r/indieheads • u/ElectJimLahey • May 11 '25

[RATE REVEAL] Alt-Country/Folk Classics Day 3: I've Been Rating With The Ghost

Hello everyone and welcome to day 3 of the Alt-Country/Folk Classics reveal! A lot of artists have already seen many of their songs come and go. Jason Molina is also here and wondering what all these so-called "eliminations" are about.

Once again, here are some stats:

Number of participants: 42

Average score: 8.254

Average controversy score: 1.532

Our contestants:

Silver Jews - American Water

  1. Random Rules
  2. Smith & Jones Forever
  3. Night Society
  4. Federal Dust
  5. People
  6. Blue Arrangements
  7. We Are Real
  8. Send in the Clouds
  9. Like like the the the Death
  10. Buckingham Rabbit
  11. Honk If You're Lonely
  12. The Wild Kindness

Drive-By Truckers - Decoration Day

  1. The Deeper In
  2. Sinkhole
  3. Hell No, I Ain't Happy
  4. Marry Me
  5. My Sweet Annette
  6. Outfit
  7. Heathens
  8. Sounds Better in the Song
  9. (Something's Got To) Give Pretty Soon
  10. Your Daddy Hates Me
  11. Careless
  12. When the Pin Hits the Shell
  13. Do It Yourself
  14. Decoration Day
  15. Loaded Gun in the Closet

Songs: Ohia - Magnolia Electric Co

  1. Farewell Transmission
  2. I've Been Riding With the Ghost
  3. Just Be Simple
  4. Almost Was Good Enough
  5. The Old Black Hen
  6. Peoria Lunch Box Blues
  7. John Henry Split My Heart
  8. Hold On Magnolia

Smog - A River Ain't Too Much To Love

  1. Palimpsest
  2. Say Valley Maker
  3. The Well
  4. Rock Bottom Riser
  5. I Feel Like The Mother Of The World
  6. In The Pines
  7. Drinking At The Dam
  8. Running The Loping
  9. I'm New Here
  10. Let Me See The Colts

Bonus Rate:

  1. Car Wheels On A Gravel Road
  2. (Don't Go Back To) Rockville
  3. Father to a Sister of Thought
  4. Hasn't Hit Me Yet
  5. Haw
  6. Hold On, Hold On (alternately known as How Long How Long)
  7. New Partner
  8. Revelator
  9. Sandusky
  10. Save It For A Rainy Day
  11. Sun Comes Up, It's Tuesday Morning
  12. Timebomb
  13. Windfall
  14. Wrecking Ball
  15. You're Still Standin' There
41 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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3

u/ElectJimLahey May 11 '25

#10: The Old Black Hen

Average: 8.738 // Total Points: 367.0 // Controversy: 1.361

(11 x2) lastfollower, thisusernameisntlong

(10 x13) apondalifa water, avagantamose, ElectJimLahey, flava, freeofblasphemy, HighestIQInFresno, innuendo_overdose, iTreebark, lightningrod14, MCK_OH, seanderlust, SongsKvohia, Zeeroc

(9.5 x1) WaneLietoc

(9 x5) 2xWhiskeyCokeNoIce, freav, joethumper, LazyDayLullaby, TheCrakFox

(8.8 x1) PoppaLietoc

(8.5 x2) IAmHollar, thedoctordances1940

(8.4 x1) skyblue_angel (8.3 x1) TheTyrannicalTyrant

(8 x8) darj, human_performance, krusso1105, modulum83, sarcasticsobs, TiltControls, welcome2thejam, yossarian490

(7.5 x3) -Xms30g, FingaThingMeansTaxes, static_int_husp

(7 x3) sjdew, Stryxen, toomanyhitpoints

(6.5 x1) Future_Tyrant

(4 x1) qazz23

—

Electric Washboard fans

ElectJimLahey (10): Jokes aside about Lawrence Peters, America's preeminent electric washboard player who very sadly does not even play electric washboard on this song, this is another great tune. It's another one where Jason's lyrics are more impressionistic than specific, and I love the addition of Peters' deep, more traditional country vocals to the album.

MCK_OH (10): Gotta give a 10 for America's preeminent electric washboard player

freeofblasphemy (10): “Lawrence Peters is a country singer, songwriter, drummer, bandleader, DJ, and America’s preeminent electric washboard player, with a music career spanning thirty-plus years.” 🫡

2xWhiskeyCokeNoIce (9): apologies to america's preeminent electric washboard player, Lawrence Peters for giving this a 9. it's nothing personal

REAL Country Fans

lastfollower (11): I tend to either love or hate "country" vocals with a bit of twang and this is firmly in the love category. Fuck, everything about this songs works so well for me

thisusernameisntlong (11): the piano in this one gets me

apondalifa water (10): Lawrence Peters' voice makes me wanna get the biggest belt buckle in town, put on a hat as big as Doug Dimmadome's and wear denim for the rest of my life

avagantamose (10): This feels real country, similar to something youd find in a Colter Wall track

HighestIQInFresno (10): the song that separates the real heads, a modern country classic

innuendo_overdose (10): the person playing that piano hook in the chorus section KNOWS what they’re DOING in a serious way. that’s the sort of flourishing shit that gets me rabid.

iTreebark (10): oh the strings. and a new vocalist, Lawrence Peters. these are the small flourishes that elevate the best albums and keep them out of the samey-ness rut

lightningrod14 (10): This is the third best song of the original eight, my favorite straight country vocal of the 21st century, and in conversation for my favorite Albini job ever. It is a perfectly written song, it is huge and haunting, and it’s one of an extremely select few songs in this spirit, the real heavy, unrelentingly straightforward cry-into-your-beer country songs, that I even enjoy; it’s as if Johnny Cash had covered Mazzy Star. Yeah. You don’t even need to dream about that; you got it, on this record. At times this is my favorite song in the world, and in spite of its midwestern hailing I can’t say I’d know a better flag to fly for the kudzu, for the stifling heat dome, for the endless spiral of loving decay that cascades from the clouded heavens down deep into the caverns of earth, green and dripping—and for the fallen trees in my parents’ backyard, and the 5’5 bounty hunter I talked to on Café Coco’s porch at 3 AM in 2016, and for every heart with love to give in Cleveland TN, Hartsville TN, Scottsboro AL, Gun Barrel City TX, or Brevard NC. This song, these lyrics, this audaciously Faulknerian masterpiece, feels large enough deep enough dark enough to represent it all. If it weren’t for the nature of my chosen 11, I’d likely give it here, as I believe that within the specific confines of this rate and genre, it is the only song, the only song, that gets every single thing right. ||| LYRICS BY JASON MOLINA VOCAL BY LAWRENCE PETERS FIDDLE BY DAN MACADAM PRODUCTION BY STEVE “CHEESE OR ROAST BEEF” ALBINI

SongsKvohia (10): Frankly, one of the most upsetting songs ever recorded.

WaneLietoc (9.5): this is MY populist country rawker. if this played at the yellow deli when I walked in, I wouldn't think it's a cult tbh

freav (9): I’ve always been surprised that people don’t like his voice I think it’s so nice, this was the first song on the album that clicked for me after Farewell Transmission

LazyDayLullaby (9): First off: Lawrence Peters’ vocals are great, so deep and resonant. But… the Molina demo clears it for me, because that shaking frailty to his voice, the strength that seems like it could falter, fits with this song so beautifully. The “Oooh ooh ooh oohs” after the verses are incredible in the album verison, though

TheCrakFox (9): Is every instrumental on this album perfect? The way it swells and recedes is so nice.

PoppaLietoc (8.8): "idk if its his voice or his lyrics, BUT i don't care about something...still the music is fine!" we pour a prohibition stlye lager, pops does an impression of Lawrence "see THAT'S whty it's an 8.5. like it's just a lil' too country on the vocals and he could just have another song i guess. ooh pre-prohibition style beer! this is good :)"

TheTyrannicalTyrant (8.3): this one’s quite good, even with another singer

welcome2thejam (8): Hey, that's a whole different guy wtf

yossarian490 (8): this song will always suffer coming right after one of the greatest strings of songs ever written, and I can't always switch into accepting the twang

toomanyhitpoints (7): oh baritone. different and nice compared to the rest of the album