Brennen Leigh’s upcoming concept record, Prairie Love Letter, is an ode to where she grew up, offering her to-the-point storytelling on twelve songs that showcase details of the region’s dynamic landscape and its vibrant cast of characters.

It launched the careers of key artists such as Neko Case, and put out a series of albums by the Pine Valley Cosmonauts, with guest vocals by Steve Earle, Otis Clay and David Yow, that raised funds in the successful campaign to overturn the death penalty in Illinois.NEW YORK - The state line between Minnesota and North Dakota is an area not often immortalized in song-until now. When the major labels lost interest in alternative-country, Bloodshot stretched to include veteran artists such as pub rocker Graham Parker, Texas cult legend Alejandro Escovedo, soul wild man Andre Williams and Aboriginal country singer Roger Knox. But many of the Bloodshot artists had an ornery edge to them, and in a few years, the alternative-country scene became a cool and somewhat lucrative indie-rock subculture, with bands such as Son Volt, Wilco and Whiskeytown at the forefront.īloodshot never quite fit in with the emerging trend but had best-selling artists such as the Old 97's and Whiskeytown's Ryan Adams, whose 2000 solo debut 'Heartbreaker' remains the label's commercial peak as it approaches a half-million sales. Indie radio stations and record stores were generally averse to country music, as represented by Nashville-anointed acts such as Billy Ray Cyrus and Garth Brooks.

The notion behind the 'insurgent country' sound was to take some of the stigma off the 'c' word, as Miller calls it.

Robbie fulks web spotify