He was here at our new downtown amphitheatre Friday night. Unfortunately we were taking our daughter back to Boone for school this weekend. We all wanted to see him so bad. Tix were starting at $250. So yes, he has indeed blown up lol.
Lol. It's literally a genre. My 19 year old calls it that. All the kids in her circle use it to differentiate between it and bro/mainstream country which they all hate. Its a genre on all the streaming platforms. What would you call it?
I don't know, I'm old, I remember "alt country" being used to describe bands like Son Volt and early Wilco, who weren't exactly traditional sounding and rock oriented, but would sometimes use banjos and twangy riffs, or cover forgotten country songs. I think I would classify anyone doing more 'traditional' country music in an older style as trad/roots/Americana.
Son Volt probably did fit the genre back then although I think of groups like them as more Modern Southern Rock. The lines definately blur, but alt country today is blurred more with folk/Americana than it was in the 90's. Alternative music always changes styles. The name itself forces it to change.
This group opened for Wilco when I saw them, I'm not even sure what to call them, so yeah, blurred lines:
Its a completely different sound now. Much like Alternative rock sounds different now than it did 8n the 80's and into the 90's. Grunge was alternative when it first hit. REM was alternative. If you search alt country on spotify today you will get a lot of Stapleton, Sturgill Simpson, Childers, Ryan Adams, Drew Holcomb, Shakey Graves etc. Much more folksy/mountain influence.
FWIW this thread has me playing this in my office at the moment... Alt Country • Folk • Americana • Roots • Acoustic • Singer Songwriter
I don’t keep up with the modern country music scene much but I do love me some Bastard Sons Of Johnny Cash
Country music died with Merle Haggard. If you don't agree, you're walkin' on the fightin' side of me.
An uncle took me to concert with Haggard, Twitty, and G. Jones back in mid to late '80's. Maybe the best concert I've ever been to. Three greats with different styles all in one night.
Have you seen the music video for In Your Love? Tyler wrote the song, but also collaborated on the music video. The song was written for his cousin who is gay and his father who grew up in the coal mines. His goal was to have a music video on CMT that his cousin could see himself in after when they were younger, he said he never did.
When George Jones finished recording "He Stopped Loving Her Today" (the CMA Song of the Year two years in a row), he told his producer, "Nobody will buy that morbid son of a bitch." Behind The Song: George Jones, "He Stopped Loving Her Today" - American Songwriter