Various Acts - 'Rough Trade Shops: Country 1' (Mute)
4/5
By: Toby L
It's an amusing transcendence of genres - country into indie. Yet, if Rough Trade have taught us anything at all over the years - whether via the label, management, live-events, or, in this case, the formerly tied Shops division - it's that the dispensing of initial reservations will lead to a far more satisfying musical-conquest.
As the team behind 'Country 1' attest amid the inlay: 'Before some of you start going on that this is not quite your standard Country compilation... it had better be pointed out that at least 15 of the tracks here have fiddles/violins and the pedal-steel, and banjo count is pretty high too. The fact that on these two discs you'll also find damaged blues, screaming rockabilly punk, trad folk, a Snoop Dogg song and Camper Van Beethoven is just down to us being difficult bastards.'
So, there you have it - a wry brushstroke of the 40 present tracks. From a listener's perspective, it falls similarly in line - notably via the presence of a mournful, tear-jerking Broken Family Band ('Devil In The Details'), fiery panache of The Replacements' 'Take Me Down To The Hospital' and more traditional western spacing of Lucinda Williams with her reflective 'The Night's Too Long'. It's a broad mix.
And if it weren't inundated with such off-the-wall dart-abouts in content, it could prove just sheer depressing. As such, however, Rough Trade have taken the genre to its crux by incorporating not just the standard legends (Willie Nelson duets on a closing highlight, 'Can I Sleep In Your Arms?', alongside Carla Bozulich), but the farthest off-the-wall merchants the niche can profess to associating to - especially the Violent Femmes with their token, wittily enjoyable 'Country Death Song'.
Spliced with modern-cults making key appearances - the Mexicana-rock dashing of Calexico; ever-whimsical American Music Club of the 80s - this is not so much a collection for the discerning music-buff as a sheer education, as introductory as it is pleasing - and perhaps the faithful companion to a long drive in the sweaty, tempestuous summers ahead, or vital aid to the long, lonely wintry eves.
Artists in this article: Various Acts
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