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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.

Author: Jim Ridley

The Long Way Around - Feature from Issue #18 Nov-Dec 1998

Paul Burch – Horse of a different color

When Paul Burch was growing up, the single record that made the most impact on him wasn’t what is thought of as roots music. It wasn’t an archival folk recording smelling of dust and shellac, though as a kid Burch had access to those and loved them. Of all things, the album that shaped his [...]

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Miked - Live Reviews from Issue #14 March-April 1998

Vic Chesnutt / Lambchop / Paul Burch / Cyod – Lucy’s Record Shop (Nashville, TN)

With a mischievous half-smile, Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner cut right to the point: “Why the long faces?” Why indeed. The capacity crowd on this Friday night was there to mourn the passing of Lucy’s Record Shop, the all-ages venue that for six years made Nashville a stop on indie rock’s underground railroad. In 1992, when the [...]

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A Tribute to The Doors Ray Manzarek 1939-2013
"You don't make music for immortality, you make music for the moment, capturing the sheer joy of being alive on planet Earth... Everybody should live it that way." Ray Manzarek In the summer of 1967 The Doors played the Anaheim Convention Center. I was 12 years old. I was completely transfixed by the band. Having an older musician brother […]
Jim Lauderdale: Americana's Country Journeyman Returns to L.A.
With a career as diverse as the emerging genre we call ‘Americana,’ Jim Lauderdale continues on the same track toward collaboration, generosity and an imagination fused with the influence of Country and Bluegrass traditions. His December, 2012 release with musical cohort, Buddy Miller, is a collection of songs, some covers and some originals, that focuses on […]
CD Reissue Review: Irma Thomas - In Between Tears (Fungus/Alive, 1973/2013)
Irma Thomas' lost early-70s soul sides After relocating from New Orleans to Los Angeles, soul queen Irma Thomas largely disappeared from public view for a few years. But a series of singles produced by Jerry Williams (a.k.a. Swamp Dogg) on the indie Canyon, Roker and Fungus labels led to this eight-track release in 1973. Williams had proven himself… […]
CD Reissue Review: Eddy Arnold - Complete Original #1 Hits (RCA / Real Gone, 2013)
All twenty-eight of Eddy Arnold's chart-topping singles For most artists, a twenty-eight track collection of their biggest chart hits would be a fair representation of their commercial success. In Eddy Arnold's case, twenty-eight #1 singles only very lightly skims the surface of nearly thirty-nine consecutive years of chart success that stretched… […]
Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell at Sage Gateshead
What can I tell you? I’ve been a fan of Emmylou Harris since I first saw The Last Waltz at the cinema in 1979 and Rodney Crowell ever since a friend gave me a copy of Diamonds and Dirt on cassette as a birthday present. So, finally seeing not only one of them in concert, but both together had made me nervously excited for weeks in advance. If you don’t know […]
Great Escape, Brighton, UK - Day Three
By day three I'm starting to flag, but Canada House at the Blind Tiger looks intriguing: a line-up sponsored by music organisations from three of the western provinces. I'm off to Alberta at the end of July, so this could be a good warm-up. 'We're here to show you that Western Canada is about more than just wheatfields, gravel roads and k […]