Freakwater: Springtime

Here's a perfect example of why the "alt.country" tag simply doesn't work: The convenient label that usually conjures up images of faux-redneck Uncle Tupelo worshippers also lands by default on bands like Freakwater, which, despite the presence of former Wilco multi-instrumentalist Max Johnston, finds nothing too alternative about country music. Instead, Freakwater's version of country is still stuck in the 1920s, in some Okie saloon or Appalachian roadhouse. On the band's fifth album, Springtime, the wails and warbles of Janet Beveridge Bean and Catherine Ann Irwin lay into the songs' rich instrumental textures, evoking the kind of back-porch struggles between sin and salvation that used to be found in the music of country and folk pioneers like The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers. There's a sense of desperation left naked here that has largely disappeared from contemporary recordings: A gentle dobro pulls "Binding Twine" along in a state of profound melancholy, while Bean sings, "Would you bind my memories in twine / Would you drive with me over the state line" Elsewhere, on tunes like the devastating "Louisville Lip" and the delicate, Johnston-sung "Harlan," the band seems to jockey for a glimpse of redemption—and maybe a shot of hope—as the songs wind and creak through dark corridors. This sort of honesty can be disconcerting at first, and it demands full involvement, but the rewards are more than worth the sacrifice.