Down to the Promised Land: Five Years of Bloodshot Records
(Bloodshot)
First, the nicknames: alt-country, insurgent country, y’allternative, honky-skronk, country punk, Americana, whatever you call it, this bastard offspring of Country and Western is a genre and if it has an pin-pointable home, it’s Chicago’s Bloodshot Records.
Since Bloodshot began with a 1995 various-artist sampler, (For A Life Of Sin: Insurgent Country Volume One) this magnificently packaged two-disc compilation/celebration brings the label full circle. Stalwarts like Jon Langford (Mekons, Waco Brothers, Three Johns), Robbie Fulks, Handsome Family and Moonshine Willy who have been there all along anchor the set and, even though the jaunty hot-swing of Fulks’ “Bloodshot’s Turning 5” kicks off the second disc, his witty mini-history of the label is the ideal starting point.
Once inside, it’s clear that, like the label’s output as a whole, everything works. For sheer across-the-genre reach, however, the 40 previously unreleased tunes are near flawless: Sample the homemade bluegrass of Split Lip Rayfield, mountain a Capella from Texas Rubies, The Supersuckers dueting with Willie Nelson’s daughter, alterna-country-pop from the Old 97’s and Jason and the Scorchers-style country thrash from Bare Jr. Additionally, there are a plethora of thrilling cover versions, including Red Star Belgrade dissecting AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”, Caitlin Cary (Whiskeytown) tackling George Jones’ “Please Take the Devil Out Of Me”, Trailer Bride doing the Gun Club’s “Ghost on the Highway” and The Unholy Trio’s hilarious bluegrassish swipe at Public Enemy’s “Bring the Noise. Perhaps the tip-top moment comes from Langford and his Wacos-- who (collectively and individually) act as the Bloodshot house band across the two discs, they even back Graham Parker (!) on one cut-- with their incisive reading of The Who’s “Baba O’ Riley”.
Despite such sprawl, the lasting sense of this collection is unmistakable: Bloodshot has given the notion of modern country music such a solid crack on the noggin that the possibilities leaking out like so much gray matter now seem endless. The next five years might even be better.
Time Out New York, 2000
