In 1995, Dale Watson released his debut album Cheatin’ Heart Attack as a sharp rebuke to the mainstream country establishment. With a slicked back pompadour haircut, denim trucker vest, and songs about honky-tonks and trucking, Watson blended nostalgia with strident traditionalism in critique of pop-country and alt-country hybridity. “Help me Merle/I’m breaking out in a Nashville rash” he crooned on “Nashville Rash” bemoaning country’s alloying with pop and rock, “I’m too country now for country/Just like Johnny Cash.” Watson was at the head of a traditionalist revival that grew into a full-fledged movement in the 2000s. Artists like Shooter Jennings Read more