THROUGH THE LENS: Dreamy Draw Music Festival & Appalachian Allies Benefit Concert
This week's column features two events in different and scenic locales: the Dreamy Draw Music Festival (November 1 & 2, 2024) in Scottsdale, Arizona in the beautiful Sonoran Desert at the foot of the McDowell Mountains; and the Appalachian Allies Benefit Concert (October 27, 2024) in Knoxville, Tennessee
FRESH TRACK: Dave Alvin & Jimmie Dale Gilmore - "We're Still Here"
TexiCali bridges the distance between the two troubadours’ respective home bases of California (Alvin) and Texas (Gilmore). The geographic theme reflects Alvin’s repeated journeys to record in Central Texas with Gilmore and the Austin-based backing band that has toured with the duo for the past few years. Those road
SPOTLIGHT: Caleb Klauder & Reeb Willms Put 'Gold in Your Pocket' with Love and Collective Joy
EDITOR’S NOTE: Caleb Klauder & Reeb Willms are No Depression’s Spotlight artists for Nov. 2024. Learn more about them and their new album, Gold in Your Pocket (out Nov.15 on Free Dirt Records), and look for more all month long.
Before he ever saw her, Caleb Klauder
BONUS TRACKS: Music, In Spite of it All
In spite of it all, music happened this week.
I dug deep into my vinyl collection this week and listened to Rage Against The Machine’s debut and IDLES’ 2018 LP titled Joy As An Act of Resistance. I listened to relatively new punk records like Childbirth’s Women’s
No Depression Sessions at AMERICANAFEST 2024: Kashus Culpepper
Alabama singer-songwriter Kashus Culpepper joined us in the Record Room at Jaan's House in Nashville for his No Depression Session at AMERICANAFEST '24. Culpepper performed three songs in his inimitable way, voice full of sandpaper and gravel, building intensity and volume until peaking with the final refrain
THE READING ROOM: New Book Celebrates Street Singing Traditions
In 1969, Creedence Clearwater Revival celebrated the lives and music of a group of fictional street singers Willy and the Poor Boys in their hit song “Down on the Corner.” As the four boys gather on the corner near suppertime, there’s a “happy noise” as they try “to bring