Homegrown
No act better epitomizes alternative country than Blue Mountain. This trio from  the woods of northern Mississippi is a rock band with twang to spare. The title comes not  from a dumb pot joke but from a sense that these tracks sprang from the musicians'  backyard. "Homegrown" opens with "Bloody 98," an uptempo blues shuffle that finds  singer-guitarist Cary Hudson describing the state highway between Mobile, Alabama,  and Hattiesburg, Mississippi, in a nasal moan straight out of Bob Dylan's "Maggie's  Farm." Counterbalancing that song is "Babe," one of the most convincing rock & roll  odes to marriage ever. The album also contains Hudson's most pointedly political song  yet, "Generic America," a galloping folk rock anthem that takes a broad swipe at  "shopping malls and prison walls."--Geoffrey Himes