What Is Americana?

[Fabio]

Although probably a rather obvious choice, most of the tracks on Neil Young's Harvest have a very country-rock feel (excluding Words Between the Lines of Age, which does feature pedal steel but also has a lot of distorted guitar, and the two orchestrated songs, A Man Needs a Maid and There's a World).

The massive hit Heart of Gold is itself a country-rock classic but this is another good one, I think:


If you like this then also try his later album Harvest Moon (1992) which uses a lot of the same musicians and is even more country-rock in style.

This is the opening song, Unknown Legend:


Re: the Eagles, the first two albums are the most country-rock sounding, with Desperado probably being the most authentically country-rock (only the hard rocker Out Of Control has no ties to the genre) - the debut does have a lot of country-rock too but also has rockers like Witchy Woman, Chug All Night and Tryin'. On The Border and One Of These Nights have some country-rock tunes like The Best Of My Love and Lyin' Eyes, but have more electric rockers such as Already Gone, James Dean and One Of These Nights. Hotel California is not a country-rock record although New Kid In Town wouldn't have sounded totally out of place on one of their older records, whereas The Long Run is a clearly a rock album and has no country influences.

This is exactly the right thread for this question, Fabio!

I would say you have to start with the Father Of Country-Rock, Gram Parsons, in his various bands and solo:

International Submarine Band: Safe At Home
The Byrds: Sweetheart Of The Rodeo
The Flying Burrito Brothers: The Gilded Palace Of Sin
The Flying Burrito Brothers: Burrito Deluxe
Gram Parsons: GP
Gram Parsons: Grievous Angel

Then:

Dillard & Clark: The Fantastic Expedition Of Dillard & Clark
Dillard & Clark: Through The Morning, Through The Night

Michael Nesmith: The Wichita Train Whistle Sings
Michael Nesmith: Magnetic South
Michael Nesmith: Loose Salute
Michael Nesmith: And Ther Hits Just Keep On Comin'

The Dillards: Wheatstraw Suite
The Dillards: Roots And Branshes
The Dillards: Copperfields
The Dillards: Tribute To The American Duck

That's a nice start, I think.

Grazie mille Amici (Thank you very much Mates)