Kim Ruehl

In one particularly memorable shot from I Am a Noise, the new documentary about singer-songwriter Joan Baez’s life and career, things go quiet. The landscape is stark. The light is fading. There appears to be vast emptiness in every direction. Baez, meanwhile, is dancing. Her hands are in the

EDITOR’S NOTE: “The New Normal” is an occasional series of stories that look into how the coronavirus has affected artists, listeners, and the music business. In early March, as COVID-19 was causing havoc in Washington state, a choir got together for rehearsal in a small church. Members were cautious

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an excerpt of a story from No Depression’s Fall 2016 print issue, “Speak Up!”, about a pre-Broadway production of the musical Hadestown. The Broadway version, adapted from singer-songwriter Anaïs Mitchell’s folk opera, won eight Tony Awards in 2019, including Best Musical and an

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is an excerpt from a story in our Appalachia-themed journal from Spring 2018. You can read the whole story — and much more — in that issue, available here. And please consider supporting No Depression with a subscription for more roots music journalism, in print and online,

Here in Asheville, in the wood behind my home, the leaves are changing color and falling from the trees. The temperature has yet to give way, but I know it's coming -- that crisp, autumnal, chai-flavored breeze. The beer people are looking forward to the release of Cold

Here we are at the end of another year, and it was quite a year in roots music. Here at No Depression, we returned to the printed page with the first of many magazines to come. (I'm currently in the baby stages of pulling together the Spring 2016