UNCUT February 2001 issue ------------------------------------------ on the web The 10 Best Alternative Country Websites 1 NO DEPRESSION (nodepression.net) Taking its name from an old Carter Family song, the bi-monthly American magazine No Depression has over the last five years become the Bible of alt country. The website insists: "We exist primarily as an actual old- fashoned in-print publication. This is not a webzine, not a supplement to the printed pages "In fact, the site offers an impressive archive with selected features and reviews from the magazine's 30 issues to date, and if it hasn't been reviewed or written about in No Depression then it probably isn't worth hearing. The current issue has Merle Haggard on the cover. Then, of course, you can always sign up on-line for a subsciption and get it delivered to your door, too. 2 INSURGENT COUNTRY (insurgentcountry.com) Run by Hans Settler, Insurgent Country is a superb site not merely for its reviews and news about alt.country artists and releases but for its dedicated home pages to Gram Parsons, Son Volt, Townes Van Zandt, Hazeldine, Neil Young and the late Whiskeytown. Each of them offer guitar tablatures and lyrics, live reviews, news and fascinating hard-to-find Amercian interviews - did you know, for example, that the first record Ryan Adams ever bought was a Black Sabbath album? Other artists are likely to be added as the site grows. 3 AMERICANA MUSIC ORGANISATION (americanamusic.org Based in Nashville, the Americana Music Association (motto "We Walk The Line") was formed in Austin at 1999's South x South West Festival as a "forum for the advocacy of Americana music, to promote public awareness of this genre and to support the creative and economic viability of professionals in this field". It currently has about 500 members, membership costs 75 dollars a year and you can sign up on-line. Its secretary is Grant Alden, one of the co-editors of No Depression and the singers Allison Moorer and Greg Trooper also sit on its board. There's not a huge amount on the site as yet, but the AMA is growing all the time it held its inaugural conference in October and one of the AMA's immediate targets a to find a home for the publication of a weekly Americana chart and to lobby for a Grammy category. 4 TWANGZINE (twangzine.com) Another fine Americana magazine, this time edited by Jeff Wall in Nortn Carolina. With the motto "covering real American music that doesn't suck", Twangzine takes as its remit "Johnny Cash, Whiskeytown, Bill Monroe and everything in between" New interviews on the site when we last looked included Steve Earle, Jesse Winchester and Willie Nelson. 5 CITY SLANG (cityslang.com) How could we not include the UK's leading independent alt.country and Americana label? This a useful one-stop site covering Lambchop, Calexico, The Kingsbury Manx and several other Uncur favourites, and you might even find the odd article about them from this magazine in the on-line mix alongside the usual biographies and news. The site is easy to navigate and there are MP3 downloads on offer as well as a conventional retail point. 6 MILES OF MUSIC (milesofmusic.com) Miles Of Music is probably the best place of all to buy alt.country recordings on the web. Prices are reasonable and the site offers not only recordings from the smallest Americana labels but also a "hard to find" service which will track down ranties and obscurities. The reviews section is huge, you can listen to much of it before you buy via MP3 or Real Audio, and last month the site's feature pages included interviews with Laura Cantrell and The Go-Betweens, plus an introduction to Western Swing. 7 GRAM PARSONS (Gramparsons.com) All roads in alt.country seem to lead back to Gram and several of the generic web-sites have their own pages devoted to him. But gramparsons.com is probably the most comprehensive with guitar tablatures and lyrics to everything he ever wrote or recorded, a photo gallery, a bulletin board for fans to communicate and a section dedicated to The Gram Parsons Foundation, no less. After all these years there's not a lot that is terribly new, but as a shrine this site is the best. 8 EMMYLOU HARRIS (emmylou.net) There isn't an official Emmylou web site, but of the eight unofficial versions Emmylou.net is the brand leader. The usual tour dates, reviews, biographies and discographies are all here plus an "alert board" for breaking stories and rumours. But perhaps most valuable is the extensive archive of Emmylou interviews. Trawling her press cuttings on-line is a rare delight for she hardly ever seems to repeat herself and always finds something fresh and thought- provoking to say. I also found an article I'd been chasing for months from the American magazine Travel And Leisure, in which Emmylou offers a guide to her "alternative Nashville" and lists all the cool places to eat, drink, hear real music and even buy a guitar without running into Garth Brooks. 9 THE ORIGINAL UNOFFICIAL STEVE EARLE SITE (steveearle.net) This has to be one of the best music sites in the business. The usual functions are all here - biog, discography, song index, guitar chords and a compendium of articles. But you also get information on Steve Earle's various campaigns (Free the West Memphis 3, Freedom Forum and so on), extensive plugs for all his soul mates (Buddy and Julie Miller, sister Stacey, Guy Clark...) and some excellent links, including to the Bishopstock I site, where you can see his entire performance from last May's festival. Anyone setting up a music web site should check this out to see how to do it. 10 UNCLE TUPELO (gumbopages corn) Although Uncle Tupelo are no more, this site is really usefull for it tracks everything that is happening in the world of that much-loved band's two off-shoots, Wilco and Son Volt. There are also links to Postcard, an e-mailing list for Tupelo/Wilco/Son Volt fans, and Postcard 2 which offers "a place to meet" for all alt.country fans by Nigel Williamson