By all rights, when a critical assessment of this musical decade is made, the influence of country on its more popular cousin, rock, will have to be reckoned with. Sure, country- rock rambled about long before the '90s first messed its pants, and certainly the Eagles enjoyed more fame and amassed a greater fortune than any of their '90s counterparts.

However, the vigor and sincerity with which this decade's cowpoke rockers mined rock's agrarian roots have paved a larger and more permanent inroad on our cultural landscape than any of country rock's forebears managed. But while innovators like Uncle Tupelo and the Jayhawks left their mark, the small movement they spawned would always remain a half length from monumental greatness, hamstrung by its incessant and narrow gaze toward the past. These days, there are still plenty of alt-country albums at your local record store, but the great ones are few and far between. Most content themselves with a comfortable pleasantness, for reasons presented as if for study on Freakwater's latest release, .