Putumayo World Music: Americana. This CD highlights the vast and varied landscape that is American music. From Austin to Asheville, it explores American rural roots.

The landscape of American music is as vast and varied as the geography of the country itself. At its root are a range of diverse cultural influences that have combined to form what is now called Americana music. Sometimes called “alternative country,” it’s a genre whose parameters are broad enough to include bluegrass, folk and traditional country with occasional elements of blues, jazz and others thrown in. In the 1990s, Americana made a home for itself on the airwaves, bridging the gap between Triple A (Adult Album Alternative) and mainstream country radio and allowing audiences to explore a sound stripped of the slick production that usually dominates the industry.