NO corner of a record store has expanded more rapidly than the 'Americana' section.

Uncut and Mojo magazines have played their part in the American uprising; so too have the annual Way Beyond Nashville Festival in London and the pioneering record labels Loose and Lost Highway.

Americana is the all-embracing term for the alternatives to the Nashville nightmare of Garth Brooks and Faith Hill. Rooted in country, it embraces gospel and the blues too.

Way Beyond Nashville sums it up, and so does the album's subtitle, The Twisted Heart Of Country Music.

As with Beyond Nashville in 2001 and Further Beyond Nashville last year, the choice is impeccable.

Breakthrough acts such as Erin McKeown, Martha Wainwright and Australia's The Sleepy Jackson sit alongside Sam Cooke in gospel mode, Merle Haggard, Steve Earle's controversial Taliban tale John Walker's Blues and two of the year's maddest covers: The Gourds making merry with Snoop Doggy Dogg's Gin & Juice and Hayseed Dixie taking Walk This Way for a drunken barn dance.

Lost & Found Volume 1 corrals 13 rarities, B-sides, unreleased and studio cuts from Lost Highway's roster: Ryan Adams, Lucinda Williams, Whiskeytown, Johnny Cash's Wichita Lineman and wonderful 2002 discovery Tift Merritt.

Loose's low-price, high-value Selections is the best primer for the uninitiated, showcasing the lugubrious Handsome Family and Willard Grant Conspiracy and the best of British, Peter Bruntnell and The Arlenes, the new Rockingbirds. If you are looking for Americana, start here.

Updated: 16:36 Wednesday, December 03, 2003