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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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Artist: Austin City Limits Festival

Live Reviews from web archive October 1, 2008

Austin City Limits Music Festival

There were times during the seventh annual Austin City Limits Music Festival when I wondered, really wondered, what the hell I was doing there. Most of the bands I could conceivably want to see were bands I had seen before, in multiple settings, and I didn’t have to breathe acres of dust, stand for hours [...]

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Miked - Live Reviews from Issue #72 Nov-Dec 2007

Austin City Limits Festival – Zilker Park (Austin, TX)

“What kind of surprise you gonna hit me with?” Lucinda Williams asked mid-afternoon on day three of ACL 2007. The festival had already given its answer: the unwelcome kind. A week beforehand, the White Stripes canceled (illness the stated reason, Meg White’s anxiety and stage fright the speculation), to be followed by po-mo-Mexican guitar duo [...]

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Miked - Live Reviews from Issue #66 Nov-Dec 2006

Austin City Limits Festival – Zilker Park (Austin, TX)

In its fifth year, The Austin City Limits Festival continues to pose many questions, but one is straightforward enough for this review: “What is rock ‘n’ roll?” Rock ‘n’ roll, to begin, is in the blood. Day One: Ted Leo jumped off a 6-foot stage to rap out “Ballad Of The Sin Father” to the [...]

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Miked - Live Reviews from Issue #60 Nov-Dec 2005

Austin City Limits Festival – Zilker Park (Austin, TX)

Hurricane Rita huffed and puffed but did not blow down the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Because predictions said nearby Houston would suffer a direct hit, it was assumed ancillary storms would force cancellations of a portion or all of the festivities in Austin. Turned out Houston was largely spared and, besides the influx of [...]

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Miked - Live Reviews from Issue #48 Nov-Dec 2003

Austin City Limits Festival – Zilker Park (Austin, TX)

If last year’s inaugural Austin City Limits Music Festival was The Godfather, then this year’s edition was Godfather II — bigger, sleeker, glossier, and arguably better. Expanded from two days to three, boasting a correspondingly bigger array of acts, and as glitch-free as human ingenuity could ensure, the sophomore edition of the ACL Fest demonstrated [...]

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Miked - Live Reviews from Issue #42 Nov-Dec 2002

Austin City Limits Festival – Zilker Park (Austin, TX)

Shawn Colvin stood alone, dwarfed by the big stage, and surveyed a sight she has viewed hundreds of times before: an outdoor festival crowd of sun-baked bodies spilling across a grassy plain. “This is a familiar scene,” she said to the rapt crowd. “But it’s never been Austin before. It just makes sense, doesn’t it?” [...]

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From the Blogs

  • Enter to win a signed copy of 'Steve Earle: The Warner Bros. Years' box set
    Ever since his 1986 debut (and, in some ways, even before that), Steve Earle has been one of the most prolific and distinctive singer-songwriters on the Amerciana/alt/country/rock scene. His 15 studio albums have encompassed political protest music, bluegrass, rock and roll, Townes Van Zandt covers, and just flat-out, darn-good genre-defying music. His work […]
  • Ep#144 Kenny Roby
    On episode 144 of the Americana Music Show, Kenny Roby talks about the characters in Memories & Birds, singing in a natural voice, cowboy movie music, and “doing the Prince thing.”   Plus rock and roll from I Can Lick Any Sonofabitch In The House, Brooklyn honkytonk from Maynard and the Musties, classic soul from Swamp Dogg, evangelical stomp from Guthri […]
  • Guy Clark's "My Favorite Picture of You" is touching and topical
    By Ken Paulson Like Kris Kristofferson’s recent Feeling Mortal, Guy Clark’s  My Favorite Picture of You reflects the years. On the new album,  due July 23 on Dualtone,  Clark’s voice is softer and weathered. But if time has  taken a physical toll, it’s made the music matter more. This… […]
  • Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Wembley Stadium (London, UK. June 15th 2013)
    I hate large stadium arenas but I adore Bruce Springsteen. I’m with the purists who argue that shows in such venues are much less satisfying than in smaller, intimate venues but, but, but….Springsteen is one of those artists who make a large venue seem small. For him it’s all about the music and the energy of the performance – no laser beams, no pyrotechnics […]
  • When politics met Americana in 1976
    One of the pleasures of being of a certain age is that you can literally rack up decades of seeing great musicians and attending gigs of all shapes and sizes. A recent BBC documentary about The Eagles jarred my memory about one such event in (gulp) 1976.  I was a Brit newbie in America and was taken to a political fund raiser for then (and now) California Go […]
  • Father's Day: Songs About Dad
    This is the weekend where we examine the impact great fathers have made upon history.  From the Bible, where the landscape is littered with the actions of fathers.  Who could forget the long walk Abraham and his son took in Genesis?  Adam, the first father, raised a fine bunch of stand-up children.  And what about the Big Father himself -- Jesus' daddy […]

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