On March 18, Numero Group will celebrate the work of little-known country-rock artists with a new compilation album, Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American Music. The Boot has the exclusive premiere of "Lonesome City," a track by the Black Canyon Gang.

The record highlights the output of artists who, though they may have never had a major hit or stole the spotlight à la the Eagles and Linda Ronstadt, made a significant contribution to Americana and alt-country music as we know it today. Cosmic American Music -- a term coined by Gram Parsons describing the type of music he played because he hated the term "country-rock" -- is packed with 19 tracks recorded between 1968 and 1980; all of the songs were featured on albums that were privately pressed, released on tiny record labels or never even saw the light of day.

The Black Canyon Gang were a group of farm hands who simply enjoyed making music together: "The boys spent afternoons playing music, hunting rodents, drinking beer and smoking herb," the liner notes for Cosmic American Music state. The band released a record in 1974 on Mountain Records, "a small enterprise founded by country music entrepreneur Dick Woods," and spent most of the ‘70s holed up "in tourist towns and ski resorts, where travelers were treated to bluegrass arrangements of Beatles and Bee Gees hits."

As Black Canyon Gang vocalist and electric guitarist Russell Austin reflects on that decade, he recalls, "Apathy was everywhere. We gave a generation of weary downtrodden youth hope. It actually brought hippies, rednecks, bikers, warriors and regular people together ... We were trying to make it through a rough time in history and help as many people as we could. And it worked."

"Lonesome City" and 18 other tunes will find their much-deserved spot in the limelight when Wayfaring Strangers: Cosmic American Music hits the streets in March. Fans can read more about the project, and pre-order the double-LP package, on Numero's official website.

Listen to Black Canyon Gang, "Lonesome City":

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