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No Depression has been the foremost journalistic authority on roots music for well over a decade, publishing 75 issues from 1995 to 2008. No Depression ceased publishing magazines in 2008 and took to the web. We have made the contents of those issues accessible online via this extensive archive and also feature a robust community website with blogs, photos, videos, music, news, discussion and more.

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Not Fade Away - Reissue Review from Issue #37 Jan-Feb 2002

Mekons

Fear And Whiskey (Quarterstick)

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For those who passed on 1985′s there-and-gone vinyl or ’89′s contextualizing value-pak Original Sin, here’s yet another iteration of this seminal alt-country touchstone. Its roguish charm and unkempt forward lurch remain resilient and undiminished, and its doomed but undaunted worldview — a last stand against Thatcherite despond and American hegemony in an abandoned Hollywood backlot — is just as relevant 15 years on, perhaps more so. Over the ensuing period, co-leader Jon Langford has been responsible, either directly or indirectly, for more quality music than almost any other artist; Fear And Whiskey is the towering summit from which he launched this impressive run. Honestly, if I haven’t already convinced you, I may as well pack it in.

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Originally Featured in Issue #37 Jan-Feb 2002

Cover of Issue #37 Jan-Feb 2002

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More articles from this issue:

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