When Elvis Costello brought out an album of country cover versions in 1981 – remarkably, his sixth album in four years – my music world was turned upside down.

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The Last Town Chorus cover David Bowie’s upbeat single Modern Love and improve it by turning it into a melancholy country ballad.

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Fifty years ago this week Gram Parsons died in Room 8 of the Joshua Tree Inn in California, filled with morphine, barbiturates and alcohol, at the age of only 26.

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Hank Williams would have been 100 years old on Sunday. Instead he died, on New Year’s Day 1953, at the age of 29.

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Around the turn of the century I made a musical pilgrimage to the tiny Texas town of Luckenbach, once immortalised in song by Waylon Jennings.

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She might not be a household name but Jean Shepard was a pioneer for women in country music, with a staggering 73 singles in the country chart between 1953 and 1981.

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For some musicians, a tragic death elevates a mediocre career to legendary status. But it didn’t work out that way for Cowboy Copas.

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The Rose City Band are the country-flavoured side project of Wooden Shjips duo Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada. This druggy animated road video certainly captures the woozy mood of their laid-back country-fried boogie.

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Not sure if the term Aussie’n’Western is a thing, but if it is then The Paper Kites are a prime example.

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Country veteran Rodney Crowell teams up with Jeff Tweedy of Wilco on a collaborative album called The Chicago Sessions.

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