The Picketts

Hailing exclusively from Seattle, the Picketts operated as the city’s sole grange-rock outfit. Christy McWilson handled lead vocals while drummer “Blackie” Sleep, her husband and guitarist Scott McCaughey, and rhythm guitarist Jim Sangster completed the lineup. McWilson and McCaughey first crossed paths at San Francisco State before relocating to Seattle in 1980; there McWilson launched the ’60s-flavored new-wave group the Dynette Set, and McCaughey aligned himself with the loose-limbed pop act Young Fresh Fellows. Northern California native McWilson had absorbed the Bakersfield sound along with the cosmic country of Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris, yet Seattle offered scant outlets for that style and those few that did carried little esteem. After catching Sleep’s upright drumming during a rockabilly set that opened for the Dynette Set, she proposed a collaboration that marked the Picketts’ earliest incarnation. Initially called the Power Moves, the group gradually shed its rougher edges and adopted the Picketts name as McWilson assumed the bulk of lead-vocal responsibilities. Their first recording appeared as a PopLlama 7-inch that recast the Clash’s “Should I Stay or Should I Go” in country-fried fashion—an unsurprising move given the band’s habit of blending ’50s rockabilly and pop with traditional touchstones such as Wanda Jackson and Merle Haggard. The 1992 debut album Paper Doll arrived on PopLlama; extensive road work followed and earned the quartet a showcase slot at South by Southwest, which in turn secured a Rounder contract and the 1995 release The Wicked Picketts. Though more refined in execution, the record retained the group’s distinctive fusion of rock and pop ingredients with classic country songcraft. Rounder issued Euphonium the next year, after which the band entered a lengthy hiatus while McCaughey toured as guitarist with R.E.M. and helmed his revolving side project the Minus 5; McWilson, meanwhile, issued two solo albums supported by an all-star cast that included Dave Alvin, Peter Buck, Syd Straw, and Rhett Miller.