Country gets such a bad rap these days. And honestly, with the Nashville Top 20 being the way it is, it mostly deserves the hate. What I want to talk about is the country not being shit out by marketing companies, and the genre only feels like it's getting better as it rebels against the late '70s glitz and pop. I hear a lot of qualifiers like "I hate rap and country, except for Johnny Cash/Jennings/Haggard/etc.", so I'll start by recommending some great newer-age artists to anyone who's interested in the genre, or has written it off based on varying circumstances:

Drag the River- Formed by punk musicians, it's a bit of a campfire song/'50s folk style. Usually pretty down stuff in terms of mood.


Jello/Mojo- Another band formed by former punks, featuring Mojo Nixon (also worth checking out his solo stuff) and Jello Biafra (lead singer of the Dead Kennedys), they only released one album, which sounds like punk rock lyrics put to a mix of rockabilly, traditional American folk, and Appalachian folk. Good transition if you're coming from rock 'n roll to country.



Andrew Jackson Jihad- It took me a while to warm up to these guys, but they're now one of my favorites. It's weird hearing a genre so rooted in the past talk about modern rural troubles like meth and clinical depression, but their albums always end on a hopeful note of faith in humanity.




If those don't float your boat, then just pick up the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack. Seriously, good classic stuff in there. Besides that, I'm willing to either hear thoughts on the genre or recommendations from fellow fans.