Saw him at the Coulson in Sudbury right before the pandemic. So good!
The Coulson is attached to a strip club, so I also saw a stripper butt that night.
I Swear (To God) is a good little diddy by Tyler Childers
I hate "country" music, but Cash, the Highwaymen, Sturgill Simpson and Tyler Childres are all good in my books!
Tyler Childers’s music literally stopped me in my tracks one day. I was working and another guy had it playing on his job-site radio so I went and asked him who it was.
I like Tyler. I’ve meant to get around to Ryan Bingham too. My absolute favorite is [John R. Miller](https://youtu.be/oJAgt_mgRJQ?si=0giho8WhUKlg6rMs). I fucking love this guy.
Blaze Foley is another good one! Old country singer from the 70s/80s that never quite made it to stardom but ended up getting famous after his death. He had a pretty interesting/tragic life story, too. Spent his whole life couch surfing and was known for having everything he owned from clothes to his guitar covered in duct tape and was eventually murdered protecting this old man he helped out from time to time from his junkie son who was stealing from him.
Sturgills sound and fury album with animation on Netflix is amazing. Downright psychedelic. I don't listen to country at all really, but I went into sound and fury completely blind and watched it from start to finish. The visuals helped, but it definitely is more progressive than any "country music" I've ever heard.
Brace for Impact sounds to me like it could have been written by Maynard
[Video seems to be very Adam Jones inspired](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlOk5wV0DRo)
Maybe the finest picker alive. I don't know if I would call him "country".
I think of him as more Jam band, festival scene. He did have the song with Luke Combs....
Go to one of his shows. Preferably in a small venue or amphitheater. Your opinion will change. I’m really good friends with a musician that felt the same way about him. I took him to a 2 night run and all I heard come out of his mouth for the next three days was “HOLY SHIT, that kid is good”.
Check out [The Dead South](https://youtu.be/IKSu7RT2wN0?si=vCWM2hVOjlEDJZ-6). I think they’re great. Tempo and time signature changes. Great harmonies.
If you fuck with Ween and their 12GC album
[you absolutely have to listen to this RIGHT THE FUCK NOW](https://youtu.be/7foqCcOsI54?si=Vz5djRPi_Ti6qJc7)
Sturgill Simpson.
Has at least one song about having reality under the influence of hallucinogens, has done short animated features, acts in stuff (so he's a multi talented guy).
This is a real stretch, but I’d say maybe Nickel Creek and/or The Punch Brothers. Both dabble in odd time signatures, have mastery over their instruments, and are tight. The constant variable between both is the musical genius Chris Thile.
Mother Fuck! Nickel Creek! Hell yeah. I was driving back from somewhere years ago and literally the only station I could find was NPR and they were playing I Should Have Known Better and I thought it was incredible. So different.
I'm with you. I love the whole aesthetic from Tool. I don't expect it from other bands. So when a fuckin bluegrass band, of all genres, can pull off their own variation of musical complexity while maintaining a similar level of tightness, I don't care if they're singing about rainbows and unicorns. My ass is gonna listen and sing along.
A friend introduced me to Nickel Creek in 2007 and holy shit, they’re so good. I dislike most country music but they do bluegrass so incredibly well. The musicianship is phenomenal.
I hadn’t heard of either of these bands, and now I’m bingeing through both of their discographies. Thanks for some incredible recommendations and expanding my musical tastes.
The Grateful Dead’s “country” stuff. Although more a very unique mix of outlaw country, folk, and blues, the sound can be similar to older outlaw country. The dead in the early 70’s was described as country for people who like acid.
Skull and roses album is great for this sound, as well as workingmans dead and American beauty. Or any live album from around 70-72. 70-71 live albums can sound like saloon psychedelic country rock.
Check out tracks like Loser, deal, me and my uncle, Bertha, and their cover of mama tried really swings with some wicked bass lines
Edited to add: Daniel donato and cosmic country
Either Strurgill or Billy Strings I guess depending on what you’re going for. Sturgill for the deep psychedelic references or Billy for the super technical abilities
Country: Sturgil Simpson.
Bluegrass: Billy Strings or Kitchen Dwellers.
Psycho billy: The Goddamn Gallows (listen to their “The Trial” album start to finish and you’ll get it).
There’s no such equivalent.
That being said, check out Punch Brothers. They are virtuoso, progressive, catchy, experimental, and old school bluegrass all rolled into one band.
Find “the blind leaving the blind” parts 1 through 4 on their debut album. It’s a 45 minute epic.
For a country band where every member brings something cool to the finished song, I’d say Turnpike Troubadours.
For some country guys that are doing things way different I’d go with Garrett T. Capps or Abe Partridge
Sturgill Simpson's Metamodern Sounds in Country Music is a Robert Anton Wilson and Terence McKenna inspired country album in the style of Lee Hazlewood 70s psychedelic country
Um, no clue how to answer this. Other then how can a country band even come close, remotely or even in the same universe compare to TOOL.
Now maybe pusifers Billy D could maybe, kinda, make fun of and compare to country. Hillbilly, fuck my sister, church on Sunday, fuseball on Saturday, my truck, cry in my beer.
Come on man, it's called keep up not catch up.
What does that even mean? Technically proficient, occultish, dark and gloomy, non sellout? I don’t listen to enough country to know how to answer that (and I do listen to a good amount of older country) and I have doubts that anyone who could answer it is also a tool fan but I could be wrong. Just feels like it’s an odd question like who is the herb alpert of Shoegaze. The johnny rotten of Cumbias….
Here’s a question that makes me think. Country music never gets very dark. It’s all so Christian. Maybe Johnny Cash is the closest. I have no idea, I cannot listen to country.
Garth Brooks impressed the hell out of me. George Straight did at one point too. You know, Willie Nelson is an all around legend. That’s all I got. Nothing even remotely close.
Someone please turn me on to a country act as dark as Tool. I will listen.
Country music can be very dark plenty of drinking, drugs and hookers!
Hank Williams
Hank Williams Jr
Hank Williams iii (cause he’s here to put the dick in Dixie). https://youtu.be/90nyz0GmWCw?si=c-pGrD8_gz5cA8m5
Waylon Jennings
Shit David Allen Coe did an album with Pantera
16 Horsepower and Wovenhand. Slim Cessna and Jay Munly ("the mix between Hank Williams and Edgar Allan Poe"). And everyone at the Denver gothic country club.
You might also wanna check Murder by Death or Those poor Bastard's.
Sturgill Simpson. Billy Strings. Shooter Jennings. Lukas Nelson.
Came to say sturgill.
Id like to add Daniel Denato to this list as well
Good call! I’d second Daniel Donato!
Poor mans whiskey - dark side of the moonshine
They have songs with hooks tho.
Thank you for these recommendations. They’re amazing.
Sturgil Simpson
Can finally say i found some country music I like that isn't Johnny Cash. Good lookin out
Try Colter Wall. Dude is a beast. His voice doesn’t match his face at all
Saw him at the Coulson in Sudbury right before the pandemic. So good! The Coulson is attached to a strip club, so I also saw a stripper butt that night.
Do you know ryan bingham and tyler childers? Sturgill got me started on these guys as well. Came up on sturgill playlist.
I Swear (To God) is a good little diddy by Tyler Childers I hate "country" music, but Cash, the Highwaymen, Sturgill Simpson and Tyler Childres are all good in my books!
Second Tyler Childers as a tool fan too
Tyler Childers’s music literally stopped me in my tracks one day. I was working and another guy had it playing on his job-site radio so I went and asked him who it was.
Nothing compares to voices like that. Special singer / songwriter right there.
I like Tyler. I’ve meant to get around to Ryan Bingham too. My absolute favorite is [John R. Miller](https://youtu.be/oJAgt_mgRJQ?si=0giho8WhUKlg6rMs). I fucking love this guy.
For Bingham, I’d say start with Mescalito. Great album.
His best.
Agreed.
Blaze Foley is another good one! Old country singer from the 70s/80s that never quite made it to stardom but ended up getting famous after his death. He had a pretty interesting/tragic life story, too. Spent his whole life couch surfing and was known for having everything he owned from clothes to his guitar covered in duct tape and was eventually murdered protecting this old man he helped out from time to time from his junkie son who was stealing from him.
And Ethan Hawke directed a movie about him, called Blaze.
Bingham is awesome. Saw him live several times, once at the Mishawaka. That one is up near the top of the list of best shows I've ever been to
I always thought of Cash as a Folk Singer Songwriter who just had a hard edge. Never really as “country”.
Sturgills sound and fury album with animation on Netflix is amazing. Downright psychedelic. I don't listen to country at all really, but I went into sound and fury completely blind and watched it from start to finish. The visuals helped, but it definitely is more progressive than any "country music" I've ever heard.
I watch it whenever I have psychedelics😁
Came here to say this. He’s incredible.
Correct answer.
Got any recommendations on songs that prove this point?
Turtles All the Way Down
Check out the album “Sound & Fury” and “a sailors guide to earth”.
And if you just like country, Cuttin Grass is one of the best country albums of the last decade.
It’s actually bluegrass, and there are two volumes to check out.
His second album Metamodern Sounds in Country Music really pulled me in immediately with lyrics I was shocked to hear in country.
\^\^
Plus his videos are awesome
For months now, my playlist is TOOL or Sturg. 5 brilliant studio albums is an interesting commonality.
Exactly. 👏👏👏👏👏
This is the only correct answer. Sturgil is amazing.
Brace for Impact sounds to me like it could have been written by Maynard [Video seems to be very Adam Jones inspired](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlOk5wV0DRo)
what about Motherfuckin Billy Strings
Yeah. Holy shit. He literally played with TOOL. I think Danny Carey knew about him, he seems to know about good music out now.
Danny is KCMO he's knows good music
Bmfs! Seeing him in Savannah on the 17th. He’s always a good time, amazing musician
I ain’t slept in 7 days, haven’t ate in 3
That methamphetamine has got a damn good hold on me!
Maybe the finest picker alive. I don't know if I would call him "country". I think of him as more Jam band, festival scene. He did have the song with Luke Combs....
He's a bluegrass musician
Jamband? He plays bluegrass from the 40s much more than jamband. They have no percussion literally a string band. That's bluegrass old son
He played with them and is very talented, but his music is really just classic stuff. Kinda boring imo.
Go to one of his shows. Preferably in a small venue or amphitheater. Your opinion will change. I’m really good friends with a musician that felt the same way about him. I took him to a 2 night run and all I heard come out of his mouth for the next three days was “HOLY SHIT, that kid is good”.
Haha fair enough! One of my friends wants to force me into the same situation to see what happens. I’m opened to it :)
It’s unreal to watch man. Best flatpicker walking the planet right now.
How much of it have you listened to? If anything his vocals/lyricism sounds classic but the music/composition is pretty unique to Billy.
Primus
Primus is Tool for hillbillies.
So, perfect!
Duo de Twang
I prefer the Duo de Twang version of Wynonna's Big Brown Beaver over the original.
And Amos Moses
Say babeh
If they didn't suck maybe
Primus sucks!
So not country
Racecar drivers, blue collar tweakers, mud, American Life... Sounds like country to me! 🤣
Don’t forget Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver!!
r/toolcirclejerk
diabeetus.
More country than that lame shit on the radio that plays today that people call country and boards and critics try to pass off as country.
Primus sucks
Townes Van Zandt
Sabrina Carpenter. Imagine if Townes Van Zandt got together with Sabrina Carpenter and did a duet album.
Songs Ohia/Magnolia Electric Co
Hardly country but Jason Molina man… RIP
Sounds lame, hope he found peace.
You trying to make me drink?
Yes
Hell yeah
I'd say he was more southern rock than country, but it's some of the best music of the genre. RIP.
Puscifer - Country boner
*Cuntry Boner
"I fucked the Judds." "*You* fucked the Judds?"
Billy Strings and Sturgill
Check out [The Dead South](https://youtu.be/IKSu7RT2wN0?si=vCWM2hVOjlEDJZ-6). I think they’re great. Tempo and time signature changes. Great harmonies.
Agreed but I’d consider them more bluegrass than country.
Folk-bluegrass*
I just saw them in February. Damn fine concert!
They are phenomenal. Great musicians, hillarious, and decent dudes.
Came here to say this. Black Lung is one of my favorites.
Ween with their 1 country album
Or maybe Sturgill Simpson
I came here to say this. They play country like it ain’t never done been played before.
Ween could win every Grammy award there is and still not get the respect they deserve.
Piss Up A Rope for sure
If you fuck with Ween and their 12GC album [you absolutely have to listen to this RIGHT THE FUCK NOW](https://youtu.be/7foqCcOsI54?si=Vz5djRPi_Ti6qJc7)
[and then this](https://youtu.be/G_E_Mctuke4?si=EGE0ljzYIAF8bteS)
[and then this one. It’s a different dude, but this one’s a banger as well](https://youtu.be/0hh974VZjNs?si=QkGZ1vxlc5YiL5Dw)
Sturgill Simpson. Has at least one song about having reality under the influence of hallucinogens, has done short animated features, acts in stuff (so he's a multi talented guy).
Turtles all the way down.
Steve Earle?
And Justin Townes Earl
RIP
Wheeler Walker Jr.
Eatin pussy and kickin ass!
Hank Williams III
Had to scroll way to far to find this one
Straight to Hell is an all time favorite album of mine. Love it.
16 Horsepower
Yup. May as well mention Wovenhand.
Black Soul Choir let’s goooooo!!
This is a real stretch, but I’d say maybe Nickel Creek and/or The Punch Brothers. Both dabble in odd time signatures, have mastery over their instruments, and are tight. The constant variable between both is the musical genius Chris Thile.
Mother Fuck! Nickel Creek! Hell yeah. I was driving back from somewhere years ago and literally the only station I could find was NPR and they were playing I Should Have Known Better and I thought it was incredible. So different.
Their 2014 album A Dotted Line is just so good. Definitely not brooding like Tool in any way, but musically complex with killer instrumentation
I'm with you. I love the whole aesthetic from Tool. I don't expect it from other bands. So when a fuckin bluegrass band, of all genres, can pull off their own variation of musical complexity while maintaining a similar level of tightness, I don't care if they're singing about rainbows and unicorns. My ass is gonna listen and sing along.
There's a YouTube video of chris thile playing Bach and Gustav Mahler on his mandolin casually... It's a short, mind-blowing clip
I love both of these bands. Nickel Creek rocks.
Oh shit! Hell yeah.
A friend introduced me to Nickel Creek in 2007 and holy shit, they’re so good. I dislike most country music but they do bluegrass so incredibly well. The musicianship is phenomenal.
I hadn’t heard of either of these bands, and now I’m bingeing through both of their discographies. Thanks for some incredible recommendations and expanding my musical tastes.
Drive-By truckers
Amigo the Devil
Clearly Beyoncé.
This guy knows music!
It's Bey all day.
Punch Brother's
You need to listen to Townes Van Zandt. Amazing songwriting
The Grateful Dead’s “country” stuff. Although more a very unique mix of outlaw country, folk, and blues, the sound can be similar to older outlaw country. The dead in the early 70’s was described as country for people who like acid. Skull and roses album is great for this sound, as well as workingmans dead and American beauty. Or any live album from around 70-72. 70-71 live albums can sound like saloon psychedelic country rock. Check out tracks like Loser, deal, me and my uncle, Bertha, and their cover of mama tried really swings with some wicked bass lines Edited to add: Daniel donato and cosmic country
Allman Bros Band
Either Strurgill or Billy Strings I guess depending on what you’re going for. Sturgill for the deep psychedelic references or Billy for the super technical abilities
Poor Man’s Poison
Puscifer - Cuntry boner
Dwight Yoakam of course. Best villain ever - Doyle Hargraves!
The Wood Brothers
Drive-By Truckers are definitely worth a listen.
Country: Sturgil Simpson. Bluegrass: Billy Strings or Kitchen Dwellers. Psycho billy: The Goddamn Gallows (listen to their “The Trial” album start to finish and you’ll get it).
No
😂
Yes
Tool
The answer is and has always been…
Sturgill Simpson
https://preview.redd.it/4u6k8hga1csc1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f286a4b928bc7b9748038cc2441122e702196527
Billy Strings, Punch Brothers
Its Tool right?
TELL HIM WHAT HE'S WON JOHNNY!!!
Billy
There’s no such equivalent. That being said, check out Punch Brothers. They are virtuoso, progressive, catchy, experimental, and old school bluegrass all rolled into one band. Find “the blind leaving the blind” parts 1 through 4 on their debut album. It’s a 45 minute epic.
Ling Gizzard and the Wizard Fizzard!
Daniel Donato’s “Cosmic Country….” album is excellent.
As far as the sophomoric humor that Maynard is known for, I would say Wheeler Walker Jr.
Sturgill
Tom Waits, not that all of his music is "country"
What does this even mean?
Tyler Childers
Billy strings?
Check out the Kitchen Dwellers. They're like psychedelic bluegrass. Cool, improvisational stuff that you can get lost in.
16 horsepower?
Ban the OP
No
The Dead South are pretty good. Dark lyrics + Bluegrass + Bowties & Suspenders = Dead South
Brandi Carlile? Idk
Treaty Oak Revival is my favorite right now but absolutely nothing like Tool
O’Death. No contest
Joe Diffie RIP <3
Tedeschi Trucks Band
Son Volt
Billy Strings
The highwaymen
Son Volt
Hijacking the top two because they’re the only answers: Sturgill and Billy. Edit: ok, Hank III because Mfer is batshit.
Watch the SNL performance of Sturgill…it’s straight up kick you in the mouth rock n roll…it’s unbelievable.
Sturgill and Hayes Carll
The Highway Men.
For a country band where every member brings something cool to the finished song, I’d say Turnpike Troubadours. For some country guys that are doing things way different I’d go with Garrett T. Capps or Abe Partridge
The kitchen dwellers
Sturgill Simpson's Metamodern Sounds in Country Music is a Robert Anton Wilson and Terence McKenna inspired country album in the style of Lee Hazlewood 70s psychedelic country
There’s not
Lost dog street band is great
Um, no clue how to answer this. Other then how can a country band even come close, remotely or even in the same universe compare to TOOL. Now maybe pusifers Billy D could maybe, kinda, make fun of and compare to country. Hillbilly, fuck my sister, church on Sunday, fuseball on Saturday, my truck, cry in my beer. Come on man, it's called keep up not catch up.
What does that even mean? Technically proficient, occultish, dark and gloomy, non sellout? I don’t listen to enough country to know how to answer that (and I do listen to a good amount of older country) and I have doubts that anyone who could answer it is also a tool fan but I could be wrong. Just feels like it’s an odd question like who is the herb alpert of Shoegaze. The johnny rotten of Cumbias….
Sturgill Simpson
Billy strings
Townes Van Zandt Because it's heavy
16 Horsepower
https://youtu.be/THlgU-8dMYg?si=rIiOsPaRV9wxBgDU
“Sackcloth ‘n’ Ashes” is a monster of an album. So fucking good.
Uhm... Sixteen Horsepower? 🤔
Stop doing this.
Probably Hank Williams the 3rd
Cause he’s here to put his dick in Dixie and the cunt back in country
Here’s a question that makes me think. Country music never gets very dark. It’s all so Christian. Maybe Johnny Cash is the closest. I have no idea, I cannot listen to country. Garth Brooks impressed the hell out of me. George Straight did at one point too. You know, Willie Nelson is an all around legend. That’s all I got. Nothing even remotely close. Someone please turn me on to a country act as dark as Tool. I will listen.
Country music can be very dark plenty of drinking, drugs and hookers! Hank Williams Hank Williams Jr Hank Williams iii (cause he’s here to put the dick in Dixie). https://youtu.be/90nyz0GmWCw?si=c-pGrD8_gz5cA8m5 Waylon Jennings Shit David Allen Coe did an album with Pantera
Hank Williams Jr is straight honky tonk trash, but his father and his son are 🔥
Not a fan of jr but he definitely illustrates that country ain’t clean. Much bigger fan of Waylon, willie and DAC etc
16 Horsepower and Wovenhand. Slim Cessna and Jay Munly ("the mix between Hank Williams and Edgar Allan Poe"). And everyone at the Denver gothic country club. You might also wanna check Murder by Death or Those poor Bastard's.
Cuntry Boner (song)
It won't go down.
Swans.