Americana as an established genre may not have always been called "americana" - nevertheless, certain albums over past decades have paved the way for what we now think of as alt-country and americana. In this series, we take a regular look at some of the albums that have had an impact on our writers, whether at the time of their original release or at a later date retrospectively. These are the albums that anyone with a historical interest in the genre should at least check out - despite the high standard of much of the genre's output today, the key is whether an album can stand the test of time. These ones unreservedly do.

To read the articles in this section, please use the expanded Classic Americana Series menu, which should now be visible in the Feature Articles menu on the left