Leaving St. Louis in late September, Highway 61 takes one north, Missouri into Iowa, along the Mississippi, twin lanes unraveling past cornfields dying or not quite ready to die, silos overrun with reddening vines, beanfields, the river appearing aquamarine for […]
Somewhere between being a farm laborer, construction worker, antique restorer, chicken farmer and high-pressure water blaster, Fred Eaglesmith has released eight albums in the past 17 years. Those who are generally unfamiliar with the Canadian singer-songwriter might be surprised to […]
“Most of us like our jobs,” Bill Herzog says, and he isn’t referring to those hours each week he, Joshua Medaris, Chad Shaver and Eric Akre spend together as Citizens’ Utilities. Indeed, the first news he shares isn’t about No […]
The paint wasn’t even close to being dry on Studebakersfield, Charlie Chesterman’s winsome 1996 collection of meditations on love both lost and found, when he began thinking of what to do next. But not in the context of where to […]
Welcome to the first No Depression retail sales chart. We asked the 150-odd stores who buy No Depression directly from us — many of whom do not report to SoundScan (upon which the Billboard charts are based) — to report […]
Repetition and monotony aren’t necessarily the same thing. Monotony is always tedious; repetition, however, accounts for some of life’s most moving experiences. Whether it’s dancing, daily meditation or good sex — or, for that matter, a committed long-term relationship — […]
WHITHER WHISKEYTOWN? Raleigh, N.C., band Whiskeytown has undergone yet another lineup change in the aftermath of a fight at a show in Kansas City in late September. Guitarist Phil Wandscher, drummer Steve Terry and bassist Chris Laney are no longer […]
It all traces back to 30th Street — 406 West 30th, to be precise, to the an unassuming old house directly across the street from Trudy’s Texas Star restaurant, just north of the University of Texas campus in Austin. A […]
Mike McGonigal: Damned entertaining Please give Mike McGonigal a regular column. His essay on Harry Smith (and Alan Lomax, and Richard Davies, and Camper Van Beethoven, and Eugene Chadbourne, and Yo La Tengo, and Eleventh Dream Day, and many more) […]
By the time you’ll be reading this, the annual Wavefest concert in Charleston, S.C., sponsored by local radio station WAVF-FM will have come and gone — though as I’m writing, it’s still a few days away. Which explains, in part, […]
