An alternative indie/country/folk music playlist for people who hate country music
The Guardians began life as a Western romance. Even as I redraft it as contemporary fiction, it’s still set on a ranch in Montana, so I still require a novel playlist that gives me the vibe of rural small-town life in the prairie, without actually having to listen to country music. While I have enormous respect for the likes of Reba McIntyre, Garth Brooks and the incomparable Dolly Parton, as a general rule I am an indie-rock girl, and don’t go in for the slow ballads or chirpy upbeat tempos of country tunes.
It wasn’t for lack of trying on my mom’s behalf.
She REALLY loves country music.
I could hop on board with Jolene, Elvis’ early hits, and some Kenny Rogers (if you don’t think The Gambler is one of the best songs of all times, there’s something wrong with you). I was less enamored by Suzanne Prentice and Tammy Wynette. Every time D-I-V-O-R-C-E played on the car’s tape-deck, I wanted to throw myself from the moving vehicle and offer to walk the two hours home. My Dad was even worse. He owned one album. And I mean that literally. A vinyl of Glen Campbell. I can’t conceive that a man who considered Wichita Linesman the apex of musical composition ever foresaw that he’d have one teenage daughter blasting Everclear, while the other imported Bone Thugs N Harmony merch from the States.
And do not get me started on the bro-country that my husband loves.
I find little to respect in lyrics that celebrate getting drunk and cheating on your girlfriend, then wondering why she’s kicked your so-called God-and-country-lovin’ heart to the curb. Also, according to Spud, adding a bunch of bro-country tunes on your YouTube playlist, then watching videos of people doing up cars, is AI-alogorithm for “must be a Republican.” He endures endless streams of extreme right-wing political advertising. It’s a type of bias that would make me want to throw my laptop out a window, which would be problematic in no small part because I prefer not to pay Apple extraneous sums of money to replace my defenestrated tech. Luckily, my husband has a gentler temperament than me, and just finds the advertising amusing: “Ha! These guys just wasted another grand advertising to me! Suckers!”
Then I discovered Alt Indie/Country/Folk
I’m not a muse-o, any more than I am a wine-o… No, wait, that’s someone who drinks a lot. Yeah, I’m a wine-o, but I’m not a wine connoisseur. I can’t tell if a wine is oaky or fruity or if it has great legs or whether or not legs are a good or bad thing. I can only tell you if I like the taste or not (if it’s a New Zealand sauv, I don’t care how many awards it’s won, there’s a pretty good chance I’ll think it tastes like vinegar). Likewise, I can’t wax lyrical about the fusion of acoustic guitar and intimate lyrics or whatever it is that makes Alt Indie/Country/Folk that particular blend of genre-mashing. What I can say, is that when I hear these songs, my characters and scenes come alive in my mind.
And, best of all, I don’t want to violently throw myself from moving vehicles.
Here are the current top 20 songs on my playlist for The Guardians:
- The Lake by Typhoon
- Last War by Haley Bonar (AKA Haley McCallum)
- Welcome to the Endgame by Typhoon
- With Me All Along by Bronze Radio Return
- Lake Michigan by Rogue Wave
- Crooked Teeth by Zach Bryan
- Prosthetic Love by Typhoon1
- Midnight on the Interstate by Trampled by Turtles
- Give It Up by Haley Bonar2
- Lost in My Mind by The Head and the Heart
- We Sink by Of Monsters and Men
- Let Down by Paris Jackson3
- Highway 16 by Haley Bonar
- And It’s Still Alright by Nathaniel Rateliff
- Can’t Get It Right by Mathew Perryman Jones
- All the Debts I Owe by Caamp
- The Burnin’ by Nik Ammar
- The Kitchen by Tow’rs
- Harder to Lie by David Ramirez
- Talk to You by Gabe Lee