Right then, The Alt-Country Middleweights! A blazing pronouncement of intent. How many millions of google searches must there be each day under the term "alt-country middleweights". And what the fuck am I talking about?
I'll tell you. I'll tell you the one and only time I've seen this wonderful expression used and how it's become, for me, a definitive descriptive term.
It was in Q magazine (or maybe Uncut, sheeete) and it was the little tag line at the top of a little review of the 2006 Josh Rouse album 'Subtitulo' - his 6th full length solo album - and I'm pretty certain it said something like "Another solid effort by persevering alt-country middleweight" before awarding said album 3 stars. Solid, consistent, skilled, all together middleweight, that's Josh Rouse and his Josh Rouse albums. A view, I think, shared by Mr Josh Rouse himself, it seems ... one of the two times I saw him live, he said "Friday night in London, and here you are, at a Josh Rouse concert" in evident bemusement that anyone should be paying good money to see him sing his little songs when they ought to be painting the city red at the weekend.
And yet I happen to think Josh Rouse is one of the greatest songwriters on God's earth, and that his run of albums from 'Under Cold Blue Stars' through '1972' and 'Nashville' to 'Subtitulo' (in particular the middle two) is perhaps the most consistent streak of elegant and heart-tugging songcraft of this century.
But that does not necessarily mean that the description of him as a middleweight, however it was meant, is entirely unfair. He's probably not sold 100,000 records in his life. He IS a middleweight, if that. Maybe more of a welter. He doesn't aim to fill out stadiums, he doesn't bring regimes crashing down, he's no Muse, or U2, or even Arcade Fire. He's no heavyweight. Equally, these are lovely songs with pop melodies, he's not wilfully obscure, not anti-pop or anti-folk or post-rock or punk or lo-fi or anything like that. Nor is he a fragile desperado, no Elliott Smith or Daniel Johnston. He's no bantamweight.
His album '1972' pays tribute to the MOR glory of the early 70s, Carole King, James Taylor etc. He's "middle" in that sense too. His music's not going to scare anybody. But actual MOR got massive, got heavyweight. And generally, got a bit shit.
The alt-county middleweights, the Marvin Haglers and Sergio Martinezes of the music world, who stayed just where they were, knew their natural weight and didn't try to bulk up and take on the Klitschkos, those are the music stars who float my little boat. Yes, that was a boxing reference, and, like Mark Kozelek (alt-country middleweight of some renown), I'm going to stay on the boxing theme for a short while.
The heavyweight division is no longer where it's at and hasn't been for some time. Dull and lifeless, full of bloated flabbies (though perhaps slowly on its way back). The real action is in the middle divisions - the four kings of the 80s were Hearns, Hagler, Leonard and Duran and since then we've had the like of Toney, McCallum, Jones, Benn, Eubank, Martinez, Hopkins, even Mayweather and Pacquiao at light-middleweight and the likes of Calzaghe and Froch at super-middle.
This is where the really great fights featuring the best athletes happen. And what happens if they bulk up and try to take on the big guns, like Jones and Toney - generally undignified disaster strikes. Lean, taut and savvy, middleweight and proud.
Of course, one can only take the boxing analogy so far. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with grandeur in music, or in really good little bands getting really, surprisingly, successful. In fact it's rather super. The Decemberists, for example, are no longer alt-country middleweights. They've had a Number 1 album in the States. Nor is Ryan Adams. He was always aiming for the stars, however much he might try to deny it (indeed, one might say he's a little of a Roy Jones - he bulked up to take on the big guns, it didn't work out, he tried to slim down again, and was never quite the same). Or Wilco, or The National, or Bright Eyes, or Fleet Foxes. Those are the alt-rock heavyweights, and they're superduper too.
But here's a little playlist of alt-country middleweights - song-crafters, all. Really, for certain people like me, this uninspiring band of also-rans who've probably not sold 1 million records between them are better and more important not just than Elvis Presley and U2, but also than Mozart and Shakespeare and Picasso and Kubrick and Virgil, and, shucks, even Dan Brown.
All hail the alt-country middleweights
Josh Rouse - Slaveship
The Jayhawks - Blue
The Pernice Brothers - Bryte Side
Midlake - Van Occupanther
Lucinda Williams - Blue
Lambchop - Up With People
Josh Ritter - Kathleen
Iron and Wine - Flightless Bird, American Mouth
Ron Sexsmith - Not About to Lose
Brendan Benson - The Alternative to Love
* I realise I haven't written anything about the "alt-country" side of the phrase ... well, if you don't know about that ... well, I suppose Alt-country has a resaonably broad description of American guitar music of the last 25 years which is not, as such, urban. They say it started with Uncle Tupelo, or maybe Gram Parsons, and it's a lot better than, and sells a fraction of the amount of, mainstream country. It is what grown-up British music fans love.
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