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Grant Alden

FOUNDERS KEEPERS: “Do Something…Even If It's Wrong”

FOUNDERS KEEPERS: “Do Something…Even If It's Wrong”

Somehow the pacifist child grew up loving pro wrestling, and the 12-inch black and white television didn't even enter the house until the summer of the Watergate hearings, when I had the chainsaw accident. This can now be rationalized as the careful study of how character can

FOUNDERS KEEPERS: Visiting With Iris DeMent’s Sublime ‘The Way I Should’ 30 Years On

FOUNDERS KEEPERS: Visiting With Iris DeMent’s Sublime ‘The Way I Should’ 30 Years On

On the occasion of its 30th anniversary, the indispensable Yep Roc imprint has restored to the marketplace a remastered version of Iris DeMent's sole major label release, The Way I Should. It should be…it should be a big hairy deal. Just listen. If nothing else, listen to

FOUNDERS KEEPERS: Drivin' & Cryin' Scatter Memories Across 'Crushing Flowers'

FOUNDERS KEEPERS: Drivin' & Cryin' Scatter Memories Across 'Crushing Flowers'

By '87 Agent Pink had come back from LA with an expensive degree and a lot of experience talking into a college radio microphone. I was the typesetter at a regional music magazine, which paid the rent, promised bylines, and came with the chance to flip through a crate

The Hard Balance of Real Life Renders Jon Dee Graham’s Body of Work All The More Impressive

The Hard Balance of Real Life Renders Jon Dee Graham’s Body of Work All The More Impressive

Editor's Note: Austin singer-songwriter Jon Dee Graham passed away on Friday, March 27 at age 67 after a fall. No Depression co-founder Grant Alden wrote this feature for issue #63, May-June 2006, of the original magazine and we're sharing it now in Graham&

FOUNDERS KEEPERS: A Change is Always Going to Come; The New Music of Ben Sollee

FOUNDERS KEEPERS: A Change is Always Going to Come; The New Music of Ben Sollee

Ben Sollee's latest album, Time On Hold (streaming release on Feb. 27), was recorded last summer in Fort Collins, Colorado, and not at home in Louisville, Kentucky. Sollee's notes say it draws inspiration from the country soul of '70s singer-songwriters like James Taylor and

FOUNDERS KEEPERS: Small But Mighty Music

FOUNDERS KEEPERS: Small But Mighty Music

Shop small, they say, backed by a brief national marketing campaign, signage, slogans, all the rest. Yes, please. Please support small business, what's left of it, for I am a serial entrepreneur, married into a bookstore/coffeeshop located in a small town in the Appalachian foothills. Voting matters,

FOUNDERS KEEPERS: Re-Release of Tony Joe White’s ‘The Real Thang’ Certainly Is

FOUNDERS KEEPERS: Re-Release of Tony Joe White’s ‘The Real Thang’ Certainly Is

It is possible, with very little effort, to stream live video of Elvis Presley singing “Polk Salad Annie,” back during his final credibility scare, and then of the songwriter, Tony Joe White, singing it on network T.V. with the host of “The Johnny Cash Show” (oh yeah, that'