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Hightone Highlights
From the early days of roots revival to the sounds shaping the genre now, this is essential listening.
Bluegrass Edition
Bluegrass is the perfect example of Americana fusion music. In the late 1940s, pioneers such as Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs fused old-time country music with jazz, blues and other influences, while playing with an often breathtaking level of instrumental virtuosity. The modern-era songs on this playlist show how bluegrass continued to push forward, with guitarist Tony Rice covering Gordon Lightfoot’s “Cold on the Shoulder,” the Steeldrivers’ soulful “If It Hadn’t Been For Love,” and Alison Krauss’s hit “Every Time You Say Goodbye.”
Blues Edition
The symbiotic relationship between country music and the blues is as old as Jimmie Rodgers, “The Father of Country Music,” who famously recorded many blues songs, and who featured trumpeter Louis Armstrong on his “Blue Yodel #9.” This playlist includes Little Milton covering Charlie Rich’s “Behind Closed Doors,” a Cajun fiddle romp by Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Irma Thomas singing Eleni Mandell’s “Another Lonely Heart,” and blues songster Pink Anderson interpreting Rodgers’ own “In the Jailhouse Now.”
Country Edition
When the word “Americana” was first use to describe the intertwining branches of American roots music, country music was at its core. Americana pioneers such Willie Nelson, Gram Parsons, and Emmylou Harris fused their country roots with rock and other styles, virtually defining the genre. This playlist explores the many sides of country-based Americana, tapping bluegrass, rockabilly, old-time music, jazz, and Western swing on tracks by Jerry Lee Lewis, Rosie Flores, Dolly Parton, Buddy Miller, and many more.
Folk Edition
Folk singer-songwriters represent a deep vein of Americana music, exemplified by the story songs of country stars Loretta Lynn and Hank Williams, by the socially-aware folk tradition of Woody Guthrie and Bob Dylan, and by the wide-ranging work of writers such as Dave Alvin, John Hartford, and Hazel Dickens. This playlist includes many of the most iconic folk artists and singer-songwriters of the past fifty years, performing their own songs (Nanci Griffith’s “Love at the Five and Dime”) or interpreting songs from an earlier era (Odetta’s version of Lead Belly’s “Midnight Special”).