Insurgent country. Â Twenty years ago, when Nan Warshaw, Rob Miller, and Eric Babcock founded Bloodshot Records in a spare bedroom to promote the copulation of country and punk music, they chose that name over alternative country or Americana. Â While their choice of nomenclature didn’t have the lasting impact of the other two, it’s a microcosm of how Bloodshot approaches the music business, trusting their own judgement over the direction of the crowd.
1993 Chicago was the palace of Smashing Pumpkins, Urge Overkill, and Liz Phair, along with super-producer Steve Albini. Â But while everyone else was speculating on how Chicago had taken over the alternative crown from Seattle’s grunge scene, Bloodshot focused on a small group of local/regional bands smitten by the raw edge of punk, but with country roots. Â Chief among those was a St. Louis band, the Bottle Rockets.
To celebrate the beginning of their third decade the folks at Bloodshot decided instead of putting out a compilation of some of their favorite recordings they’d take some of the friends of the label, and have them cover some of the Bloodshot artists. The result is more of a love letter to Bloodshot than a retrospective.  Having said that, it also does a killer job of highlighting why the label, and the genre, have such staying power.
There’s a huge variety of music on the 20 Years disc. Â Like most covers though, you’d probably have to break things into new interpretations and true-to-the-original performances. Â In the latter category I had a weak spot for The Handsome Family doing Bottle Rockets 1000 Dollar Car. Â Mike Watt & the Missingmen do a superlative job of keeping the Jon Langford & the Sadies vibe, but upping it a notch by throwing in some Alejandro Escovado (another early Bloodshot artist) vocal phrasing on Up To My Neck In This. Â And kudos to Into It Over It for managing to evoke an immediate recognition of Neko Case without ever sounding like her on Deep Red Bells.
It’s the new interpretations that really turn your head on this 2-disc, 3 vinyl platter album, though. Â Although I suppose I’d say I was already a Ryan Adams fan, I gained a new appreciation for some of his material here. Â Blitzen Trapper does a version of Adam’s To Be Young (Is To Be Sad, Is To Be High) that crawls out of your speakers the same way your first 60’s Dylan folk anthem did. Â Nicki Bluhm & the Gramblers add some French horn and turn Oh My Sweet Carolina into an absolutely lovely ballad. Similarly, Samantha Crain adds some soul searching to Ha Ha Tonka’s Cold Forgiven that I certainly never got out of the original. Â Kevin Russell turns his falsetto-and-ukelele solo style into a transformation of Twangville favorite Lydia Loveless’ rocking All the Time.
There’s a ton of other good performances on this disc. Â Buy it and listen to a bunch of great tunes, or dig deeper and gain an appreciation for the rampant talent that’s crossed the Bloodshot transom. Â Either way, you’ll like While No One Was Looking.
About the author: I've actually driven from Tehatchapee to Tonopah. And I've seen Dallas from a DC-9 at night.