I put this one together a few years ago intending to cover the time of Uncle Tupelo to what was at that time the present, late 2000. Hence the imaginative title ...
A Decade of Alt-Country
1. Uncle Tupelo - New Madrid from Anodyne
2. Lucinda Williams - Side of the Road (live) from Lucinda Williams (1998 Koch reissue)
3. Son Volt - Ten Second News from Trace
4. Giant Sand - Wonder from Ramp
5. The Geraldine Fibbers - A Song About Walls from Lost Somewhere Between the Earth and My Home
6. Old 97's - Time Bomb from Too Far To Care
7. Sixteen Horsepower - Dead Run from Low Estate
8. Ryan Adams - Come Pick Me Up from Heartbreaker
9. Johnny Cash - Why Me Lord from American Recordings
10. Silver Jews - The Wild Kindness from American Water
11. Wilco - Pick Up The Change from A.M.
12. Gillian Welch - Annabelle from Revival
13. Blue Rodeo - Hasn't Hit Me Yet from Five Days In July
14. The Handsome Family - So Much Wine from In The Air
15. Califone - St. Martha Let It Fold from Califone EP (Road Cone)
16. Richard Buckner - Six Years from Bloomed (1999 Rykodisc reissue)
17. Whiskeytown - A Song For You from Return of the Grievous Angel / a tribute to Gram Parsons
18. Kim Richey - Those Words We Said from Kim Richey
19. The Jayhawks - Real Light from Tomorrow the Green Grass
20. Steve Earle - More Than I Can Do from I Feel Alright
January 2001. This one has seen fairly wide distribution (well over 25 copies now) with a mostly favorable reaction. It is a collection of songs that cover the new "No Depression" era of alternative country in the 90s, the beginning of which is often attributed to the Uncle Tupelo debut album of the same name which in turn was named for the old Carter Family song. I used the All Music Guide (AMG) and other sources to develop a long list of key artists and albums so as to define the scope of the comp and then compiled it from my favorites I had on CD as well as songs contributed by a few others. Musically it moves from the sweet folk sound of Gillian Welch all the way to the scary hellfire and damnation of Sixteen Horsepower and from the lush orchestration of Blue Rodeo to the noisy guitar walls of the Geraldine Fibbers with a wide range of other styles covered including the more familiar Hank Williams influenced country pop. There is even a Gram Parsons cover by Whiskeytown to give it some roots along with elder statesman Johnny Cash covering a Kris Kristofferson song from the first of his American Recordings albums.