The meteoric rise of 'alt-country' music

Alt-country, sometimes known as 'Americana,' is perhaps one of the fastest-growing sub-genres of the country music scene.

Geoff Bell manages artists such as Graham Connors, Catherine Britt and Andrew Swift and first attended the country music festival as a fan back in the very early 1980s, has been attending the festival as an industry representative since the 90s and has only missed the festival during the COVID-19 years.

When it comes to alt-country, Geoff says it's a relatively broad category of music and perhaps cannot be pinned down with a definitive designation. Still, one certain thing is that it's increasing in popularity at a rapid rate.

"It's a hard one to nail down exactly what it is," Mr Bell said.

"If you have a look at Americana in the Park which is a concept that we came up with years ago, and to the credit of guys at the council like Barry Harley and his crew they saw that this genre was growing.

At the 52nd Toyota Country Music Festival, 'Americana in the Park' on Monday, January 22, was a showcase of the very best the genre has to offer, with some of the best Americana artists taking to the stage, including The Pleasures, Kristy Cox, Jen Mize and The Rough N'Tumble and The Cartwheels. The night was hosted by Melody Moko.

The Golden Guitar Awards, which are the Australian Country Music industry's version of the Academy of Country Music Awards in the U.S, are held in January every year and have only been recognising alt-country as an awards category since 2023, when Camille and Stuie took home the Alternative Country Album of the Year with 'Big Days & Little Years'.

"The sub-genre in the states is absolutely massive," Mr Bell said.

"Artists like Steve Earle, Emmylou Harris, and Levon Helm would be recognised as alt-country or Americana."

"In Australia, you would be looking at Kasey Chambers, Catherine Britt and Lachlan Bryan's new side project 'The Pleasures,' also Christy Cox, Australia's queen of bluegrass."

Mr Bell said he has noticed over the past few years that people who may otherwise not admit to being a fan of country music might not only show some appreciation of the alt-country scene, but will actively travel to festivals and music events such as Tamworth.

"They'll never admit that they like country music. They'll just they will go to their graves saying, no, I don't like country, right?

"But it's interesting because that's essentially what Americana is, Barry, to his credit, saw it back then and I've always argued for it, and now we are seeing this trend of folks coming from the city to see the artists perform which is fantastic."