Guitar Solo Ghosts: A 2020s Alt-Country Survey
Plus: A playlist of twangy favorites and a review of a new "indie music critic" rom-com
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Recently something obvious about myself finally became impossible to deny: Nearly all the bands I’m into lately play a similarly twangy style of all-American indie rock. And by “lately” I really mean the last couple of years. But in 2026, it feels like the pace has really picked up in terms of the supply for this kind of music. There are a lot of bands playing a twangy style of all-American indie rock right now. So many in fact there’s an emerging sub-corps of “twangy style of all-American indie rock” artists who aren’t even American.
Like Fazed On A Pony, the nom de plume of a New Zealand singer-songwriter named Paul McCall whose recent effort Swan (as I wrote last month) delivers “a selection of pedal steel-accented ballads” with a barely discernible kiwi twist. And then there’s Westside Cowboy, an English outfit from Manchester that combines blue-collar punk bravado with garage-country accents on the enjoyable scrappy EP So Much Country ’Til We Get There that I praised back in January.
But what really drove this trend home was a band from Norwich, U.K. called Brown Horse. (Notice a certain equestrian theme to these band names yet?) I first discovered this quartet upon the release of their second record, All The Right Weaknesses, in 2025, which I appreciated for its heavy application of Crazy Horse-style guitars, atmospheric fiddle drones, and chunky mid-tempo rhythms that lurched like tornadoes over the horizon. On their Bandcamp page, their stated influences are almost comically typical for a band like this: Lucinda Williams, Jason Molina, The Breeders and Silver Jews. They are, in other words, a textbook 2020s alt-country band.
Brown Horse’s third album, Total Dive, is out this month, and it doesn’t alter the formula one iota. Though it does pump up and clarify their sound — the guitars are even Crazy Horsier, and the tempos are more deliberate and stormier. I’ve been playing it regularly for weeks, and while I adore it, I also experience the same familiar tension I feel whenever I listen to bands like this now (which, as I said, is pretty much all the time).
On one hand, I think, Shouldn’t I be sick of this by now? At what point is enough enough? In Brown Horse’s case, it is a little odd for a band from a British town known for it many ancient cathedrals to be playing songs called “Twisters” and “Heart Of The Country,” like they just came out of Tulsa. On the other hand, I’ve heard enough examples of this kind of music over the course of my life to know when it’s working and when it’s not. And if you appreciate this genre, Total Dive delivers the goods.
What’s become readily apparent this year is that we’ve reached the point where the most notable alt-country artists of the 2020s — Waxahatchee, Wednesday and MJ Lenderman — are now influencing scores of similarly minded acts in their wake. I’ve dubbed this micro-generation “The Lendermen” — I don’t mean to be a gender essentialist here, though it is true that a lot of these people are dudes. A notable example is Owen Burton, a Nashville transplant whose debut as Ovven, Gnawing At The Cord, was made with Lenderman’s (and Wednesday’s) producer, Alex Farrar. I’ve seen some griping about how his song “Abbreviated” sounds a little (or maybe a lot) like Lenderman’s “Rudolph,” a standout from 2024’s Manning Fireworks, arguably the decade’s finest alt-country LP. Though I maintain that the album overall, purely from a “catchy BBQ jams” perspective, is the most enjoyable of the Lendermen records I’ve encountered thus far.
Plenty of competition is on the way, however. Lenderman himself is even involved in one of the stronger upcoming Lendermen releases. You can hear his guitar and unmistakable backing vocals all over Birds Of Paradise, the forthcoming record from New Orleans singer-songwriter Thomas Dollbaum due out May 22 from Dear Life Records, a central hub for modern alt-country that’s also put out music by Fust and Florry, who I’ll discuss in a minute, as well as Lenderman’s early work, including 2021’s transitional Ghost Of Your Guitar Solo. (Funny enough, one of my favorite songs from Dollbaum’s record is called “Rabbits,” and one of the best songs from Brown Horse’s Total Dive is called “Hares.” Is this evidence of the long tail of Jenny Lewis’ solo debut, a staple of twangy aughts-era indie? OK, I’m joking. Or am I? Further investigation is warranted!)
Given the status of things, it seems like high time that someone wrote a survey of 2020s alt-country. And since I’m the one doing all the listening, it might as well be me.
(As we proceed, please consult this soundtrack, which includes songs from all the artists mentioned. Fifty tracks in all, equaling nearly three and a half hours of music. Just the right amount for your spring break road trip.)
