Deconstructing ELO

2/21/2009 12:00:00 AM

A confession, to begin with.

The first record I ever reviewed – or, at least, attempted to review – was the Electric Light Orchestra's 1979 album

'Albums remind me of plans'

2/9/2009 12:00:00 AM

For 29 years now I have quoted a couplet from Squeeze's 1980 album Argybargy by way of explaining how music f

For dedicated followers of the Kinks

2/6/2009 12:00:00 AM

It's significant that the criminally belated, career-spanning, six-disc Kinks box should be titled Austin City Limits epi

R.E.M.'s still-echoing Murmur

1/28/2009 12:00:00 AM

Recently, through the networking magic of Facebook, I reconnected with an acquaintance from my university days for the first ti

Change is gonna do ya good:
The music of Otis Gibbs

1/26/2009 12:00:00 AM

One of my favorite songs of this still-fresh century is Otis Gibbs' "I Wanna Change It". From his album

What else is new in '09

1/22/2009 12:00:00 AM
Nine (Musical) Things That Will Almost Certainly Not Disappoint You In 2009: Besides the whole Obama-is-President thing, it turns out there's a lot to look forward to this year, like a host of

Our last, best hope

1/21/2009 12:00:00 AM
Finally, on the eve of the inauguration of president Barack Hussein Obama, we sat down to watch An Inconvenient Truth. F

Blues, soul, or rock 'n' roll...

1/19/2009 12:00:00 AM
A new line of blues and soul DVDs from the Shout! Factory people under the Mojo Working legend has raised a couple of questions for me — ongoing questions. One is whether that "blues and soul"

"All my friends
are goin' to the
inauguration..."

1/18/2009 12:00:00 AM
UPDATED WITH DAY 2 AND DAY 3, BELOW

First, to explain the headline: Central Texas band the Dedringers has a song ca

To Grammy or not to Grammy?

1/14/2009 12:00:00 AM
As a reader of these pages, you may be approaching the Grammy Awards, to be held February 9, with about the same e

Mixed emotions

1/10/2009 12:00:00 AM

Year-end mixtapes, er, mixdiscs, er, mix-iTunes playlists....everybody's got one. (I suppose the coolest of the cool get 'em pressed up on vinyl these days.)

Not that you asked, but h

Photographic memories

1/8/2009 12:00:00 AM
During a recent snowstorm, I slipped and fell into a deep chasm. I believe the natives call it Facebook. My experience there ha

Like a ship out in the night...

12/31/2008 12:00:00 AM
In the days and weeks following 9/11, pronouncements over how our lives had been permanently altered flowed upstream and down. Irony was declared dead (sayonara David Letterman). Sensitivity had its i

The end of print

12/30/2008 12:00:00 AM
In the year just passing I lost a dream long held so close that never – ever – did I confess it in public, for I have always wanted a magazine of my own. The arc of my career, such as it has been (str

In case you missed these...

12/29/2008 12:00:00 AM
As we close out 2008, here's a guide to some of the best artists you might have missed this year. (Warning! May contain a higher-than-usual number of sensitive singer-songwriters. Just so you know.)

A change is gonna come, indeed

12/26/2008 12:00:00 AM
It's been a long
Time coming
But I know
A change
Is gonna come
– Sam Cooke

When the esteemed NoDepression.com editor asked that our final columns of 2008 p

Yo Adrian...this one's for you

12/24/2008 12:00:00 AM
I used to work at a place where each morning I was typically the second person to arrive in my office pod; the first was a fellow who would greet me each day by asking enthusiastically if I had watche

Surveying singles,
whatever they are

12/23/2008 12:00:00 AM
The type of music capable of being evoked by the term "No Depression" has been in a more or less constant state of expansion since this magazine's beginnings. The process began in 1995, of course, wit

Thinking chrono, logically

12/22/2008 12:00:00 AM
It's calendar-flippin' time again, kids, and the turn of the new year brings – with a certain amount of aggravating inevitably, as far as I'm concerned – vast amounts of media and individual civilian

2009: The year that wuz be

12/19/2008 12:00:00 AM
In his year-end review of Marah's 2008 album a couple days ago, my colleague Paul Cantin mused about how we tend to look

None more Mississippi

12/18/2008 12:00:00 AM
The end of my year is always fraught with peril. Not because of the holidays. My bete noire is much more insidious: year-end critics' polls and best-of lists. In late autumn, when the call goes out fr

Playing Chess, on the big screen

12/17/2008 12:00:00 AM
One of the best things about music biopics is the way they send you back to the songs. Movies such as Ray, Round About Midnight, The Doors, Great Balls Of Fire, and even

Step aside, curmudgeon emeritus: It's Maggie's choice, for kids' sake

12/16/2008 12:00:00 AM
Among the several things parenting manuals don't prepare you for is this: Those rock 'n' roll hours, that going to bed between 2 and 4 a.m., and rising by lunch? Over, at least until she's off to coll

Frank Jr., Oneida, and me

12/15/2008 12:00:00 AM
It's December 8, 2008, and I just woke up in a hotel on the Oneida Indian Reservation outside freezing, frosty-cold Green Bay, Wis

Alt-country roads, from Burritos to Scorchers

12/12/2008 12:00:00 AM
One of the things I love about this site – about reading it regularly as well as writing for it occasionally – is the sort of dialogue it generates among a community of writers, musicians and kindred-

Deck the halls with boxes and reissues

12/11/2008 12:00:00 AM
The woeful economy, declining record sales and lessening of shelf space have all contributed to the decline of the box set, those expensive, overpadded exercises in nostalgia and redundancy that were

For Young's fans, Archives awaits...and awaits...

12/10/2008 12:00:00 AM
Obsessives typically don't play well together. Whether on the battlefield, the football gridiron or a backyard drinking party, when two hard-headed, determined, focused types come into conflict, like

Roy Orbison's singular place in rock 'n' roll

12/9/2008 12:00:00 AM
I remember coming downstairs that morning in 1988 and hearing, on The Today Show I think, that

Getting a leg up
with High Horse

12/8/2008 12:00:00 AM
Americans and others, apparently, are going to be living in "interesting times" for awhile – the "interesting" of the over-quoted old Chinese proverb being, of course, a euphemism for "rough, unnervin

How do you spell Meyerratken? El May will do

12/5/2008 12:00:00 AM
Besides having perhaps the hardest surname to spell in all of indie-rock, Lara Meyerratken is also an accomplished multi-instrumentalist and singer who has recorded and toured with an impressive array

Kickin' Chanukah music,
old-school style

12/4/2008 12:00:00 AM
Without Jews, there would be no Christmas music.

Well, that's an exaggeration. But the Chosen People have done much to advance the cause. The best-selling single of all time, Slim Bryant, turns 100. He may be the last of his

The wayward tale
of Will T. Massey

12/1/2008 12:00:00 AM
The Seattle to which San Angelo, Texas, native Will T. Massey moved circa 1990 – he was, what? 20 years old? — was a location sought

Young in younger days; Eno/Byrne reunited

11/28/2008 12:00:00 AM
WHATTA TEASE!: The launch of Neil Young's Archives series had been widely and fervently anticipated before the e

Kirsten Jones: More mad miles than money

11/26/2008 12:00:00 AM
About five years ago, singer-songwriter Kirsten Jones was in New Zealand, on holiday from her work as a major-label account executive in Toro

Ernest V. Stoneman's proper place in country music history

11/25/2008 12:00:00 AM
One of 2008's best country reissues, maybe even the best, is Ernest V. Stoneman: The Unsung Father Of Country Music, 1925-1934

Cash's construct comes around

11/24/2008 12:00:00 AM
There's a bonus interview attached to the brand new documentary DVD included the Monday guest-column abou

Why do we marry?

11/20/2008 12:00:00 AM
People take inspiration from unexpected sources: Tales of burning shrubbery that spouts prophecy; those ridiculous "Ha

Danny Epps, gone but not forgotten

11/19/2008 12:00:00 AM
I can't for the life of me remember how Danny Epps' self-titled debut album came into my possession, o

Tim Carroll beats the devil

11/18/2008 12:00:00 AM
Apparently Tim Carroll's most recent album, The Devil Is A Busy Man, came out about a year ago, at least accordi

Rediscovering Bob Martin, for the first time

11/17/2008 12:00:00 AM
I'm not sure what prompted me to play Bob Martin's Midwest Farm Disaster when I came across it while cleaning my office this fall. I k

Yesterday's news is tomorrow's loss

11/14/2008 12:00:00 AM
A technological sea change. Profound paradigm shifts in both consumption and distribution. Free content. Hit-and-run attention spans. A triumph of fluff over substance.

The death of an indu

Wynn wins, Swift's sweet, Van's the man, and more

11/13/2008 12:00:00 AM
Steve Wynn Returns: Former Dream Syndicate frontman/paisley underground enabler Steve Wynn has been on a roll lately, r

William Eggleston's
singular south

11/12/2008 12:00:00 AM
The name William Eggleston may not resonate with music fans, but his pioneering work as a color photographer and documenter of southern cul

True Blood misses on the southern thing, but gets the music right

11/11/2008 12:00:00 AM
The new HBO series True Blood imagines an America where vampires not only walk among us but are fighting for their civil rights. Thou

What's still Grand about the Ole Opry

11/10/2008 12:00:00 AM
You may have heard that new one from Hank Williams III on his Damn Right, Rebel Proud CD about the Bruce Robison, in a couple decades of watching his gradual rise from an Austin nightclub and danceh

Imagine, if you will, Arthur Russell

11/6/2008 12:00:00 AM
I'd like to tell you about my Imaginary Friend. His name is Arthur Russell.

Now, Arthur's status as my Imaginary Friend

Chicago, by way of Austin

11/5/2008 12:00:00 AM
If anyone knows the way from Austin to Chicago, it's Alejandro Escovedo. The Texas veteran's recent gig at
11/4/2008 12:00:00 AM
By the time this column is posted on Tuesday morning, I should have finished my second cup of coffee, and will have read some of the news online before cooking and serving and eating breakfast. And I

"Someone's shouting, lord..."

11/3/2008 12:00:00 AM
As election day approaches, truth to tell, I feel more dread than hope in my general vicinity. Halloween horror has been usurped by a much more pervasive anxiety.

On those rare occasions wh

Ry Cooder gets the rhythm of the muse

10/31/2008 12:00:00 AM
The recent release of two double-disc sets associated with Ry Cooder is, I suspect, more of a fortuitous coincidence – at least for a music columnist – than a calculated career boost. Yet the juxtapos

Vic Chesnutt, Elf Power, And The Amorphous Strums Cause Really Long Headline To Be Written

10/30/2008 12:00:00 AM
Vic Chesnutt And Elf Power, Together At Last: Singer-songwriter Vic Chesnutt and fellow Athens, Georgia, musicians Elf Power – known for darkly weird folk and darkly weird pop, respectively – h

Jesse Malin covers new ground

10/29/2008 12:00:00 AM
Cover albums are a crapshoot, and the only thing that increases the odds of success is the motivation. Is it simply a matter of milking some radio or blog buzz by tackling a Coun

Alejandro Escovedo's every-night breakthrough

10/24/2008 12:00:00 AM
If you're familiar with the pre-dot-com history of No Depression, you likely already know how far my own musical history goes back with lizard brain

A few bucks short of a
Million Dollar Quartet

10/22/2008 12:00:00 AM
"All these long years later it's still music to my ear/I swear it sounds as good right now as anything I hear/I've seen the Mona Lisa, I've heard Shakespeare read real fine/It's just like hearing J

Three to not forget: Valorie, Dao and Otis

10/21/2008 12:00:00 AM
No more humbling reminder of the impotence of the written word exists than the blank indifference of the marketplace. For 21 years now I have listened carefully to mounds and mounds of music, and soug

Squeezing out sparks from
the modern music marketplace

10/20/2008 12:00:00 AM
Whatever other factors may have contributed to the recent collapse of mail-order distributor Miles of Music, it's hard n

Randy Newman's feel-good music for the new depression

10/17/2008 12:00:00 AM
YOU KNEW THAT HE WOULD: In the nine years since his previous release of new material, Randy Newman must have become overly associated w

Death, politics, and other bundles of joy

10/16/2008 12:00:00 AM
Cowpunk, Revisited: Anyone who thinks alt-country has suffered from an excess of delicacy and earnestness in the post-O Brother years can take heart: Two new upstarts are currently servi

Finding a place for
Lindsey Buckingham

10/15/2008 12:00:00 AM
About halfway through Lindsey Buckingham's concert in Toronto last Wednesday, he described the difference between being in a titanic mac

Darius Rucker's rare feat, and what it means

10/14/2008 12:00:00 AM
Something remarkable happened on the country charts this past week: A black man, Hootie & the Blowfish singer Darius Rucker, had the #1 entry

On the edge of the World of Bluegrass

10/13/2008 12:00:00 AM
It seems to me, based on long observation, that interest in bluegrass in Americana/alternative country circles generally leans toward two edgy flavors – driving, straight-ahead traditional bluegrass,

Yet another side of Bob Dylan, to boot

10/10/2008 12:00:00 AM
Now that this week's release of Tell Tale Signs has extended Bob Dylan's Bootleg Series to eight volumes (albeit oddly numbered: the 1991 three-disc box that launched the series was bill

Black and white, then and now

10/9/2008 12:00:00 AM
Last week, a dear friend of mine was fired from the Friday night DJ gig he has held at a popular nightclub for the past four years. The reason? Management wanted to hear more pop and top-40, and less

Charlie Haden goes to where it feels like home

10/8/2008 12:00:00 AM
Returning home to one's roots is not only a time-honored theme in popular music, it's also a time-honored career move. Home is where, when you go there, they will applaud you for remembering where you

Understanding the sacrifice, fully

10/7/2008 12:00:00 AM
Despite my long-running admiration for and interest in bluegrass – an affection which reaches deeply into my childhood – and despite the fact that a number of people whose opinions I respect have high

Yes, we're Happy in Hye

10/5/2008 12:00:00 AM
Here's a little ditty by Mike Williams
about the Texas towns of Hye and Happy

(from Camp Cuisine Tapes: Music From The Kerrville Campgrounds)

Darrell Scott, Glen Campbell refocus the art of interpreting songs

10/4/2008 12:00:00 AM
It's very nearly a trend – the succession of provocative recordings showing up lately in which the singer is focusing on new interpretations of songs written by other people, recordings bearing perfor

Time on our hands

10/3/2008 12:00:00 AM
Much was made of Bruce Springsteen landing on the cover of Time and Newsweek simultaneously in 1975 when Born To Run was released.

Does the following mean ND is

Long Live the King...of Broken Hearts

10/3/2008 12:00:00 AM
A belated Happy Birthday is in order here for George Jones, who turned 77 on September 12. May you celebrate many, many more, George.

Jones, of course,

Cash Remixed, Bruce Remade, Hope Revived, Pretenders Reinvented

10/1/2008 12:00:00 AM
Johnny Cash Remixed Not As Terrible As You Might Expect: Johnny Cash Remixed, on which various iconic Cash songs are reworked by a h

I'm Not Jim: The novel approach of Jonathan Lethem and Walter Salas-Humara

10/1/2008 12:00:00 AM
In the eternal tilt of singer vs. song, who wins these days? I judge it a TKO for the singer. Credit (or blame) Bob Dylan's destruction of the Brill Building's non-confessional song factory. In its pl

How Lucinda Williams got her joy back

10/1/2008 12:00:00 AM
There are artists who believe it is necessary for them to suffer for their art. There are artists who believe it is necessary for us to suffer for their art. And then there's

A note from our publisher

10/1/2008 12:00:00 AM
Welcome to the relaunch of NoDepression.com. This is an exciting and proud moment: the first small step as we move from the land of print to the digital realm. I had hoped the site would be born fully

Getting to the heart of Chris Knight's songs

10/1/2008 12:00:00 AM
This is all about Chris Knight and why you should listen to his new album, the one called Kimya Dawson. One-half of anti-folk duo the Moldy Peaches, Dawson crossed over into main

Only in America...

9/3/2008 12:00:00 AM
On the final night of the Democratic convention, at the conclusion of the nominee's acceptance speech, Barack Obama beamed and waved to 80,000-plus supporters as they danced and sang along to..."Only

Hot Buttered Soul

8/15/2008 12:00:00 AM
I hope the death of Isaac Hayes will inspire those who know him only for his "Theme from Shaft," amazing though it is, or his role as Chef on South Park, to track down his early records.

A Shared Vocabulary

8/5/2008 12:00:00 AM
In my far-too-long-ago last entry here (I apologize to those who may have been checking in), I ended by quoting from a book that rests very near the top of my short list of essential music criticism,

Signficance, Slight Return

6/27/2008 12:00:00 AM
In my last entry here, in a call-and-response with Carl Wilson at Zoilus, I conjectured a bit about the evolution of, or more accurately the dissapearance of, old-

Significance is so twentieth century...

6/10/2008 12:00:00 AM
In one of those sweeping-yet-concise graphs that are becoming one of his specialties, friend Carl Wilson recently got my attention with a post at his blog Zoilus.

Country Music, U.S.A.

6/6/2008 12:00:00 AM
The International Country Music Conference convened in Nashville last month, its 25th annual meeting. I didn't attend, but I wish I had -- most of all because I would love to have attended the panel t

No Depression

A Rodeo King embraces his inner Lee Harvey Osmond

Americana, by any other name...

Deconstructing ELO

'Albums remind me of plans'

For dedicated followers of the Kinks

R.E.M.'s still-echoing Murmur

Change is gonna do ya good:The music of Otis Gibbs

What else is new in '09

Our last, best hope

Blues, soul, or rock 'n' roll...

"All my friendsare goin' to theinauguration..."

To Grammy or not to Grammy?

Mixed emotions

Photographic memories

Like a ship out in the night...

The end of print

In case you missed these...

A change is gonna come, indeed

Yo Adrian...this one's for you

Surveying singles,whatever they are

Thinking chrono, logically

2009: The year that wuz be

None more Mississippi

Playing Chess, on the big screen

Step aside, curmudgeon emeritus: It's Maggie's choice, for kids' sake

Frank Jr., Oneida, and me

Alt-country roads, from Burritos to Scorchers

Deck the halls with boxes and reissues

For Young's fans, Archives awaits...and awaits...

Roy Orbison's singular place in rock 'n' roll

Getting a leg upwith High Horse

How do you spell Meyerratken? El May will do

Kickin' Chanukah music,old-school style

The wayward taleof Will T. Massey

Young in younger days; Eno/Byrne reunited

Kirsten Jones: More mad miles than money

Ernest V. Stoneman's proper place in country music history

Cash's construct comes around

Why do we marry?

Danny Epps, gone but not forgotten

Tim Carroll beats the devil

Rediscovering Bob Martin, for the first time

Yesterday's news is tomorrow's loss

Wynn wins, Swift's sweet, Van's the man, and more

William Eggleston'ssingular south

True Blood misses on the southern thing, but gets the music right

What's still Grand about the Ole Opry

Imagine, if you will, Arthur Russell

Chicago, by way of Austin

"Someone's shouting, lord..."

Ry Cooder gets the rhythm of the muse

Vic Chesnutt, Elf Power, And The Amorphous Strums Cause Really Long Headline To Be Written

Jesse Malin covers new ground

Alejandro Escovedo's every-night breakthrough

A few bucks short of aMillion Dollar Quartet

Three to not forget: Valorie, Dao and Otis

Squeezing out sparks fromthe modern music marketplace

Randy Newman's feel-good music for the new depression

Death, politics, and other bundles of joy

Finding a place for Lindsey Buckingham

Darius Rucker's rare feat, and what it means

On the edge of the World of Bluegrass

Yet another side of Bob Dylan, to boot

Black and white, then and now

Charlie Haden goes to where it feels like home

Understanding the sacrifice, fully

Yes, we're Happy in Hye

Darrell Scott, Glen Campbell refocus the art of interpreting songs

Time on our hands

Long Live the King...of Broken Hearts

Cash Remixed, Bruce Remade, Hope Revived, Pretenders Reinvented

I'm Not Jim: The novel approach of Jonathan Lethem and Walter Salas-Humara

How Lucinda Williams got her joy back

A note from our publisher

Getting to the heart of Chris Knight's songs

Only in America...

Hot Buttered Soul

A Shared Vocabulary

Signficance, Slight Return

Change is gonna do ya good:
The music of Otis Gibbs

"All my friends
are goin' to the
inauguration..."

Surveying singles,
whatever they are

Getting a leg up
with High Horse

Kickin' Chanukah music,
old-school style

The wayward tale
of Will T. Massey

William Eggleston's
singular south

A few bucks short of a
Million Dollar Quartet

Squeezing out sparks from
the modern music marketplace

Finding a place for
Lindsey Buckingham