Interesting list. You must have meant Trace instead of Wide Swing Tremolo (Son Volt). A typo perhaps?
I gotta check out the Loretta Lynn album. It can’t even imagine her classified as alt-country.
The best choices on your list:
Lucinda Williams – Care Wheels
Whiskeytown – Stranger’s Almanac
Wilco – Being There
The Jayhawks – Hollywood Town Hall
I am checking out DeYarmond Edison as I type this. Interesting yes, I must hear more before I would go with essential.
Although tou have Wilco and Son Volt on the list, surely an Uncle Tupelo album would have to be essential, no?