response 52 of 65:

Oct 14 19:14 UTC 1998

Twila Price asked for a family tree for Blood Oranges.
 
Blood Oranges were Jimmy Ryan (mandolin), Mark Spencer (guitar) and 
Cheri Knight (bass).  The band spans 1987-1992; they broke up just weeks
before a show at the Blind Pig in Ann Arbor.   (I find one web citation 
for a 1994 split.)  The band predated the alt.country scene 
and didn't make any money; Cheri Knight says this was the cause of the 
split, in an interview in the webzine Country Standard Time.
 
Cheri Knight went off to have a solo career; her first release, 
THE KNITTER (1995) I found boring.  This year's album, THE NORTHEAST 
KINGDOM, I like a lot.  I suspect Steve Earle's presence has a lot to 
do with it; the album sounds a lot like the new Lucinda Williams 
album, also produced by Earle.
 
Jimmy Ryan recorded several albums for the ESD label, all of which are now 
out of print.  He formed a slightly purer bluegrass band, the Beacon 
Hillbillies, with guitarist John McGann.   The first album, which I think
was called BEACON HILLBILLIES, dates from around 1990, 
and I don't remember thinking much of it.  
The second album, MORE SONGS OF LOVE AND MURDER, 
drifts back to more of a bluegrass-rock style and I have been enjoying 
it a lot.   The third album, A BETTER PLACE, I got in the Schoolkids 
closing sale and I have not played it yet.

Jimmy Ryan teamed with Oranges guitarist Mark Spencer in another band, 
Wooden Leg.  They have a 1995 self-titled release, again mostly 
bluegrass/rock.  The webpage at www.hellcountry.com reports that 
guitarist Spencer has been replaced by a fiddler.

That's all the recorded spinoffs I know about.

response 54 of 65:

Oct 30 10:07 UTC 1998

NP: Buddy Miller, YOUR LOVE AND OTHER LIES.   Miller has been getting 
a lot of attention lately as Emmylou Harris' guitarist in the Spyboy
band and album, and he also plays guitar on his wife Julie Miller's 
album BLUE PONY, which is a first rate album of country leavened with
rock.   On his own album, however, the sound and the songs 
just seem too much like stock Nashville hack work to me.  Not sure 
what went wrong.

I also might mention that I picked up Willie Nelson's new album 
TEATRO, primarily because it is a Daniel Lanois production with 
lots of Emmylou Harris harmony vocals.  So far it seems like a 
lovely album.

response 56 of 65:

Dec 13 16:15 UTC 1998

For orinoco, following up resp:52 ::  The new mailout from the Northside/
East Side Digital/Omnium people says they have closeout CDs at $4 
each from Blood Oranges, Beacon Hillbillies and Wooden Leg.
Write to them at   chill@noside.com   and ask for a list, if you are 
still interested.

response 58 of 65:

Jan 31 03:39 UTC 2001

A kick for this item after two years.  I wanted to make some notes to myself
about this evening's Progressive Torch & Twang show, the alt.country radio
program on Michigan State's student radio station.  Three songs in 
succession caught my interest.  The first was a track from the new 
Bad Livers album.  Happyboy and I had been chatting about this somewhere 
in the conference, and based on the reviews I'd seen I hadn't been planning
on buying it.  But I liked this track, very intense and banjo-based, so
the Bad Livers disc moves into the "buy" queue.
 
Next up was Reckless Kelly, whoever he is, with a silly live cover
version of Led Zep's "Whole Lotta Love."  And finally, Wilco and Syd Straw,
a cover of a Jimmie Rogers song about tuberculosis, from
the "Red Hot and Country" compilation album of a few years back.
I don't know if that's still available.  Carla would like to hear it
for the presence of Syd Straw.

response 60 of 65:

Jan 31 12:47 UTC 2001

        heh, alt.country...hank sr. would be considered
        alt.country these days.  so would bob wills,
        the carter family...

response 62 of 65:

Jan 31 23:17 UTC 2001

  I'm eating lunch while reading this and I missed the "z" in that last line,
  firing off a Ric Ocasek flashback..

response 64 of 65:

Jul 10 04:17 UTC 2001

resp:58, followup for happyboy :: The Ark schedule lists Billy Joe 
Shaver for Wednesday, July 11.  "Opening will be Danny Barnes
and the Old Codgers, Danny formerly with the Bad Livers."
Formerly?  I hadn't heard about that.