Country waking up

SPEAKING TO alt-country phenomenon Richmond Fontaine's singer-songwriter Willy Vlautin, it emerges that life in the music industry in the US without corporate backing is pretty hard.

Despite five album releases, including the latest blistering collection Post to Wire, there is still no radio play, no media coverage and no exposure.

"We're kinda used to that. We don't fit in. Even though some country artists have broken through, such as Steve Earle and Lucinda Williams, the new country scene is still pretty much ignored," he says with a shrug.

What is the new country scene? Well, it's basically young country-cum-punk-cum-folk artists retracing their musical roots from Hank Williams to The Carter Family and Johnny Cash, adopting the same attitude and singing songs about the sort of blue collar folk that corporate US treats with contempt.

The results are more Nirvana than Willie Nelson, more cow punk than apple pie.

These ideas and sounds are still seen as radical in a deeply conservative country like the US and not altogether in step with the bubblegum pop that is being churned out for general consumption.

Vlautin says that there is a lot of inspiration out there, from country singer Dave Alvin to the Hobo's friend Tom Waits, but little in the way of a musical leg up.

"We find it hard. We can drive maybe 11 hours cross country, play to maybe 10 people and turn around again," he says with a resigned laugh.

But this is the territory that he knows about. The arresting Post to Wire contains songs about ordinary people who go out to the track, get drunk and don't win.

Vlautin shares his world-weary despair and quiet hopes with his audience, as he points out on the title track: "I know you're worn out but you know I'm worn out too."

He explains that being on the losing end of the so-called American dream doesn't mean that you count for nothing.

"Every now and then, I go out to the track in Portland, Oregon, and there's room for 30,000 at the Turf Club, but there's only around 800 older guys more or less just like me, drinking and getting on with it.

"They have their own little world and it's full of respect and intrigue. Good and bad, pretty much like everywhere else. That's what I like to write about," he says.

As a young boozer, Vlautin discovered writers like Charles Burwoski and Raymond Carver and cultural icon Shane MacGowan of the Pogues before he began his own journey of artistic discovery, writing about those around him in the same frank terms.

"I sing about the loser that keeps trying to win. I suppose there's a lot of me in there somewhere," he says.

Although Vlautin quietly declines the offer of being a spokesman for the twisted zeitgest of small-town America, he makes clear that the calamitous so-called war on terror, launched by George Bush, has been a disaster.

"Did you know that this guy has held the least press conferences and had the most vacations of any president?" he asks rhetorically.

He says that Bush has divided the whole country. Families, friends, you name it. "I can't even discuss it in some states," he concedes.

Coming to Europe on their first tour this year has encouraged the band.

"We seen a lot of places and had a wonderful reception wherever we go. We can't wait to come back," he says with great modesty.

Richmond Fontaine's enthusiastic audience at the Mean Fiddler in Charing Cross Road felt the same way last month, the last gig before their return.

To find out more about Richmond Fontaine get hold of any one of the albums Post to Wire, Winnemucca or Lost Son and you'll get an insight to the real state of United States counter-culture.

Interview by Brian Denny.