As Cracker worked on their new album Countrysides, an LP of country covers due October 14th, it became increasingly clear that the album they wanted to make was not the album the record company wanted from them. "I thought we were going to go into the studio and make a White Stripes-ish country rock thing," says Lowery. "But it evolved more into an exploration of the counter-culture part of country music. The long-hair, hippie, pot-smoking part of country music that I never realized Cracker had been so influenced by."

Already frustrated after having tour support pulled during the band's outing behind 2002's Forever, the record company's lukewarm reception of Cracker's album plans led to the group leaving Virgin Records, their home for over a decade and, in turn, the original kiss-off track "Ain't Gonna Suck Itself."

"I was thinking that was a great title for a country record and we had to have a song for it," says Lowery. "And the natural target was the record company. The record company is like innocent bystanders in a drive-by, or not so innocent bystanders."

Recording at Lowery's home studio in Virginia, Cracker got into character for the country covers by the likes of Merle Haggard, Dwight Yoakam and Bruce Springsteen. "We'd set up during the day and do sober takes and then have dinner and come back and do drunken takes," says Lowery. "There were different degrees of it. I don't remember that take of 'The Bottle Let Me Down,' but I'm sure we were probably just drinking wine when we did 'Sinaloa Cowboys.' That was more of a dignified, lighter drunk. We were probably drinking wine from the bodega bag."

Included with the album is a short documentary titled Ironic Mullet that chronicles the making of the new record, including Lowery's re-enacted account of the band's dispute with Virgin, and footage shot on tour in Alaska and Virginia.

COLIN DEVENISH
(October 6, 2003)