VARIOUS ARTISTS
This Is Americana, Vol. 1: The View From Sugar Hill Records (Sugar Hill)
Reviewed by Shaun Dale

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Over the last decade or so it became harder and harder to find a name for the music made by a loose conglomeration of cowboys and cowpunks, bluegrass traditionalists and newgrass heretics, old time players with new fangled songs and all the other elements that made up alt.country, No Depression, or whatever you wanted to call it. The label that's been most broadly applied, and may, in fact, be the most descriptive, is "Americana." It's definitely "I can't say what it is, but I know it when I hear it" propositions, and the folks at the Americana Music Association know that, so they're sponsoring a series of recordings designed to demonstrate what they're talking about.

The debut album in the series highlights the music of Sugar Hill Records, and that's a fitting choice because the arguments in favor of Sugar Hill as the leading Americana label are powerful. 16 of the most powerful of those arguments are found on this disc. Each and every track here is by a top artist in the field, and each is drawn from a full album of music just as good. In some cases, there are years and years of albums just as good. In other cases, the artists are shiny new faces on the scene, but they're talented enough to predict years of success from their early efforts.

I'm looking forward to future installments in this series. There are a bunch of labels, large and small, with Americana catalogs they're proud of, and they'll all be aiming to beat this collection. If they come anywhere close, the outcome will be terrific, because this is one of the best comps I've heard in damn near forever.

Track List:

The Gourds/My Name Is Jorge * Railroad Earth/Mighty River * Scott Miller & The Commonwealth/I Won't Go With You * Rodney Crowell/The Rock Of My Soul * James McMurtry/Out Here In The Middle * Robin & Linda Williams/After The Fire Is Gone * Doc Watson & Frosty Morn/Working Man Blues * Kev Russell's Junker/(Somebody Bring Me A Flower) I'm A Robot * John Cowan/Two Quarts Low * Jerry Douglas/Patrick Meets The Brickbats * Baucom, Bibey & Blueridge/It's All My Fault * Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver/Poor Boy Working Blues * Dudley Connell & Don Rigsby/Another Saturday Night * Hot Rize/Colleen Malone * Sean Watkins/Let It Fall * Maura O'Connell/Poor Man's House

© 2003 - Shaun Dale