The Candy Skins - Fun?
Britpop before the term was born (which I've always found the second dumbest genre name of all time). The Candy Skins had the exact same set of influences and sound that Oasis would take to the bank in the very near future, although their songwriting held the distinctly anti-Gallagher aspect of possessing wit.
DM3 - One Time Two Times Three Red Light
Led by the prolific if mercurial Dom Mariani, this Aussie trio is what power pop should sound like: muscular and driving yet maintaining a sweetness and melancholy at its heart. The song "One Time Two Times Devastated" should have been (and should still be) a major pop hit. This album doesn't attain quite the perfection of the follow-up
Road To Rome, but very little does.
Danko Fjeld Andersen - Danko Fjeld Andersen
The Band's Rick Danko teamed up with one of the first of the "new Dylans" in Eric Andersen and Norwegian troubador Jonas Fjeld, and holyshit it works. Pristine folk rock with a couple straight 50s rock & roll interjections and a couple tunes sung in Fjeld's native tongue - it's better than anyone might have expected (and far, far better than the awful second album that brought an end to the partnership).
Daniel Lanois - For the Beauty of Wynona
Lanois brought the clarity of his work with U2 to this fairly understated set of songs. It's not exactly Americana or rootsy, but it sort of is. The only of this artist's albums I've kept.
The Walkabouts - Satisfied Mind
This was the Walkabouts' covers album, on which they took songs by songwriters like Charlie Rich, Patti Smith, Mary Margaret O'Hara, Nick Cave, Nick Lowe, John Cale, and Robert Forster and found the common thread that tied them all together. The epic "Feel Like Going Home" with Mark Lanegan on lead vox is a slowcore monger anthem of absolutely monstrous proportions.
Dramarama - Sci Fi Hi Fi
This was pretty much the end of Dramarama (at least until they reunited in the '00s), and as a swansong it's all kindsa awesome. They enlisted Clem Burke from Blondie and Sylvain Sylvain himself from the New York Dolls, and went down swinging. "Work for Food", "Prayer", and "Bad Seed" rock harder then they'd ever rocked, while the slow stuff like "Right On Baby, Baby" sits on exactly the right side of Stonesy.
Maria McKee - You Gotta Sin To Get Saved
McKee is backed on this one by the Jayhawks, although it doesn't sit as squarely in the alt.country wheelhouse as that would suggest. About half of it does, with the other half venturing into soulful pop ("I'm Gonna Soothe You") and tackling two Van Morrison covers.
Bunch more I don't feel like yapping about:

