Album: Deer Tick, Born on Flag Day (Partisan Records)

With the 1980s "new country" stalwarts a distant memory and the alt-country scene now diversified to the point of distraction, the door is open for a new breed of cowboy… Enter Deer Tick, a bunch of young gunslingers from, of all places, Rhode Island.

There’s a touch of a twangy Springsteen and a hint of a pedal-steeled Hold Steady, but Deer Tick are currently in a league of their own when it comes to cheese-free country-rock which pays tribute to the past while never being overawed by it.