Feel Bad For You - January 2011

For over two decades I've really grown to enjoy Americana music. I hate the label hung on the genre by labels, media, retailers, or whoever came up with it. 'Americana' does nothing to describe the type of music, and folks are generally biased to think the genre is limited to artists/bands from the U.S. or even the North American continent.

For years, I felt like I may have been one of only a handful of people who enjoyed many of the singers and band included in the sidebar of this blog. In the big scheme of all-things music, I probably do represent only a handful of folks interested in it.

While the genre is virtually impossible to describe with a single adjective, folks who enjoy it get it. Marketing for many of the bands is done through constant touring in places with nominal ticket prices or cover charges, ReverbNation sites, Twitter accounts, support for bootleg trading, and word-of-mouth endorsements.

My exposure to new Americana music has been widened through on-line sites like Pandora.com, message boards, and list-serv subscriptions. But the last two to three years, my learning curve has taken another sharp turn upward by meeting several great folks and new friends through various blogs and Twitter.

A year ago, Matt from A Truer Sound invited many other bloggers and me to submit our top 2o Americana releases from 2009. He tallied the submissions, ranked them, and published the consensus as The Bird List. I was flattered to be requested to submit my choices.

In a parallel blogging universe, Rockstar_Aimz has diligently blogged compilations of Americana tracks titled Feel Bad For You for months. Each compilation was built around a loose theme and based on submissions from posters to an on-line Canadian music forum.

As the number of contributors has waned, Matt has stepped forward again. Beginning this month, a new blog site is now live to make Feel Bad For You available to you. This month's theme represents a pseudo-best of 2010 - top songs of the year or tracks from top releases. Again, its pretty cool because I've been asked to submit my choice for this month (Twang Town Blues by Jason & The Scorchers) and in the months to come.

If you want to sample some new music, these compilations will be a great way to start. Will the songs included meet your definition of Americana? I don't know and frankly don't care. I've already said the one-word adjective is too restrictive. But I am here to say these songs are really top-shelf, and the contributors are to be applauded for their choices.

Download the Feel Bad for 2010 compilation (MP3's here), or simply play it below:



TMC