3 Grunge Classics With Country Roots That Prove Folk Music Exists In Many Forms

When grunge bands made the effortless transition from loud rock to acoustic ballads in the 1990s, it revealed an influence perhaps obscured by layers of distortion and angst. The popularity of MTV Unplugged offered a glimpse into the country and folk roots of many grunge songs. I think most music forms exist as a kind of folk music, as you’ll hear in the grunge classics below.

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“Down In A Hole” by Alice In Chains

Jerry Cantrell said his parents listened to country music, and he absorbed the songs of Hank Williams and Willie Nelson growing up. Beneath the dark harmonies of Alice In Chains’ biggest hits, you can detect hints of twang in Cantrell’s melodies. “Down In A Hole” details the inevitability of Cantrell’s personal life falling apart as his band ascended. It’s the friction of rock stardom against the normalcy of a long-term relationship. In hindsight, the sense of losing oneself in a void echoes Layne Staley’s struggles with addiction.

Down in a hole and I don’t know if I can be saved,
See my heart, I decorate it like a grave.
Oh, you don’t understand who they thought I was supposed to be,
Look at me now, a man who won’t let himself be.

“Rusty Cage” by Soundgarden

Johnny Cash and Rick Rubin made the grunge scene’s connection to country music obvious when Cash covered “Rusty Cage” in 1996. In Cash’s voice, Chris Cornell’s Southern Gothic lyrics are more clearly heard. On the Soundgarden original, the words can get lost beneath Cornell’s screams and Kim Thayil’s doom-metal riff. Cornell wrote the song after feeling “pent-up” inside a touring van, before Soundgarden became a household name. He said he wanted to create a “hillbilly Black Sabbath crossover.” Mission accomplished.

When the forest burns along the road,
Like God’s eyes in my headlights.
And when the dogs are looking for their bones,
And it’s raining icepicks on your steel shore.

“Something In The Way” by Nirvana

Grunge wasn’t the first indie rock scene to mix punk and country. On Meat Puppets’ 1984 album Meat Puppets II, Curt Kirkwood created the blueprint for Dinosaur Jr. and others. During Nirvana’s performance on MTV Unplugged, Kurt Cobain invited Curt and his brother Cris on stage to perform three Meat Puppets’ tunes: “Lake Of Fire”, “Oh, Me”, and “Plateau”. However, Neil Young had already mastered this iteration of noisy country rock. But notice the hardship lyrics in many grunge anthems. “Something In The Way” is a heartbreaking folk song. For a more direct thread, listen to Stephen Wilson Jr.’s dusty reading of Cobain’s confessional.

Underneath the bridge, tarp has sprung a leak,
And the animals I’ve trapped have all become my pets.
And I’m living off of grass and the drippings from the ceiling,
It’s okay to eat fish ’cause they don’t have any feelings.

Photo by Jen Cash