So disappointed in today's Americana

I have to add a correction. I just got Vintage Trouble's The Bomb Shelter Sessions on CD (2011) and it does not seem as compressed as many of the other's I listed.

The DR database lists the album at 8-9 but it references a lossy medium with no other data so it was probably low-res streaming that was tested.

Anyway, I'm not saying it is Steely Dan level production quality but a good bit better than most of what we're getting these days. Kudos to the band for that.

Here's a current article in the NYT's about the loudness wars. It even has charts, including Brandi Carlile's grammy nominated song I was bitching about.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/07/opinion/what-these-grammy-songs-tell-us-about-the-loudness-wars.h...

PS - check out the 500+ comments.

I'm listening to Mercury Rev's Bobbie Gentry's the Delta Sweete Revisited on Tidal this morning through headphones and it sounds really nice.

That piece in the Times is actually pretty thoughtful and well written.
I don't listen using ear buds but occasionally listen to something over my laptop simply to hear it, not for any serious listening-- and I'm surprised at how much difference you can hear despite the file compression (e.g. MP3, not dynamic compression). This would tell me that the fad of loudness wars isn't to compensate for inadequacies of the playback device--much like dynamic compression of TV commercials, it is used to grab attention. But, how much long term enjoyment from something that is always at "11"?
I know I'm preaching to the converted here....
As to "Americana," i don't know that it is a very definite genre- it seems to be an amalgam of folk, (old) country (as distinguished from 'new' country which is really '70s soft rock), and a few other genres-bluegrass, for example, thrown in the mix. It is probably a catch-all for other things that don't clearly fit into another pigeonhole; I'm surprised Gary Clark, Jr. is labelled as Americana, since I considered him more a blues guy-- but, just like everything else, genre labels are not very instructive. They are probably even less apt when applied to someone who is innovating and doesn't fit neatly under a category that is already well-worn by predecessors. 

I don't have an answer other than that, like most things in the pursuit of music that is fidelous, you are going to go through a lot of material and forced to be selective.