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(Audiophile) americana and country music? Who likes it? Recommendations?
- Thread starter Urkelator
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- americana country music
JeremyFife
Addicted to Fun and Learning
Thanks .. I think
. It's good, whatever it is
Different genre but true Americana. The whole album is very good
KaeliKoo
Member
Great new album from Lone Bellow
Steve Earle did Train A Comin' in '94, post drug/law hassles. Allmusic: "Considering how low Earle had sunk, it was a pleasant shock that Train a Comin' was not only good, it was one of the strongest albums of his career to date. Dominated by songs he's written years before along with a few new tunes and some well-chosen covers, Train a Comin' featured Earle with a small group of gifted acoustic pickers, including Norman Blake, Peter Rowan, and Roy Huskey, Jr., and the tone of these sessions is at once relaxed and committed, sounding like a back porch guitar pull with a seriously talented guy handling the lead vocals and calling out the tunes."
I saw this tour, with Rowan and Blake, from great seats! Tied for my favorite acoustic show, with this one by Mark O'Connor.
Steve Earle, Train A Comin', full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link
I saw this tour, with Rowan and Blake, from great seats! Tied for my favorite acoustic show, with this one by Mark O'Connor.
Steve Earle, Train A Comin', full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link
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Rosanne Cash does a short 'Land Of Dreams'. This should be an annual Super Bowl commercial. It was run on Canadian television, and maybe elsewhere, for Tourism USA in 2012.
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D
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The music that is currently called Country & Western is an insult to the original music. Steve Earle describes it as "...hip-hop for people who are afraid of black people."
Serious artists have abandoned the term and now call their music "Americana".
An example of the modern "Country and Western" genre.
And some Billie Joe to show what can be done if you have a soul and a brain.
Allmusic: “Linda Ronstadt and Emmylou Harris have frequently collaborated over the course of their long careers. Their voices are made for each other in a yin-yang meeting of Ronstandt's rich velvet alto and Harris' songbird-sweet soprano.
Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions takes their collaborations to new heights. A collection of covers and originals tracing various paths of love and loss, the performances seem to have breathed in the desert where they were recorded. Arrangements, airy as the space between desert and sky, are grounded by gritty guitars, splashed with color from folk instruments, and filled with glorious harmonies.” From 1999.
Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris, Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link
Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions takes their collaborations to new heights. A collection of covers and originals tracing various paths of love and loss, the performances seem to have breathed in the desert where they were recorded. Arrangements, airy as the space between desert and sky, are grounded by gritty guitars, splashed with color from folk instruments, and filled with glorious harmonies.” From 1999.
Linda Ronstadt & Emmylou Harris, Western Wall: The Tucson Sessions, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link
mhardy6647
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I didn't know of it, either (FWIW).Thank you, @MoreWatts ! As one who loves Emmylou Harris, I was surprised that I had missed that one.
Jim
What about Bluegrass, "Newgrass", and "Jamgrass"?
Here’s Americana specifically for audiophiles, so a long intro.
Allmusic: “By calling this album The Massenburg Sessions, contemporary bluegrass singer/bassist John Cowan puts the spotlight on the audiophile recording and mastering engineer George Massenburg, known for his work with Linda Ronstadt and Randy Newman, among others. Cowan and Massenburg recorded the music live in the studio, with no overdubs, no editing, and even no headphones for the musicians. Of course, no mixing was required, either, with the sound achieved through placement of the instruments and microphones in the studio. The resulting sound is excellent, but no better than what can be achieved through the usual techniques [me=ROFL]. For listeners, this is all really inside baseball, but it seems to have allowed Cowan to achieve a spirit of performance he found conducive to his typically vibrant and eclectic approach.” More on the studio after the album info – it is about the music, after all.
Cowan was a member of New Grass Revival (NGR) with banjoist Bela Fleck, mandolinist Sam Bush, guitarist Pat Flynn, and others. He released 7 albums between 1986 and 2014, and ~12 more with NGR, from ‘75-’89. He’s a solid electric bassist, and has been an occasional Doobie Brother since ~2000.
John Cowan, The Massenburg Sessions, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link
The room for the live sessions was at Blackbird Studios, Nashville, Tennessee. It’s usually used for mastering, but they cleared out the ATC/Genelec gear, or what they used in 2010, for the band.
Here’s info on the acoustical design, from their website: “Blackbird Studio C is simply the finest immersive mix and playback environment in the world. The room’s open floor plan was designed by multiple Grammy and TEC Award-winner, producer, engineer, and inventor George Massenburg and Dr. Peter D’Antonio, founder of RPG Diffusor Systems, Inc. The design focuses on sound diffusion and is created from a 10,000-page Excel spreadsheet based on acoustic diffusion algorithms. The result is a mix of art and function: 138,646 individual sticks of formaldehyde-free MDF wood in four-foot-by-eight-foot sheets, with no two being the same size or length. The studio contains slightly more than 100,000 lbs. of wood on the walls.”
As a guy from earthquake country...
With the ATC configuration, for Dolby Atmos mastering:
With the Genelec configuration, for ‘Sony 360’ mastering, with thirteen 8361As:
Allmusic: “By calling this album The Massenburg Sessions, contemporary bluegrass singer/bassist John Cowan puts the spotlight on the audiophile recording and mastering engineer George Massenburg, known for his work with Linda Ronstadt and Randy Newman, among others. Cowan and Massenburg recorded the music live in the studio, with no overdubs, no editing, and even no headphones for the musicians. Of course, no mixing was required, either, with the sound achieved through placement of the instruments and microphones in the studio. The resulting sound is excellent, but no better than what can be achieved through the usual techniques [me=ROFL]. For listeners, this is all really inside baseball, but it seems to have allowed Cowan to achieve a spirit of performance he found conducive to his typically vibrant and eclectic approach.” More on the studio after the album info – it is about the music, after all.
Cowan was a member of New Grass Revival (NGR) with banjoist Bela Fleck, mandolinist Sam Bush, guitarist Pat Flynn, and others. He released 7 albums between 1986 and 2014, and ~12 more with NGR, from ‘75-’89. He’s a solid electric bassist, and has been an occasional Doobie Brother since ~2000.
John Cowan, The Massenburg Sessions, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link
The room for the live sessions was at Blackbird Studios, Nashville, Tennessee. It’s usually used for mastering, but they cleared out the ATC/Genelec gear, or what they used in 2010, for the band.
Here’s info on the acoustical design, from their website: “Blackbird Studio C is simply the finest immersive mix and playback environment in the world. The room’s open floor plan was designed by multiple Grammy and TEC Award-winner, producer, engineer, and inventor George Massenburg and Dr. Peter D’Antonio, founder of RPG Diffusor Systems, Inc. The design focuses on sound diffusion and is created from a 10,000-page Excel spreadsheet based on acoustic diffusion algorithms. The result is a mix of art and function: 138,646 individual sticks of formaldehyde-free MDF wood in four-foot-by-eight-foot sheets, with no two being the same size or length. The studio contains slightly more than 100,000 lbs. of wood on the walls.”
As a guy from earthquake country...
With the ATC configuration, for Dolby Atmos mastering:
- (3) ATC SCM300s for the LCR
- (12) ATC SCM100s for the surrounds and overheads
- (6) ATC SCM0.1-15s for the LFE and bass management
With the Genelec configuration, for ‘Sony 360’ mastering, with thirteen 8361As:
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Acoustic blues is Americana, right? Saw these guys with great seats twice. Acoustic slide guitar, harmonica, vocals. They did 2 nice acoustic duo albums.
Allmusic: “R&B is straight out of the Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee book -- a set of stripped-down acoustic blues. Slide guitarist Roy Rogers (not the TV cowboy) and harmonicaist Norton Buffalo both play with surprising grit and unsurprising affection, making it a very pleasurable tribute.” From 1991.
In 2002, they did Roots Of Our Nature. Allmusic: “If retro affectation bothers you, it's best to imagine this session transpiring on some snowy night, within the glow of an iron stove at some crossroads general store. When heard on these terms, Roots can cast a spell to remember.”
Rogers plays on and produced late-period John Lee Hooker, has released ~19 albums since 1986, and fronts his band, The 'Delta Rhythm Kings', in the Bay Area, USA. Buffalo was a Steve Miller Band member for 20 years, and released 2 albums in the late 70s.
Roy Rogers & Norton Buffalo, R&B, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link
Roy Rogers & Norton Buffalo, Roots Of Our Nature, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link
Allmusic: “R&B is straight out of the Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee book -- a set of stripped-down acoustic blues. Slide guitarist Roy Rogers (not the TV cowboy) and harmonicaist Norton Buffalo both play with surprising grit and unsurprising affection, making it a very pleasurable tribute.” From 1991.
In 2002, they did Roots Of Our Nature. Allmusic: “If retro affectation bothers you, it's best to imagine this session transpiring on some snowy night, within the glow of an iron stove at some crossroads general store. When heard on these terms, Roots can cast a spell to remember.”
Rogers plays on and produced late-period John Lee Hooker, has released ~19 albums since 1986, and fronts his band, The 'Delta Rhythm Kings', in the Bay Area, USA. Buffalo was a Steve Miller Band member for 20 years, and released 2 albums in the late 70s.
Roy Rogers & Norton Buffalo, R&B, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link
Roy Rogers & Norton Buffalo, Roots Of Our Nature, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link
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So sez @Jimbob54; whose avatar appears to be one of the ZZTop persona.
I am ALL in for ZZTop and NONE for C&W.
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I'm not sure the Rev. Billy F Gibbons would agree with your stance. Take the best of everything.So sez @Jimbob54; whose avatar appears to be one of the ZZTop persona.
I am ALL in for ZZTop and NONE for C&W.
The good Rev.Gibbons can say the last-rites for me while I being buried 6ft. under, with nothing but the Blues.
No C&W, pleeease!
HoweSound
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spiral scratch
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Just to clear up what Americana actually is:
"Americana, as defined by the Americana Music Association (AMA), is "contemporary music that incorporates elements of various American roots music styles, including country, roots-rock, folk, bluegrass, R&B and blues, resulting in a distinctive roots-oriented sound that lives in a world apart from the pure forms of the genres upon which it may draw. While acoustic instruments are often present and vital, Americana also often uses a full electric band."[3][4]"
You can read the full wikipage here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americana_(music)
Some stuff I like:
Early Wilco albums
Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker
One that’s been getting a lot of play from me lately: Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American Music
I’d say the Wilco and Ryan Adams albums are audiophile sounding. The Wayfaring Strangers album is a lot of obscure bands that likely didn’t get the corporate backing to make an audiophile recording, but the music is still fantastically cosmic. Numero Group is a great label that makes a point of presenting often forgotten and obscure music that deserves attention.
"Americana, as defined by the Americana Music Association (AMA), is "contemporary music that incorporates elements of various American roots music styles, including country, roots-rock, folk, bluegrass, R&B and blues, resulting in a distinctive roots-oriented sound that lives in a world apart from the pure forms of the genres upon which it may draw. While acoustic instruments are often present and vital, Americana also often uses a full electric band."[3][4]"
You can read the full wikipage here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americana_(music)
Some stuff I like:
Early Wilco albums
Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker
One that’s been getting a lot of play from me lately: Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American Music
I’d say the Wilco and Ryan Adams albums are audiophile sounding. The Wayfaring Strangers album is a lot of obscure bands that likely didn’t get the corporate backing to make an audiophile recording, but the music is still fantastically cosmic. Numero Group is a great label that makes a point of presenting often forgotten and obscure music that deserves attention.
Cimarron615.com: “When Poco founder and sole perennial member Rusty Young died in early 2021, it effectively ended the band’s amazing 53 year run and left adrift its remaining members.” Well, they added some folks, wrote some songs, cut an album Brand New Distance, and call themselves ‘Cimarron 615’.
AllAboutJazz: “The harmony vocals soar, the tradeoffs of distinctive lead voices positively recall their predecessors and the muscular vigor of the musicianship also hearkens to the evolution of a harder rock approach by Poco in the wake of co-founder Richie Furay's departure in 1974.”
All band members except one were Poco members at some point. The video is a tune from Poco’s Legacy album, co-written by Poco/615 drummer Rick Lonow. Has that Poco vocal magic...
Cimarron 615, Brand New Distance, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link
AllAboutJazz: “The harmony vocals soar, the tradeoffs of distinctive lead voices positively recall their predecessors and the muscular vigor of the musicianship also hearkens to the evolution of a harder rock approach by Poco in the wake of co-founder Richie Furay's departure in 1974.”
All band members except one were Poco members at some point. The video is a tune from Poco’s Legacy album, co-written by Poco/615 drummer Rick Lonow. Has that Poco vocal magic...
Cimarron 615, Brand New Distance, full album: YouTube link ; Spotify link
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