Mixtape: Some Cowboy You Turned Out To Be
While this doesn’t really fall under the year-end banner, I’m going to place it in alongside the rest of this wrap up. It’s actually been a year since the site’s last mixtape and I think these have fallen by the wayside too long. For this one, I’m shifting focus on the mixtape series to contemporary over archival releases to wrap up some of the excellent strains of alt-country, country-folk, and dusted singer-songwriter tracks that have come out in the last few years. The creep of country into indie has had a nice push lately, bringing forth some of the most affecting and aching tracks of years past. While I’d wager to say that Cosmic Americana has had the strongest resurgence in years past, I’m making the case for alt-country as a close second. The lay lines on this sort of genre are shifty and mercurial, so feel free to disagree, but I’d wager this mix has some strong contenders in its ranks.
These songs are full of heavy hearts, failed marriages, missed connections, youthful melancholy, and maturing reflections. There’s joy, but it’s between the somber sway of pedal steel and the bittersweet twang of guitar strings. I offer this mix as a companion to solo drives as the sun dips low and endless stretches of road lie ahead, or rainy evenings on the porch alone. It’s a solitary set of songs, but that doesn’t mean that there’s no hope in its heart.
Tracklist:
1. Scott Hirsch – When You Were Old (El Dorado)
2. Teddy and the Rough Riders – Goldmine
3. Mapache – Chico River
4. Doug Paisley – Drinking With a Friend
5. Hurt Valley – Apartment Houses
6. Cut Worms – It Won’t Be Long
7. Tobacco City – Blue Raspberry
8. Psychic Ills – I Don’t Mind (feat. Hope Sandoval)
9. Erin Durant – Take a Load Off
10. Goner – Half Stack
11. State Champion – If You Don’t Show Me
12. Carlos The Second – Don’t Let Love Make a Liar Out of You (feat. Langhorne Slim)
13. Sean Thompson’s Weird Ears – Time Has Grown a Raspberry (feat. Annie Williamson)
14. Natural Child – Out In The Country
15. James Matthew VII – In a Restless World
16. New Rose – Tears Fall Down Like Diamonds
17. Joseph Childress – Leaving The Barren Ground
18. Anna St. Louis – Understand
19. Simon Joyner – Some Fathers Let The Sunset Bring Them To Their Knees