Sure, Jen. In no particular order:

• Bottle Rockets - The Brooklyn Side. The Bottle Rockets are the band most like Uncle Tupelo with their breakneck switchback from lyric country to ZZ Top-style guitar crunch. This album is easily their best, too.
• Richard Buckner - Bloomed. Buckner's a brilliant lyricist, possibly the best of this bunch. This is his first album, a quiet affair that sounds like Lubbock, TX.
• The Meat Puppets II. The MPs were a punk band that dabbled in everything. This one has a profound country influence that opened the field for cowpunk.
• The Jayhawks - Hollywood Town Hall & Tomorrow The Green Grass. The only two Jayhawks albums worth having, these share lovely Band-like harmonies (I didn't mention The Band - get the self-titled album) and songs that are so great that you will swear on your first listen that you've known them all your life.
• Marlee MacLeod - Favorite Ball & Chain. Marlee's a talented songwriter. She drags a bit, here and there, but her high points stick with you. She's more folk-rock than folk-country.
• Victoria Williams - Loose. The loopiest of all alt-country albums. You never know what Victoria's going to do next.
• Wilco - AM. Very Tupeloesque with songs that distill much of the later UT sounds down to fine points. All later Wilco albums (which are even better, IMO, point towards experimental indiepop).
• Son Volt - Trace. The only good Son Volt album, full of great songs and as fine-pointed as AM. The later albums are pale rehashes.
• Michelle Shocked - Arkansas Traveler. A who's who of alt-country circa 1994.
• Lambchop - Nixon. Chamber alt-country. There's, like, 11-12 members of this band, and their sound is as lush as it is twangy.
• Vic Chesnutt - The Salesman & Bernadette (or any of his albums, really). Vic's a weirdo like Victoria Williams. Lambchop backs him up on this.
• Jack Logan - Mood Elevator. Vic's buddy writes rockin' songs that sound simple and rootsy, but are full of strange changes and smart lyrics.
• Palace - Viva Last Blues (but really anything with Palace in the name of the band [e.g. Palace Brothers, Palace Music] or Will Oldham or Bonnie Prince Billy). You can't go wrong with Palace/Oldham. He's usually very spare in arrangement and whispery in vocals, but he can be the exact opposite, too.
• Tarnation - Gentle Creatures. The most haunting voice in alt-country. If David Lynch directed Deliverance.
• Neko Case - Blacklisted. Voice like a bell. Or maybe a bullhorn. On the western side of the equation.
• The Meat Purveyors - All Relationships Are Doomed to Fail. Bluegrassy and ballsy. Includes a cover of Ratt's "Round & Round" that makes it sound like a Scruggs & Flatt tune.
• Giant Sand - Chore of Enchantment. Almost Neil Young.
• Calexico - The Black Light. This is strange stuff, part country, part rock, and part mariachi. Sometimes quiet and sometimes swinging. One of the most interesting bands around.
• Freakwater - Old Paint. A couple of guitars, bass, and steel. The harmonies are Carter Family-rough, and the songs Carter Family-beautiful.
• Rank & File - Sundown. Early cowpunk.
• Alejandro Escovado - Gravity. Direct and full of pleasant subtle flourishes.
• Gram Parsons - GP/Grievous Angel. Where it all began.
• The Flying Burrito Brothers - Gilded Palace of Sin. No, I'm sorry. This is where it all began.
• Dillard & Clark - Fantastic Expedition. Oops. This is where it all began.
• Townes Van Zandt - High, Low, and In Between. Maybe this is where it all began.
• Jason & the Scorchers - Lost & Found. Cowpunk meets Commercial-friendly.
• The Scud Mountain Boys - Massachusetts. Purty. They sad.
• The Waco Brothers - Electric Waco Chair. Raucous.
• Any compilation on Bloodshot Records. Yep.
• Sally Timms - Cowboy Sally's Twilight Laments for Lost Buckaroos. The prettiest voice in punk playing country.
• Jon Rauhouse's Steel Guitar Air Show. Western swing featuring some of the other greats of alt-country.
• The Pine Valley Cosmonauts - The Executioner's Last Songs. The menu approach.
• The Mekons - Fear & Whiskey. Country music deconstruction.

I'm sure I could come up with more if you want.

Hey, I'm going to edit the above post to give some brief descriptions to help you winnow down what you want.

Edit: hayden, your love for Moby-Dick makes me incredibly happy. So many people hate that book, and it breaks my heart. Melville was the first Modernist, IMHO, and he's got a lyricism that even Virginia Woolf would envy.

Oh yeah! The writing is sometimes painfully beautiful, and the story is pretty much The Greatest Story Ever Told.

I've been told to check them out, but haven't heard anything by them yet.

They don't have a full-lenght out yet. I'm told thy're recording one as I type for WB. They're from Tyler. The girls do bautiful harmonies. The lyrics are (what's the adjective form of imagry?).

I wish the amazon page had clips from the first EP, but alas no. Here's the second one. It does have clips.

Aren't Uncle Tupelo and Son Volt related?

Uncle Tupelo split into two pieces - Son Volt and Wilco.

Hey! I had musical knowledge! Go me!

I suddenly have become obsessed with finding a copy of Robyn Hitchcock's Invisible Hitchcock. I was really into this album at a certain, um, "intense" time of my life.

It's out of print, and no used CD site that I've found has it in stock. I did manage to listen to low bitrate samples of a few tracks - they brought tears to my eyes as memories came flooding back....

Alt.Country. At last a category in which I can contribute:

David Olney - Deeper Well, Roses
Tom Russell - Hurricane Season, Poor Man's Dream
Fred Eaglesmith - Lipstick Lies & Gasoline
Kathleen Edwards - Failer
Kasey Chambers - The Captain
Buddy & Julie Miller - Buddy & Julie Miller
Robert Earl Keen - Gringo Honeymoon, Bigger Piece of Sky

I have two CDs to send to meara, I have been lazy.

ALSO! does anyone other than Carl Douglas sing "Kung Fu Fighting", I can't find it on iTunes.

tommy - Invisible Hitchcock

Thanks Jon!

ALSO! does anyone other than Carl Douglas sing "Kung Fu Fighting", I can't find it on iTunes.

I think Robyn Hitchcock does... or maybe I'm thinking of some other '70s novelty song he covered.

I got it off musicmatch, but thanks.