With 'Middle of Nowhere,' Kacey Musgraves Finds Equilibrium In The Great Unknown
Editor's Note: Annie Zaleski has been awarded one of two No Depression Criticism Fellowships to write in-depth album reviews on roots music's most important albums. The Criticism Fellowships kick off with this review of Kacey Musgraves' Middle of Nowhere, out today via Lost Highway.
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BONUS TRACKS: RIP David Allan Coe, New Punch Brothers, A Bob Dylan/Bon Iver Crossover, and More Roots Music News
Outlaw country singer-songwriter David Allan Coe passed away on Wednesday at 86 years old. The controversial musician was rife with contradictions over his life and career – growing up in Ohio, but becoming synonymous with the South; drifting in and out of prison, but welcomed among Nashville's royalty at
SPOTLIGHT: Emily Nenni Steps Out with Newfound Confidence on ‘Movin’ Shoes’
Editor's Note: Emily Nenni, whose new LP Movin' Shoes comes out today via New West, is No Depression's Spotlight Artist for May 2026. Read more about this up-and-coming singer-songwriter and stay tuned for more from her all month long.
It took Emily Nenni four days
THE READING ROOM: Erin Osmon’s ‘Won’t Back Down: Heartland Rock and the Fight for America’
Every now and then a book comes along and pulls back a curtain on tired ways of thinking, revealing the breadth and depth of movements or ideas that we’d taken for granted. Erin Osmon’s richly textured Won’t Back Down: Heartland Rock and the Fight for America (Norton,
![SPOTLIGHT: Vincent Neil Emerson - Blue Stars Gumbo [ESSAY]](https://storage.ghost.io/c/18/d0/18d08e58-3b1b-4720-ae25-a31b44e69d4b/content/images/size/w720/2026/04/Spotlight-Template-3.png)
SPOTLIGHT: Vincent Neil Emerson - Blue Stars Gumbo [ESSAY]
Editor's Note: Vincent Neil Emerson, whose new LP Blue Stars came out April 17 via LaHonda Records, is No Depression's Spotlight Artist for April 2026. Check out an in-depth profile of the Texan songwriter here and stay tuned for more from Emerson all month long.
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QUEER COUNTRY: Putting It All On the Line
Heather Mae should be going viral for her art: she has a commanding voice and a deft pen, just as competent writing sinuous electro-pop and affirming, heartbreaking folk music. She is not shy about her politics: her music is unapologetically queer, fat-positive, and condemning of repressive Evangelical Christianity. Her double