Before there was Americana, there was “alt country.” A term I am still fond of and still has some relevance, if only for being one of Americana’s sub-genres. I have long pondered its genesis, its development, its emergence, i.e., when did alt country begin or, and perhaps this is a bit easier if no less contentious, what was its first album?

This magazine — as well as many others — went on record (whatever that is) to effectively say that it was Uncle Tupelo’s “No Depression” album released on June 21, 1990. Plus it has the added cache of its Carter Family connection. But what other dates/albums are out there on which to base a viable thesis? Using Mr. Peabody’s Wayback Machine let’s take a stroll down memory lane:

— Was it the first Jayhawks album of 1986?

— How about 1985 when two punk bands, one from L.A. and the other from England, The Knitters (all but one member of X) and The Mekons released, respectively, “Poor Little Critter on the Side of the Road” and “Fear and Whiskey.” I like what Jon Langford has called his sound, insurgent country.

— Was it Emmylou Harris forming The Hot Band and releasing their first album in 1975? Vassar Clements and “Hillbilly Jazz” that same year?

— Was it Wille Nelson’s “Shotgun Willie” in 1973? And Atlantic Records opening a Nashville office.

— The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band & a host of who’s who of country and bluegrass (save for Bill Monroe who did not want to play, at least at the time, with a bunch of hippies) in 1972’s “Will The Circle Be Unbroken?”

— Was it John Hartford who forsook the Hollywood & Nashville fame that could have come with “The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour” TV show to release “Aero-Plane” in 1971?

— Was it the emergence of Townes Van Zandt and any of his albums beginning in 1969?

— Merle Haggard’s 1969 “Okie From Muskogee” that was quickly co-opted/covered by the very folks he was lampooning?

— When Gram Parsons spurred The Byrds on to “Sweetheart of the Radio,” playing the Grand Ole Opry on March 15, 1968 and then taking it several steps further with The Flying Burrito Brothers?

— Was it the last two songs on Dylan’s “John Wesley Harding” released two days after Christmas 1967?

— Was it Dylan recording “Blonde on Blonde” in Nashville during the winter of 1966? (“The country music station plays soft/But there’s nothing, really nothing to turn off.”)

— The Beatles covering “Act Naturally” in 1965?

— Buck Owens adding Don Rich and his Telecaster into the band in 1960?

— Hank Williams putting the twelve bar blues, as well as sex, into country in the 1940s?

Or, are the above just notable points in what is a not so linear progression of a sound many different people put together from all that they have heard and experienced? And that is still progressing today?

(Photo by Brian Blauser, copyrighted by Brian Blauser/ musicianpix.com

Perhaps it is a personal history as well as an intellectual exercise. In such case, there is one date that is purposefully absent from the above timeline. In the Fall of 1988 the English punk label Rough Trade released an album no American label would touch — the self-titled Lucinda Williams record. This year marks the 25th anniversary of the album I propose crystallized alt country.

Released late October or early November (I cannot remember), the music press generally did not catch up to it till early 1989, led most notably by Rolling Stone and my own Village Voice. And even then they did not seem to fully grasp what they heard.

But my story does not begin there. It begins two and a half years earlier when I was living in New York and dating a woman in Colorado. One long weekend in March 1986 our half way meeting point was Austin. Neither of us had been there but had long wanted to visit. Second night there we were walking the streets — Austin was, despite being the capitol and large in music, a small town — going into a few bars seeing what each had to offer. We had been to two and heard warmed over straight country. The third one piqued my interest if only by having an Olympia neon sign in the window; the guy at the door told us a local favorite — a skinny girl with bleached blonde hair and guitar — had just begun her set. I did not get her name, I was not feeling optimistic; we found some seats, I walked up to the bar and was turning around with the Olympias as she sang:

“Sylvia was working as a waitress in Beaumont…I’m tired of these small town boys, they don’t move fast enough/I’m gonna find me one who wears a leather jacket and likes his living rough.”

I did not move, it seemed I was in another reality, raw and hoarse. It was as though I was in the middle of a movie and I was some minor character in Sylvia’s life and I was a witness to its being chronicled. It was a far cry from my CBGB days, the jazz loft scene and even further from the cabaret and pianos bars I had begun frequenting. There was something about how she sang, deep in her throat even though her voice was high pitched, the place where she sang from. A place I did not know well. Looking back, perhaps this was how it felt to those who had heard a young Billie Holiday. Not to compare the two (as no one compares to Ms. Holiday) but rather to do something as it had never been done before. It was a life changing event.

As the evening went on, these fabulous songs just kept coming, “I Changed the Locks,” “Side of the Road, “Passionate Kisses.” I remember because I wrote the titles down, because I wanted to find them. It was not till the end of her set that I asked someone who she was. Lucinda Williams.

Next, I went looking for the record. It did not exist. I finally found two Smithsonian LPs, but none of the songs she sang that evening were on them, and it sounded like a different person. It was perplexing. I then found a couple of compilation LPs that featured a couple of songs. Still, it was not the same.

(Photo by Brian Blauser, copyrighted by Brian Blauser/ musicianpix.com

We had to wait another 2 1/2 years until that album came out for that sound to be made widely available. It sold enough to get noticed and have a follow-up EP issued. Everyone pretty much knows what came next, good reviews, but it was not the kind of music that got airplay. Her songs would have to wait until more palatable versions were recorded by softer voices, such as Patty Loveless in 1990 and Mary Chapin Carpenter in 1993. Emmylou Harris first covered “Crescent City” in 1992. And in those early days, Rosanne Cash was a huge booster, going so far as having Lucinda guest on her Austin City Limits gig.

Since then we have learned that she did some demos for Columbia that led nowhere. The labels she shopped her music to kept asking, “Where’s the bridge?” “What’s with those lyrics, ‘Chest all soaked with sweat'”? What they were really saying is that no one had ever sounded or looked like her before; they had no idea how to market her. Sure, The Nashville Network had begun showcasing newer talent that did not fit the old mold, such as Lyle Lovett, Nanci Griffith and The Texas Connection. But all that was pretty tame compared to Lucinda Williams, especially as she showed no interest in toning down her music, her voice or her character to accommodate commercial considerations.

Frank Sinatra may have sung about doing it ‘my way’, but Lucinda Williams actually did it. She went so far as to re-record her two followup albums, “Sweet Old World” and “Car Wheels.” The latter took six years to get right, and while we all know what that record did, she drew excessive criticism in making sure it was done right. Certainly, sexism played a part.

The Rough Trade LP and cassette eventually went out of print, as did the EP. A CD version was issued, then it went out of print as well. Koch picked it up and added some new live tracks, including those from the Rough Trade EP, which has been out of print for ten years.

However all that is about to change as Tom Overby reports that there is a street date for the 25th Anniversary Rough Trade record almost to the day of its original release, October 29 or November 6. Williams and Overby have the original tapes and according to Tom the remixed and remastered sound is a significant improvement over the previous releases. Plus, there will be extra tracks, both studio and live from those years. There will be a single disc version, a deluxe two or three disc version, and vinyl too. A DVD from the El Rey night of the Los Angeles live album shows that was to be included now looks unlikely due to clearance issues. But they are currently looking for any video footage that anyone might have or know about for possible inclusion into the deluxe version. So, if anyone knows of anything else please let Tom know.

A s many of you know, even though she has more new songs than an album could hold, Lucinda has been without a record label for over a year and they had been hoping to re-release the Rough Trade album on whatever new label she signed with. I am unaware if she has a new record deal — somebody tell me if she does — and while the re-release has been promised for several years I think the above dates are pretty firm as they do not want to miss the anniversary date.

(Above photos taken by Brian Blauser at Mountain Stage 1989, used with permission and copyrighted by Brian Blauser/ musicianpix.com

(Photo by Amos Perrine)