50 STATES OF FOLK: How Houston’s Urban Center Ignited Zydeco
When you think of the word “Creole,” I suspect you think of Louisiana. It inspires images of bayous and memories of rich, stick-to-your-ribs gumbo.
This is all fair and reasonable — Creole and Cajun culture definitely have strong roots in southwestern Louisiana. But the border with Texas isn’t a lightswitch.
THROUGH THE LENS:Start the New Year Right With These Exciting New Roots Music Releases
With 2021 under our belts, and all those best-of-the-year lists in the rearview mirror, it’s time to turn our attention to what the new year holds. Below are initial impressions of four new releases that I’m enamored with. Hopefully, you’ll be enticed into checking them out, as
THE READING ROOM: New 33 1/3 Book Zooms In on John Prine’s Debut Album
Bob Dylan once told music critic Bill Flanagan that John Prine’s “stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree.” Almost two years after Prine’s death on April 7, 2020, from complications related to COVID-19, writer Erin Osmon offers her own tribute to the singing mailman
SPOTLIGHT: Anaïs Mitchell Comes Back to Her Own Story
EDITOR’S NOTE: Anaïs Mitchell is No Depression’s Spotlight artist for January 2022. Read more about her and her self-titled album, coming out Jan. 28, all month long.
If you’ve ever been in the backseat of a taxi driving over the Brooklyn Bridge, watching the lights of the
Cat Clyde and Jeremie Albino Kick Back and Share Songs on ‘Blue Blue Blue’
EDITOR'S NOTE: As album releases slow down in December, we like to catch our breath and write about albums that came out earlier in the year that we didn't get a chance to review but we think are worthy of your attention. Blue Blue Blue was
THROUGH THE LENS: 2021 in Review – The Best of Everything
With the uncertainty of COVID-19 and its variants as a backdrop, how could there be good news in 2021? The good news is the year was an outstanding one for roots music releases. So many that one article, let alone one list, cannot do them full justice. But this intrepid