I've commented on this before, but folk and country-influenced punk rock is a great direction for the music to be taking. The battle here is trying to make punk artistically relevant, something it hasn't been for a long time. To the extent that the genre is treated as an aggressive or nihilistic reaction to conservative social currents, its relevance will always be ephemeral. Currents, much like the reactions to them, dissipate and leave you sitting on your couch, eating Chinese food, and listening to some talking head on VH1 rip through the history of rock and roll in the 80s in about 7 minutes. This will likely mean that bands will have to make music that is more emotionally expressive and emotionally diverse. For a genre that has prided itself on stagnation and a reverence for a punk rock cultural of earlier decades, that may be a stretch. But I think folk and country influenced punk rock is a good sign.

The kind of country you hear house bands rip through at dive-y country bars always sounds like the tales of weary and simple every-men. Even the uptempo songs sung with a clean voice have this hint that all the great things they've been telling you might fall apart at any moment. And, sure enough, the sad and twangy ballad is always a song or two away.

Much like punk, there's an undercurrent of frustration running through the melodies. A sense, in many cases, that the subject of the song is undeserving of the hardships inflicted upon him or her by outside forces. To that extent, the genres mesh well, with the strong and steady melodies of country providing some refuge from the sonic tension of punk .

Nothington's whiskey-drenched basement sing-alongs fit somewhere along the great country-punk spectrum, but I'm not going to take the time to cram them into a specific spot. I think their music speaks for itself. Instead, I'll just direct you here and hope that you find Nothington as refreshing as I have.