Twelve standout country albums that turn 30 this year

2. The Brooklyn Side by Bottle Rockets

The purists may have questioned Reba’s country bona fides, but that attack didn’t go anywhere. For the Bottle Rockets, things were different. Along with Uncle Tupelo, they were foundational in the alt-country movement that took hold in the early ‘90s. The opening and closing tracks of their second album, The Brooklyn Side, had all the earmarks of old-time country.

The opener, “Welfare Music” has acoustic guitar and fiddle, along with a twangy vocal. It also has a great country lyric – “It takes two to make three but one ain’t here.” The finale, “Queen of the World,” mentions Hank Williams in the very first line.

In between, you get harder rock on songs like “Gravity Falls” and the boisterous “Radar Gun,” but they remain firmly rooted in country traditions. “1,000 Dollar Car” is epic country blues. They do test the waters with the Chuck Berryish “Take Me to the Bank” and the old-school rockabilly of “Idiot’s Revenge.” That song meets the problem of classification head-on: “Well, she likes Dinosaur Jr. – But she can’t tell you why – Says, ‘You like country music?’ – Man you deserve to die.”

This is the same year that post-punk titans Dinosaur Jr, were themselves flirting with a countrified sound in songs like “Feel the Pain.” The Brooklyn Side is jampacked with great songs. And it also helped point the way to a different kind of country music. It’s a direction artists continue to explore thirty years later.

1. My Life by Iris Dement

So I fully admit that I love Bottle Rockets alt-country. But when you have a songwriter and a vocalist like Iris Dement working at the peak of her skill, traditional country is very hard to beat. My Life is not merely one of the best country albums of the 1990s. It’s one of the best albums regardless of genre. The opening rapture of “Sweet in the Melody,” the heartbreaking acceptance of “You’ve Done Nothing Wrong,” the yearning of “Calling For You” – those are just the first three songs.

The momentum does not let up through all ten tracks. Sweet nostalgia blends with emotional resilience. There are spirituals. There is a beautiful piano ballad – the title track which ends the album. Dement’s warm twang rings throughout every one of them.

She was John Prine’s favorite duet partner, and that says a lot. She has put out music sporadically since an initial rush in the ‘90s. Some have been excellent, though the overall output has been a little uneven. She wasn’t uneven on My Life. She was perfect.

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