No Depression: What It Sounds Like 1

 (3 customer reviews)

After nine years of writing about music, the editors of "No Depression" have cut out the wordy indirections with this thirteen track essay on alternative country music. No doubt they've been pieced together compilations like this for friends, but now those outside the immediate circle now get to share in their obsession. This thirteen track collection has the breadth needed to stake out a genre as hazy as "No Depression." There are founders (The Carter Family) and legends (Johnny Cash, Doug Sahm, Emmylou Harris), alt.country darlings (Whiskeytown, Robbie Fulks, Alejandro Escovedo, Lucinda Williams) and artists from the various spokes of the alt.country umbrella. And as if that weren't enough, there are frictional sparks thrown off by several surprising collaborations.It's fitting that the collection opens with one of mainstream country music's biggest stars and most ornery individualists, Johnny Cash. The combination of Cash's riveting baritone, Willie Nelson's song of a murderous...Read more

As someone who grew up in the 70's and 80's, I was turned off country by the Conway Twitty/Ronnie Milsap style cheese that dominated country radio. Unfortunately, country radio has not improved at all since then. Today, all that seems to distinguish "country" from the prepackaged music played by pop and rock stations is a little twangy Southern flavoring (as opposed to the hip-hop flavoring that makes today's pop-rock "edgy"), as well as artists for whom cowboy hats are apparently a part of their anatomy.Thankfully, the editors of "No Depression" magazine have done music lovers a tremendous favor by reminding us that great American music never really went away, even if it is largely ignored. Covering every sub-genre from country-rock (Whiskeytown's "Faithless Street") to honky-tonk (Doug Sahm's "Cowboy Peyton Place") to straight-ahead folk (Neko Case's "Thrice All American") to heart-breaking ballads (Allison Moorer's "Is Heaven Good Enough for You" and Kasey Chamber's "Dam") to...Read more

C'mon, Johnny Cash singing Time of the Preacher with his world weary vibrato accompanied by understated heavy reverb on the electric guitar which crescendos in the middle? This Alejandro Escovedo guy fusing country, Cajun, Tex-Mex, and rock in a tight, swinging melody? Neko Case booming depressing but oddly comforting lyrics about Tacoma where she used to live? A version of Farther Along that projects instant imagery of brothers and sisters standing in a circle holding hands trying to welcome a spiritual joy in the face of adversity? Doug Sahm, Kasey Chambers, Whiskeytown? Not all that well known, but good? Holy Melodica, Batman, you have to hear these guys. Whoever produced this album knew exactly what they were doing. They must have listened to thousands of songs before settling on these outstanding representative pieces of alt-country that span the genre. Look, you can sue me if I'm wrong. But buy this now.