16 Horsepower. I love them and have no idea what genre they fit into - I've been calling them the Prozac-deprived cowboy preachers from hell.

Various live session mp3s here (http://www.16horsepower.com/contents.html#soundfiles).

I didn't add my voice to the previous post yet, but yeah - I really look forward to your essay. I own about 90% of the blues Lum posted, but Americana? Not so much. Explanations and mp3s would be very cool. :-)