Through the Lens' Artist of the Year: John Prine
"Bewildered, bewildered, you have no complaint. You are what you are, and you ain't what you ain't." — John Prine
1971
In the fall of 1971, just as the Central Park leaves were turning, I was sitting in the A&R offices of Atlantic
In Memoriam: 2018
Some of the musicians, songwriters, producers, engineers, managers, agents, broadcasters, journalists, industry executives, and studio and club owners who passed away in 2018.
Listen to a selection of these artists on Spotify.
January
Robert Mann, violinist and member of the Juilliard String Quartet
Betty Willis, soul singer
Tony Calder, record
Bob Dylan's Three "Blood On The Tracks" Notebooks: Not Just Red
For decades, fans of Bob Dylan have known about "The Red Notebook," in which he drafted the songs for his 1975 album Blood On The Tracks. Seventeen years ago, Marc Jacobson in Rolling Stonecalled The Red Notebook "the Maltese Falcon of Dylanology, the stuff dreams and nightmares
Cornelia Murr Explores the Darker Sides of Femininity
EDITOR'S NOTE: As 2018 comes to a close, we're looking back at some releases from the year that we didn't get a chance to write up when they were released. Cornelia Murr's Lake Tear of the Clouds was released in July.
The
ND Critics Poll: Our Favorite Roots Music Albums of 2018
Around here, the Year-End Readers Poll (we call it YERP) is a highlight of the year. This time, 10,201 No Depression readers weighed in, creating a wide-ranging list of must-hear albums that came out in 2018. But we always like to give a special spotlight as well to the
Christmas as Folk: Why Holiday Standards Belong in the Folk Songbook
There are plenty of topics for spirited musical debate out there: Are you a Beatles person or a Stones person? Who are the pillars of hip-hop? Which city yielded the most authentic type of blues? Did video truly kill the radio star?
Yet very few subjects generate as heated a