I want to talk about a particular music-related collectomania of mine.  Well actually it’s such a deep and narrow subgenre of music that it’s hard to even call myself a collector, seein’ as how I can pretty much count these albums on one hand!  Okay.  I don’t know of a good term for this music so I just refer to it as "ambient country".  Which is a horrible term I admit, but it’s the best I could do.  This music, it’s kinda like Brian Eno but with guitars.  It has to be instrumental, and it must be sparsely arranged.  It should evoke rattlesnakes and desert landscapes that drone on and on.  It should incorporate touches of slide guitar, steel guitar or maybe both.  So anyway here’s my very short list of albums I love that more or less fall into the category I’m describing.  If you can think of other albums along the same lines, post a comment!

  • Ry Cooder Paris Texas soundtrack (the granddaddy of ‘em all!)
  • Loren Mazzacane-Connors In Pittsburgh (Rian Murphy turned me on to this back in ‘96 when we were recording my first album)
  • A Small Good Thing Slim Westerns (which I discovered back in the glory days of Napster)
  • World Standard Country Gazette (same thing)
  • Bruce Kaphan Slider (which John W. turned me on to)
  • Bill Frisell Ghost Town (an Eric Z. turnon)

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