The devil works fast, but the internet works faster...or something along those lines. The biggest news of the day today is Donald Trump and Elon Musk melting down online, so of course, Arkansas-based singer-songwriter Jesse Welles took to a field and sang the news in a little ditty called "My Billionaire Daddies Are Fighting." Check out more from Welles in No Depression's recap from FreshGrass | Bentonville last month.
But earlier in the week, Craft Recordings announced the first ever vinyl reissue of the The Tony Rice Unit's Backwaters due on September 12. The 1982 album from the bluegrass legend helped pioneer the "spacegrass" style. Read more about Rice and the story of his iconic guitar in this longform feature from Winter 2023 (and for a limited time only, pick up a physical copy on sale for just $10!).
Award-winning music author Tom Piazza wrote a biography about singer-songwriter John Prine, which is due out September 9 via W. W. Norton & Company. As the promo reads:
In the spring of 2018, Tom Piazza climbed into a 1977 Coupe DeVille with the great singer-songwriter John Prine, taking a Florida road trip that soon evolved into a deep friendship, full of jokes and tall tales over epic meals, afternoons digging around antique malls and record stores, and long nights playing guitar and trading songs. Eventually they decided to write Prine’s memoir together, and Prine shared intimate, often hilarious stories of his youth and family in Chicago and Kentucky, his breakthrough into the national spotlight, his riotous early years in the Nashville country scene, and much more. When Prine died suddenly of COVID in April 2020, that unfinished memoir evolved into an intimate narrative of the artist’s final years. Piazza offers fans an unforgettable portrait of the beloved musician in his late glory—as a boyish cut-up, an epic raconteur, a great American poet, and most importantly, the good friend his fans have always imagined.
The foundation set up in Prine's name after he died, the Hello In There Foundation, is offering 200 special edition books autographed by Piazza and Fiona Prine, which will also come with with a limited-edition John Prine bookmark. All proceeds will benefit the Foundation. Regular pre-sale orders can also be purchased. Read Prine's most beloved essay exclusively for No Depression here.
Kaitlin Butts, No Depression's Spotlight artist for June 2024, is going viral on TikTok for her song "You Ain't Gotta Die (To Be Dead To Me)." Red Dirt country historian, author, and occasional No Depression contributor Josh Crutchmer dug into it for Rolling Stone here.
VNYL Inc. purchased vinyl subscription company Vinyl Me, Please, thereby saving it from bankruptcy and liquidation. Customers are hopeful that they'll see their previous orders fulfilled after all. Read more in Variety here.
WHAT WE'RE LISTENING TO
Dan Mangan - Natural Light
Nefesh Mountain - Beacons
Turnstile - Never Enough
Kathleen Edwards - "Save Your Soul" (from her new album, Billionaire, due out August 22 via Dualtone Records)
NEW RELEASES – 6/6/25
American Mile - American Dream
Caamp - Copper Changes Color
Mary Chapin Carpenter - Personal History
Crowe Boys - Crow Boys
J.D. Crowe & The New South - The New South (reissue; ND feature)
Jesse Daniel - Son of the San Lorenzo (ND review)
Ben de la Cour - New Roses (ND review)
flipturn- Burnout Days
Kentucky Gentlemen - Rhinestone Revolution
Gary Hector - Memphis Medicine (ND review)
North Mississippi Allstars - Still Shakin (ND review)
Tim O’Brien and Jan Fabricius - Paper Flowers
Hayden Pedigo - I’ll Be Waving As You Drive Away
David Starr - Must be Blue
Suzie Ungerleider - Among the Evergreens
Ken Yates – Total Cinema (ND review)
Various Artists - That'll Flat Git It
COMING SOON – 6/13/25
Joseph Allred - Old Time Fantasias
Big Chief Bo Dollis Jr. + The Wild Magnolias - Chip Off the Old Block
Buick Audra - Adult Child
Terri Lyne Carrington and Christie Dashiell - We Insist! 2025
Common Holly - Anything Glass
Ruby Friedman Orchestra - Chimes After Midnight
John C Reilly - What's Not To Love?
Wayne Scott - Wayne's Pain
Māhealani Uchiyama - Pōpoloheno: Songs Of Resilience And Joy
Joshua Ray Walker - Tropicana
The Westerlies – Paradise
Patrick Wolf - Crying the Neck
Neil Young and The Chrome Hearts - Talkin to the Trees
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