Ask the Mice what they have to say about it. One of the great things about Itunes, imho, are all the great radio stations you can choose from for free. My favorite is called "Boot Liquor" under the heading of "Americana." A lot of the songs are of the alternative country variety (not like the typical redneck country music at all, i.e. Toby Keith). They often have a progressive/folk element to them. Also, supposedly this genre encompasses a lot of people from Texas or something like that. Please continue...you won't be disappointed!
I've found many great smaller groups there. I also thank the people of kos for always offering their suggestions. The other day someone mentioned "Arthur McBride" during the discussion on recruiters. I got to liking James McMurtry from someone mentioning his music and providing a link to his stuff for free, and I learned about the great Steve Earle, among others, from kossacks. Now it's my turn to share with you. Some of you may have heard of this song - it's called "Not proud of the USA" by a scat group from the 1980s, that's from Ohio (Cleveland?). the frontman is Bill Fox. The name of the group was called "Mice." Their re-released compilation album just came out a few months ago. While I think the album is actually superb, I wanted to bring this song to the attention of the people here. The song actually came out in 1986 but it seems eerily appropriate now (though as the lyrics say, it was always appropriate to the USA- but that's a different issue).
http://www.scatrecords.com/mp3s/The%20Mice%20-%20Not%20Proud%20of%20the%20USA.mp3
If you don't wanna cut and paste the above- sorry, I'm computer illiterate- go to this site, then scroll down to Not Proud of the USA under the Mice
http://www.villagevoice.com/music/0501,eddy,59729,22.html