Been curious about the whatever it's really called world of alt country, or roots rock and all that? The comments section on this post over at Matt Welch's has turned into an excellent resource.

When I get me some more scrills, I'll be doing a little catching up.

Also, for what it's worth, I downloaded (!) and listened to a few mp3 of My Morning Jacket. Matt notes their reverb addiction. I actually found it hugely annoying. I'm not sure what the point of it is. If it's trying to create a sense of atmosphere and space, I think it's failing. It feels more like an attempt to compensate for somebody's insufficiency, that of one or more performers (the singer?), or the engineers, producer...studio owner's wife's cooking? It's an old, bad trick: soak anything in reverb and it sounds better!

Which, in my opinion, can have the opposite effect of blurring an otherwise good performance. It can make honest music sound, well, kind of dishonest...like you're trying to hide something.

I also think the guy's voice is a just a bit too strained and whiney sounding...reminds me a bit of a fair amount of indie rock back in the day when it was still called College Rock (think late 80s, when everyone wanted to sound like REM, a band that is actually painful for me to listen to).

Anyway, not that you asked. As universal cosmic compensation for my meanness, I'll be buying some of the records mentioned in that thread. Thanks all you guys over there for the education.

Now release the damn album and show 'em all how it's done...and how to use reverb properly!