This piece from American Songwriter highlights three songs that showcase alt-country's rougher, less polished alternative to mainstream Nashville production, a genre that flourished in the 1990s and early 2000s by blending country with rock, folk, bluegrass and other influences. The article argues these tracks, released before and during the alt-country boom, proved audiences were receptive to a grittier sound and helped bridge outlaw country's legacy with the emerging alternative scene.

The selections span nearly two decades: Steve Earle's "Guitar Town" (1986), a rockabilly-inflected track that reached No. 7 on both US and Canadian country charts; Lyle Lovett's eccentric Western swing number "Cowboy Man" (1986), which peaked at No. 10 on the Hot Country Songs chart; and Old Crow Medicine Show's original 2004 version of "Wagon Wheel," co-written using a Bob Dylan chorus from 1973, which went Triple Platinum and later became a pop hit for Darius Rucker in 2013.

– Three alt-country tracks credited with challenging Nashville's polished sound
– Steve Earle's "Guitar Town" (1986) hit No. 7 on country charts
– Old Crow Medicine Show's original "Wagon Wheel" (2004) went Triple Platinum