ALBUM REVIEW: Jessi Colter Hops Genres on ‘Edge of Forever’
Jessi Colter has always stood on the edge. She and her late husband Waylon Jennings, along with Willie Nelson and Tompall Glaser, carried country music in new directions in 1976 with the album Wanted! The Outlaws, the first country album to hit platinum status. Colter brought her own outlaw stylings
THE READING ROOM: Artifacts and Essays Converse to Tell Bob Dylan Story in ‘Mixing Up the Medicine’
Just over a decade ago, in 2011, Bob Dylan remarked: “Everybody knows by now that there’s a gazillion books on me either out or coming out in the near future. So I’m encouraging anybody who’s ever met me, heard me or even seen me, to get into
ALBUM REVIEW: The Mountain Goats Navigate New Sonic Balances on ‘Jenny From Thebes’
Loosely intended as a sequel to 2002’s All Hail West Texas, The Mountain Goats’ 22nd LP, Jenny From Thebes, brims with John Darnielle’s quirky vocals, lit-savvy lyricism, and heartfelt melodies. Unlike the stripped-down and lo-fi West Texas, though, Jenny is fully instrumented and, as with most of the
ALBUM REVIEW: On ‘Wandering Star,’ Flatland Cavalry Creates a Galaxy of Layered Songs
They just don’t make them like Flatland Cavalry anymore. A six-piece band out of Texas and Nashville, they’ve consistently produced a kind of authentic throwback 1990s country sound, anchored by Cleto Cordero’s deeply felt vocals and an old-school sensibility that strips away all artifice in favor of
ALBUM REVIEW: Black Pumas Shine Up Their Sound for ‘Chronicles of a Diamond’
“Tomorrow” dawns gradually.
In another context, the tambourines and patient three-count drums would give this Black Pumas slow burner an R&B slow dance feel, but a phaser-soaked electric guitar pulls it toward ’70s psychedelia while sparse synth bass bursts pull it toward Radiohead. “All I want to do
JOURNAL EXCERPT: Billy Bragg on A Role to Play
EDITOR’S NOTE: This essay was the Screen Door — the final page — of the Summer 2023 issue of No Depression‘s quarterly journal. We're sharing it online now in honor of Billy Bragg's career retrospective boxset, The Roaring Forty | 1983-2023, which comes out this Friday via