I have been a fan of Country Rock/ Alt.Country/ Cowpunk etc. since the former term came into use in the mid to late 1960,s. (Yes, I am that old!). In recent years I have spent a lot of time (& no small amount of money) on researching the subject/s. This entailed trying to find the roots of the music, & took me back to the early "Hillbillies".
The course has varied from 8 x 2 hour evenings to 10 x 2.5 hours. They were all well attended & hopefully enjoyed by the participants.
What follows is my version (or one of them) of the history of Americana music from the early days of recording up to the present. I will list all of the tracks used, the albums they were taken from, a potted biog. of the musicians, along with any other information I think may be of interest & many (but not all) other tracks that I consider could have been used. By the very nature of the subject the listings cannot be comprehensive & will not necessarily reflect my own personal tastes. There will be additions & deletions from time to time as I see fit. The more observant will notice that not all of the artists notes are complete & that there is no music from the last couple of years. As time permits, the rest of the notes will be added, as will the missing track listings.
No one who reads this will agree with all of my selections ,which reflects the beauty of the music, in as much as it all comes down to personal taste in the end. You may know music that better reflects the history & I may not have even heard of them. I find it impossible to criticise anyones personal taste in music; hopefully you will feel the same way about what follows: although your input & comments will be appreciated as my tastes & research continue to evolve.
I should add that I also lecture on 'The Blues'. As soon as the Americana part of this site is up to date, I will be adding the Blues section in a similar format.
I will also, as time permits, be adding a list of new albums, brief reviews & recommended older albums. |
