When Nathaniel Rateliff began writing the songs that grew into And It’s Still Alright, his friend Richard Swift encouraged him to make a solo record, thinking it’d be liberating for Rateliff to record a project separate from his band, The […]
On The Way Forth, Rachel Grimes (formerly of the band Rachel’s) brings her gifts as a pianist and composer to a new folk opera about Kentucky history. As Grimes pored over deeds and other documents from her home state, she […]
“Someone once said to me if you want to write about the war, write about the soldier,” says singer-songwriter Amy Speace from her Nashville home. On Speace’s eighth solo album, Me and the Ghost of Charlemagne, she writes about […]
Ever since Mariee Sioux released her 2007 debut album, Faces in the Rocks, people have been telling the 34-year-old singer-songwriter how much her music has helped them reconnect with lost parts of themselves. Sioux inherited the musicianship of her Polish-Hungarian […]
Through her banjo virtuosity and strong, clear vocals, Rhiannon Giddens has been continually excavating the African diaspora experience, especially that of the American South. On there is no Other, Giddens collaborates with Italian multi-instrumentalist Francesco Turrisi to tell and retell […]
Over the past 20 years, Josh Ritter’s vivid imagery and expansive song topics have established him as a singular voice in songwriting — a reputation cemented by substantial experimentation and collaboration. His 2011 novel, Bright’s Passage, and visual art (including […]
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared in the Spring 2016/Roots & Branches issue of No Depression in print. Subscribe now for just $6 per month and never miss another issue. * * There are many ways to tell the story of […]
Many things can happen after making a spark. More often than not, nothing happens. The spark goes out, be it a damp sky or flimsy match to blame. But sometimes candles are lit, or blazing fires grow to warm us. […]
Interstate 20 spans 1,535 miles, from Texas to South Carolina. It’s highly possible that Lucinda Williams has a memory – if not a song – for every stop on this highway that snakes through her native region. On her new […]
“Her poems exist in the context of eternity,” Angela Ball wrote of the Russian writer Anna Akhmatova in the New York Times (September 15, 1997). One might say the same about Iris DeMent’s songs. Like Akhmatova, DeMent has addressed controversial […]
