Bassholes

The guitar-drum duo of Don Howland and Rich Lillash produced this fever-dream of a blues record in 1992. Combining country-blues, early American folk, rockabilly and punk, and recorded with a single microphone, Blue Roots is as close to a field recording as one can get in the modern era. If Howland's vision of music wasn't so unselfconscious, the Bassholes debut may have come off as esoteric, a too-perfect imitation of Skip James. Instead, the album remains one of the major high points of the '90s garage/underground Americana scene. "Love Cry Blues" is incredible.