Though The 6ths are a side-project for Stephin Merritt of The Magnetic Fields, the 1995 debut is just as engaging as his other work

On their fourth record Fight Songs, the Old 97s refined their alternative country rock sound with a cleaner, genre-hopping sound

Layered vocal harmonies, sparse arrangements, and subtle genre-mixing entrance the listener on Ida's 2000 album Will You Find Me

In the 90s Neil Young sounded reinvigorated revisiting his past while finding collaborators in the exploding alternative rock scene

With his 1994 sophomore solo album Whiskey For The Holy Ghost, Mark Lanegan matured as a songwriter with his take on folk and blues

The Walkabouts 1993 album Satisfied Mind collects a wide variety of artists for folk, country, and Americana covers for a timeless album

The 1999 album Bareback by Hank Dogs is a traditional English folk album, simultaneously behind and ahead of the times

American Music Club fully explore the studio and the darkness, finding latenight allure in both on their timeless 1991 album Everclear

On his 1997 sophomore solo album The Lateness Of The Hour, Eric Matthews' orchestral pop mastery is in full bloom

On the 1998 album Since, Richard Buckner crafts an album that manages to sound grounded in tradition but timeless in execution

What is alternative country an alternative to? Country? Rock?

Twenty years since being released, we revisit the 1995 debut of Jay Farrar's post-Uncle Tupelo band Son Volt

Steeped in the alt-country that rose to prominence with bands like Uncle Tupelo and The Jayhawks, we check out Faithless by Whiskeytown

Written and recorded after the departure of co-founding lead singer and songwriter Mark Olsen, it rests on the shoulders of Gary Louris.

The varied styles of Uncle Tupelo's co-lead singers/songwriters Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar helped define Alt-Country and create a classic