BONUS TRACKS: Hello From No Depression’s New Web Editor

Hello all!

This story starts with a chance meeting in a coffee shop, orchestrated by folk musician Willi Carlisle. Meeting No Depression’s dynamite managing editor Hilary Saunders that frigid March day, I couldn’t have imagined I’d end up here, nor was it anyone’s intention, I think. Still, this is my first week as No Depression’s new web editor and I’m so happy to be here!

I’ve known and loved No Depression as first a reader, then a writer for years. In that time, I’ve been lucky enough to go deep on (among other things) the marvelous Wonder Women of Country, the North Arkansas music community, and most recently in the Fall 2024 Journal, I’ve got a piece about Noel Paul Stookey (the “Paul” of Peter Paul and Mary) and the remarkable hybrid mandolin, ukulele, banjo instrument he’s created – the manulenjo.

It’s a strange and precious thing to be trusted with someone else’s story. I try never to take it for granted. I started my career in journalism working in tiny bare-bones local newspaper newsrooms, places where community felt proximal, layered, and essential for survival and communication. The fundamentality of human connectivity bubbles closest to the surface in small communities (be they towns or other organizations), as it does in the music community, too. I think that’s maybe what I love most about music: however cliche it is, it does bring people together. And in so doing, exposes our humanity.

Meredith Lawrence (photo by Zoe Todd)

I first started writing about music in earnest during a short and taxing stint living in Dallas, Texas writing for the Dallas Observer (no disrespect to the mighty state; it just wasn’t my place to be). While I found much of the experience disorienting and alienating, Dallas’ close-knit, incredibly talented, welcoming music community was a bright spot in the proverbial darkness. I started writing those stories on the side of my news assignments and ended up falling in love with music writing.

For some people, music is just entertainment. But I like to think that the roots music No Depression covers is so much more than that: It’s a community, a connection, and a lens through which to see, change, grow, and learn.

There is so much chaos and pain in the world, and in the music industry, too. But I’m thankful for the many warm, thoughtful, supportive individual connections I have made in the music business – they make it easy to believe in human goodness and kindness. And I’m so pleased to join No Depression as web editor and connect readers to really good, important music.

See you on the website!

-Meredith Lawrence

P.S. What I’m listening to this week: 

Noeline Hoffman – Purple Gas

Liv Greene – Deep Feeler

Twisted Pine – Love Your Mind