You’ll doubtless let a sigh of relief pass your lips, dear readers, when you hear that I am not going to tell you what a heart-wrenching difficulty this entry into “The Greatest Americana Songs of All Time” has been for me. Frankly, it has been a breeze. Partly, it’s true that as a survivor of “the Top 10 Americana Albums“, “the Top 10 Americana Albums of the 21st Century“, “Top 10 Greatest Ever Americana Artists“, and “What is this Americana Thing Anyway?” I’ve already learnt the impossibility of identifying such a list without turning it into just another banner wielder for the old guard: look, Dylan, Neil, The Byrds, Manassas, Joni, The Dead, The Long Ryders, Dream Syndicate, John Stewart, the many variations of CSN and many many (many!) more just don’t need me to tell you again that they are peerless. I know it. You know it.
However, unlike the computer in “Wargames“, I’m not going to tell you that “the only way to win is not to play“; that would be a cop out, but I may, once again, take a tip from James Tiberius Kirk and acknowledge that the only way to win is to cheat. Or, at least, repose the problem such that a non-lose solution is achievable. What I am about to do is answer the question by rewriting, or at least reimagining, the question. What is it that makes americana worthy of our attention? There are many answers to that question – but if one considers what it is that distinguishes americana from, say, country, it is the adherence to a more progressive world view. Looking back sometimes, sure, but while still looking and moving forward. There are a hundred other shades of americana: great songwriting, beautiful voices and fantastic musicianship, and these also could be perfectly good answers to the question. But, right now, right here, I’ll be going with people expressing different levels of optimism, frustration, anger or plain finger-pointing at the ridiculousness we humans seem so happy to embrace. As Jake Blues would say: “Hit It“.
Number 10: Drive-By Truckers ‘Watching The Orange Clouds‘ from “The New OK” (2020)
As a band who’ve frequently struggled to redefine a Southern attitude and set it an aim for a more progressive outlook, the Drive By Truckers are certainly no strangers to the political song, from the nuanced assessment of ‘Wallace‘ to the uselessness of ‘Thoughts and Prayers‘ in the face of another gun massacre. On “The New O.K.” this perhaps became a more constant theme, and on that album’s ‘Watching the Orange Clouds‘ there’s a chilling subtext, which relates to the outfall from armed protests by “boys too stupid to really be proud“. Whatever happened to them, eh?
Number 9: Birds of Chicago ‘SuperLover‘ from “Love in Wartime” (2018)
Before the recent explosion of Allison Russell’s solo career, and after the roots glory of Po’ Girl, there was Birds of Chicago a band who, for many, defined what Americana sounded like and was a touchstone to explain the genre to others. Splendidly multi-instrumental, and with Russell’s beauty of a voice and the strong songwriting of JT Nero their music was more gently challenging – think of songs like ‘American Flowers‘.
‘Superlover‘, at least, has the virtue of being an optimistic plea for people to cleave to their better selves. It looks at times where hard-earned rights are being eroded, and very gently points out that this is not desirable for the majority of people.
Number 8: Josh Ritter ‘The Torch Committee‘ from “Fever Breaks” (2019)
In which Ritter imagines a dystopian future for America, where a McCarthy-like secret investigative authority checks for those who are committing thought crimes against an authoritarian state which acknowledges no restraints on its ability to detain those it determines to be enemies of the state. Thank goodness it’s just an imaginary dystopian future that could never come to pass…
Josh Ritter found somewhat of a more muscular tone across the whole album “Fever Breaks“, which also contained the lament for an America that seems to be gone forever on ‘All Some Kind Of Dream‘ which grieves for a nation of immigrants that now hates immigrants – it’d be another song that could easily be sitting on this list.
Number 7: Mavis Staples ‘Change‘ from “We Get By” (2019)
Mavis Staples is no stranger to movements for change – going back for more than fifty years. As part of the Staples Singers she helped to produce the soundtrack of the Civil Rights movement, was a friend of Martin Luther King (and Dylan). She’s the embodiment of the phrase “force of nature” – a Mavis Staples gig is not something anyone would forget in a short time, there’s a majesty to her music – in the most positive sense of that phrase.
And the far more recent song ‘Change‘ is in that same Civil Rights vein. Written and produced with Ben Harper, Mavis Staples continues to forcibly ask for the American Dream to move from concept to reality, asking: “What good is freedom if we haven’t learned to be free? Day after day, year after year, gotta change around here.” And she’s correct, it’s a call to get up, stand up, stand up for your rights.
Number 6: Joe Purdy ‘Children of Privilege from “Who Will Be Next” (2016)
This was the album that saw Joe Purdy turning his back on a more combative past, and this is the song in which Joe Purdy takes umbrage with those who have power whining about those who don’t, suggesting that maybe they should have a reasonable share. It’s taken from his album “Who Will Be Next?” which includes a number of other songs that see Purdy taking a scourge to the self-entitled and the unwilling to change, as well as the prescient title song and the half-hopeful ‘Maybe We’ll All Get Along Someday‘.
Number 5: Steve Earle ‘Burnin’ It Down‘ from “The Low Highway” (2013)
Steve Earle has a long history of support to the more left-of-centre world view, including a whole album “The Revolution Starts Now” which takes a highly critical view of American foreign policy, in particular in Central and South American nations. Hmm. ‘The Gringo’s Tale‘ is worthy of Dylan, but ‘Warrior‘ might just be the finest thing that Earle has ever done, it rumbles with a burning intensity not so dissimilar to the Drive By Truckers. Nonetheless, let’s turn to the more accessible ‘Burnin’ It Down‘ from the superb “The Low Highway.”
Watching the American Dream slowly die, the standardisation of the small towns and the huge corporations driving the small businesses to the wall, Steve Earle contemplates how a suicidal act of arson might make things better… and if the Wal-Mart were to burn down. He sits and thinks about it; he knows it won’t make any difference, but he’s gotten to a desperate point.
Number 4: Mary Bue ‘How To Forgive Your Rapist’ from “MeTooMpls” (2020)
This is a song taken from an incredible compilation that deserves to be heard in full, this is just a set of incredibly powerful songs. It appeared at the height of the #MeToo movement, and gave a voice to a feminist viewpoint not so often truly expressed in American popular music. It appeared from the music scene around Minneapolis, which coincidentally is back in the spotlight gain. Mary Bue, herself, is a songwriter, retreat guide, yoga teacher and the co-founder of a yoga school based in Minneapolis.
On this song, Mary Bue respectfully declines to take responsibility for actions perpetrated by those who feel they are entitled to act however the fuck they want and don’t give a shiny shit who they hurt along the way.
Number 3: Nickel & Rose ‘Americana’ from “Americana” (2018).
Carl Nichols and Johanna Rose were a guitar and upright bass duo who, on this song, question how those “guardians of the genre” have got the job, and how they have the gall to suggest who can, and who can’t, be a true part of this musical movement. They argue it should be diverse, not constrained. I’d agree. As the genre becomes more and more mainstream, and “money becomes king“, this song just becomes more and more timely. Sadly the duo didn’t seem to build on this strong foundation and appear to have stopped performing, which takes nothing from the strength of this song.
Number 2: Jerry Joseph ‘Sugar Smacks‘ from “The Beautiful Madness” (2020)
What do I need to tell you about Jerry Joseph that we haven’t been saying for the last few years? You know the guy by now, and if you have an ounce of smarts then you’ve caught him live on one of his many visits to our shores. He’s an activist who puts the act into the name – he’s also through his many different bands and solo outings put the prolific into…prolific.
Jerry Joseph is passionate, and here, backed by The Drive-By Truckers, he’s passionately angry. With a lot of people, including himself, for bequeathing his children “a world of nasty racist monsters killing kids from Philadelphia to Halabja”. This is a song that, admittedly, flails around in all directions, bouncing, as Jerry Joseph sings, “like a rubber ball full of rage.” “The Beautiful Madness” also addresses the nonsense of revering latter-day symbols put up to honour the Confederacy of Southern slave owning States on the song ‘Dead Confederate’ which shows Joseph’s more subtle side. It’s a great song, search it out if you don’t know it, but, well, today we rage.
Number 1: Austin Lucas ‘Already Dead’ from “Alive in the Hot Zone” (2020).
“Alive in the Hot Zone” was the second to last album issued under the name Austin Lucas, she’s Abigail Lucas since 2024. Somewhat similar to Nickel & Rose the borders of the genre acceptable musician has been questioned by Lucas – back in 2022 Lucas told Holler: “Honestly, I’ve had times in my life where I was more open about my sexuality and times where I was more closed about it. I’ve gone through very distinct transitional periods. Don’t get me wrong, I think Americana is the place that you are describing by and large, but I think the landscape of the genre in the United States is not necessarily the place you’re describing. I think if you are talking about it from a European or British perspective, then you are right and there’s a lot more room for all different types of people. In the United States, it’s very different and it’s still a very cis, hetero club overall.”
‘Already Dead‘ questions whether might is, in fact, right, and whether adopting more and more policies and attitudes from the political right is actually going to make the lives of the majority of people better. The performance of this song that opened the (online) UK Americana Awards, with a glowing endorsement from Bob Harris, was a glorious moment in the awfulness of lockdowns and political shenanigans – and the song has not lost any of its strength in the intervening years. And, arguably, it’s even more relevant now than it was back then. How sad is that?
