Houston when it came out, and there was a record store near work I'd hit at lunchtime once in a while. I walked in one day and the guy behind the counter looked at me and said "You'll buy this album" and dropped the needle.

He was right, bought it on the spot.

I love that whole Joe Ely / Jimmy Dale Gilmore / Butch Hancock / Guy Clark / Lyle Lovett kinda nexus. It really speaks to me.