The New York Times yesterday published an all-too-familiar piece of reporting: Another man accused of preying on women in his industry, offering to help their careers in return for sexual favors, and of being emotionally manipulative. This time the alleged perpetrator is Ryan Adams, whose gravelly, emotional music has been a mainstay of alt-country and Americana since the mid-’90s, as the frontman of Whiskeytown, and through the 2000s with a successful solo career. But Adams hardly has a monopoly on whiskey-steeped Americana, so here are nearly three dozen artists whose music conjures up sun-baked vistas and earthy realism. The A.V. Club presents a two-hour playlist that encompasses righteous anger, quiet beauty, raspy vocals, twanging swagger, and emotional poignancy. You can listen on Spotify.
Leaving Whiskeytown
1. “Motion Sickness,” Phoebe Bridgers
2. “Real Live Bleeding Fingers And Broken Guitar Strings,” Lucinda Williams
3. “Human,” Molly Sarlé
4. “Pedestrian At Best,” Courtney Barnett
5. “Dusty Groove,” Kelly Hogan (written by Catherine Irwin of Freakwater)
6. “Every Time I Hear That Song,” Brandi Carlile
7. “Traveling Alone,” Tift Merritt
8. “Did I Offend You?”, Lauren Ruth Ward
9. “Living In The City,” Hurray For The Riff Raff
10. “Oom Sha La La,” Haley Heynderickx
11. “Got My Name Changed Back,” Pistol Annies
12. “September When It Comes,” Rosanne Cash
13. “A Soft Place To Fall,” Allison Moorer
14. “Your Lies,” Shelby Lynne
15. “Shut Up Kiss Me,” Angel Olsen
16. “Desperate And Depressed,” Margo Price
17. “Wheel Inside The Wheel,” Mary Gauthier
18. “Fuck Up,” Sarah Shook & The Disarmers
19. “American Scandal,” Ashley McBryde
20. “Revelator,” Gillian Welch
21. “Pressure To Party,” Julia Jacklin
22. “Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole,” Martha Wainwright
23. “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” Laura Marling
24. “Stono River Blues,” Shovels & Rope
25. “Waltz Across Texas Tonight,” Emmylou Harris
26. “People Got A Lotta Nerve,” Neko Case
27. “Hire,” Girlpool
28. “Good Woman,” Cat Power
29. “Fix’er Upper,” Rosie Tucker
30. “Quartz In The Valley,” H.C. McEntire
31. “High Horse,” Kacey Musgraves
32. “Interstate Vision,” Lomelda
33. “Willin’,” Mandy Moore
55 Comments
List lacks Sister Sparrow!
Nice work. This looks like my Spotify recommendations list. I know I’ll enjoy this.
This list is the actual best, especially since Hurray For The Riff Raff is on it.
At long last I encounter another HftRR fan in the wild. What did you think of her newest album? Personally I found that it really wasn’t the same without the fiddle playing.
Huzzah! I really liked her latest album, especially “Rican Beach” and “Living in the City”. It was a bit of a departure from the older stuff, but I thought she pulled it off well. The fiddle was missed though, for sure.
Have you seen the HftRR Tiny Desk Concert? It’s *outstanding*.
That was the name that jumped out to me, too. (Not that I’m a fan, really, I haven’t heard anything since the days of mp3 blogs and myspace).
I’ll just come out and say it – I have Spotify but have no idea how I would use it to get to this list, or if I even can.But..! regardless, this is a hell of a playlist. Shovels and Rope, a version of Willin’ that I haven’t heard (Mandy Moore), some Brandi Carlile, Mary Gauthier, Lucinda.. plus September When it Comes by Roseanne and her dad, which always gets me… Good, good bunch of songs.
Did you download the Spotify app for your smartphone? If you did, click on the hyperlink for “Spotify” in the article and it should take you there on your account. You can save the playlist then by pressing “Follow”.If you prefer to listen on the computer, you can still click on the hyperlink – no app required – and do the same process as above.
Tap the little Spotify icon in the top right (if you’re on a smartphone and have the Spotify app) and it’ll take you right to it.
This list is great and I would like to also recommend Caitlin Cary, the phenomenal former violinist and vocalist for Whiskeytown.
and also Nicki Bluhm
Good call on Caitlin Cary, whose “Matrimony” was a particular highlight of the Whiskeytown catalog:
Yes yes yes. I love all the Whiskeytown stuff but that one’s in their top five. It’s great hearing it for the first time when she gets to that third verse!
God “Matrimony” is such a great song. Also, her backing vocals on “Easy Hearts” off Pneumonia absolutely make that song.
Oh, and I know she’s more Rockabilly than alt-country/folk, but Kim Lenz is AMAZING and people should definitely check her out.
And Holly Golightly who has been OWNING alt-country and garage since she started in Thee Headcoatees in the 1990’s.
Getting worse for Ryan Adams… https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/14/arts/music/ryan-adams-fbi-explicit-communications-underage.html
Thanks for the playlist. I listen to a few of these songs already but I could always stand to branch out more in alternative folk rock.
Never heard of Phoebe Bridgers, but starting a playlist with a song like Motion Sickness has completely hooked me.
Bonus points for choosing that song in particular, which is explicitly about Bridgers’ experiences with Ryan Adams.
Whoa, I didn’t know that but I’ve only heard the song a couple times. I don’t doubt that it’s about Adams, but what makes it explicit?
She’s mentioned it in interviews and at concerts in the past, and some of the lyrics are pretty pointed (“And why do you sing with an English accent?/I guess it’s too late to change it now,” “You said when you met me you were bored/And you were in a band when I was born”).
The song is fantastic, and maybe a bit of that is over how little I have time for Ryan Adams. He was such a fucker the one time I saw him, he legit told the crowd of a folk fest that he deserved more of their attention. The new allegations are so much worse though.
It really is one hell of a song, right? Ymmv, but I didn’t really think the rest of her album measured up to it, but what the hell—plenty of great careers have been started with albums that had one brilliant song and then some other stuff.
I love the whole album, and while “Motion Sickness” is surely a highlight, “Scott Street” also just kills me. Some lyrical bits in there that wouldn’t be out of place in a Hold Steady song.
Yeah, I should give it another listen sometime.
Big fan of “Scott Street”. It’s a nice final song for her shows.
Phoebe Bridgers has been doing fantastic work in the last couple years. I thoroughly recommend her debut album A Stranger In the Alps (Motion Sickness is on that album), the boygenius EP with Lucy Dacus (whose album Historian is also great) and Julien Baker, and the album she just released with Conor Oberst. She’s one of my very favorite newer songwriters.
Thanks for the recommendation! I have some homework for the weekend. 😀
You’re welcome. I hope you enjoy it.
BTW, I just realised that “A Stranger In The Alps” is an excellent Big Lebowski reference. I like this album even more now!
The song is actually about Bridgers’ short lived relationship with Ryan Adams, which makes its inclusion particularly resonant.
Upon hearing of her, I listened to the debut album from front to back and was really impressed. I texted my 73 year old aunt about it and she was like “oh yeah, I’ve heard her!”. I about fell over but instead caught myself and laughed.Anyway yeah she’s dope
Who’s dope, Bridger or your aunt? Cause the both sound dope!
That song was written about Ryan Adams which makes it being #1 on this list all the sweeter.
Holy Christ Laura, this is so good!!! Thank you! I’m listening to nothing but this for the next two days. Your readers are so grateful. Eds: Give that girl a bonus!
*ctrl-f* Ani Difranco
Thank you, I really needed this today.
No list of righteously angry women’s indie rock is complete without at least ONE song from Liz Phair’s Exile in Guyville. (I would vote either “6’1″” or “Canary”.)
It’s not Whiskeytown, per se, but Gone For Good by The Shins will always be a favorite indie rock country-folkie tune of mine. Off a spectacular album as well.
Needs some Jenny Lewis in the mix.
Yeah you could pick a track from “Rabbit Fur Coat” pretty much at random and it would be great for this list.
And Sara Watkins!
Valerie June would fit well here too.
I saw her last year in Cleveland, and the opener was amazing too. It’s not often an opening act has the audience in the palm of its hand from the first song.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB90sKJYtNM
I’ve never really viewed music differently after knowing more about the artist. The lyrics of at least half the songs ever written are meaningless. And even when they aren’t, why deprive yourself of music you’d otherwise like just because the artist is a cunt? If it’s some bullshit about “supporting” them, great: skip their shows and steal their work. This list is full of great music, and odds are, one of these musicians has brutally murdered one or more people. That’s just simple statistics. I was never a huge Ryan Adams fan until yesterday. I was just a massive fan of his music. I still am. Him being grotesque doesn’t mean anything. Really the only consequence of all this is that he should go to jail and people should go back and realize Mandy Moore had some decent songs. Bitching over.
So the list (which is great from what I know) was A) created in response to a story about mistreatment of female musicians, B) contains virtually all female artists and C) actually ends with a track by Mandy Moore who is not even known for this genre (I don’t think) but is directly connected to the story that brought about the article…….and literally no one mentions any of this? Not the author, or even one single poster??? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills.It should go without saying (but unfortunately it doesn’t) that this isn’t a value judgment. I love this list, it’s fuckin’ rad and I love the focus on female artists in this genre in light of the accusations against Adams. It’s just super-weird to me that nobody has mentioned it.
It’s such a minor gripe, but I wish these playlists were available in other formats (Google Play, Tidal, etc). This isn’t the first list I’ve wished I’d been able to import to my non-Spotify music streaming account.
These are good songs. Ryan Adams also makes good songs, songs with sensitivity instead of swagger. Knowing that he felt like he had to act like he needed to dangle career help to get laid, or even that he’s an asshole once he does get laid doesn’t make me want to stop listening to his music.And “you’re not a real musician because you don’t play an instrument”? That ain’t emotional abuse. It’s the expression of disapproval from someone whose approval matters to somebody.
I’d like to add the high and lonesome spiritual sound of Valerie June and the gospel-inflected country of The War & Treaty to this list
A fine, fine list, but I’ll suggest some Lydia Loveless:And maybe a touch of Nikki Lane as well:
It’s arguable if Courtney Barnett ever plays folk-rock, but “Pedestrian at Best” isn’t folky at all. And it’s also not Americana, what with her being Australian and all.
Love her but yeah, the last description I’d ever use for her is folk rock.
I once saw someone try to argue that they don’t like her because she sounds like Sheryl Crowe. My brain is steel bleeding from that one.
This is forking fantastic thank you.
Always glad to see a Tift Merritt mention. I had hoped she would go on to conquer the world after her stunning debut of Bramble Rose, but I will always love her anyway..