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Making Our Own Music: Punk Rock and Alternative Country

I've been fascinated lately listening to old Hank Williams, Carter Family, Johnny Cash and even Merle Haggard tunes. I didn't quite know what to make of it. Even though I haven't lived there for a long time now, I'd been "raised" on "classic" Austin punk rock. I still cherish my copy of the Dick's first vinyl single.

Then there other day it hit me: the 3-chord styles of punk rock and pre-1980's country are not so different; the stylistic simplicity and the "Do It Yourself / you don't have to be an expert to have fun" attitude is much the same; the raw sound and unpolished production values are shared.

But most of all its anti-establishment philosophy. When all is said and done, it all goes back to Woody Guthrie. Remember the last 3 stanzas of "This Land is Your Land"?...

'As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me.'

That's what I'm talking about.

What do the Minutemen and Uncle Tupelo have in common?

The Minutemen were one of the pioneers of punk rock, storming out of San Pedro, CA in 1980. Their first 7" EP, Paranoid Time was produced by Greg Ginn of Black Flag. On one of the most enduring and innovative albums of the period, Double Nickels on the Dime, they included songs co-written with other musicians, including Henry Rollins, then the lead singer for Black Flag.

Uncle Tupelo, out of Bellville, IL, pioneered a sound in the late 80s and early 90s that came to be known as alternative country. Their first album, No Depression, recorded in Boston in 1990, was particularly influential. Within two years they were working with artists like R.E.M. and Doug Sahm on collaborative efforts, before breaking up over creative and personal differences.

Uncle Tupelo were influenced by the Minutemen as well as by the great punk legends like the Sex Pistols and the Ramones, but also by artists like Gram Parsons, Credence Clearwater Revival, Leadbelly and The Carter Family. In a 2003 interview, Mike Heidorn traces their roots all the way back to Woodie Guthrie and to the Flying Burrito Brothers.

What punk rockers like The Minutemen and alt-country genre-breakers like Uncle Tupelo have in common is a desire and a willingness to break away from reflexive conditions, to reject the constraints imposed on them by the commercialized music industry. They developed something new and fun that didn't rely on either pre-conceived notions or the "rules of the road", while at the same time drawing on the rich musical traditions of ground-breakers who preceded them.

Black Flag and an Austin State of Mind

Nowadays, there's practically an academic industry in studying the phenomenon of alternative country and its roots in the punk rock of the 70's and 80's. The meme is often captured in references to Black Flag, that seminal punk band who always refused to fit neatly into any genre. With Black Flag founder Greg Ginn and his Taylor Texas Corrugators now putting out a jazz, rock, country, blues, latin and psychedlic mix, the movement from hard-cord punk to alternative country can almost be told as his personal story.

Austin, TX also provides a scene that exemplifies the punk-country marriage. In the 70's Austin's punk scene produced legendary grassroots punk rock groups like The Dicks, the Huns, MDC (Millions of Dead Cops), the Butthole Surfers and the Big Boys. Then in the 90's and 2000's, Austin became home to the Bad Livers, the Meat Purveyours and Split Lip Rayfield, bands that captured the same very real feelings of anger, resentment, sadness, alienation and the struggle of contending with modern life, but used humor to critique economic oppression rather than the confrontational style of songs like those on, say, The Dicks's first album, The Dicks Hate the Police.

Make Our Own Music

There's a genuine working-class attitude at work in this whole stream of music that cuts against the reified over-baked versions of rock and country typically promoted on television and by the big music industry mavens.

When people make music just for the love of it, to celebrate, mourn and laugh about our real struggles, then that music belongs to the people and no one can take it away from us.

You can't vote it in or vote it out. It's not about winning a lucrative contract in some contest.

In various times, in all sorts of ways -- and against all the odds -- it simply endures.