God Bless Americana
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The Jayhawks’ latest record, which cost $1 million to produce, sold a disappointing 100,000 units; Wilco’s A.M. is pushing about three-quarters of that, though its commercial life is not over; the Bottle Rockets sold something more than 10,000 on the small Minneapolis label East Side Digital, and have just seen the album rereleased on Atlantic. None of these figures is embarrassing, but they’re small in this overheated alternative age. Still, some interesting things are going on behind the scenes. An AOL folder called “No Depression” (after Uncle Tupelo’s first album) is busy and contentious; the radio tip sheet called the Gavin Report began an Americana chart this year; and an informal network of critics, fans, and promoters push the music. And now there’s a magazine to codify its partisans’ passions.
No Depression is a quarterly edited by Peter Blackstock and Grant Alden. The first issue is pretty impressive: something between a magazine and a fanzine, it doesn’t refrain from dissing Americana heroes–Blackstock even says he’d like to see more of this. The writing is a lot better than it has to be, particularly since writers weren’t paid. You get competently done features on Son Volt and the Bottle Rockets, among other bands, a couple dozen record reviews, and diverting stuff like an amusing history (by Blackstock) of covers of Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman.”
Subscriptions to No Depression are $12 for four issues. Send a check to No Depression, PO Box 31332, Seattle 98103. A single issue is $5. The magazine’s first 200 subscribers, Blackstock says, get a sampler CD from East Side Digital.
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photos/Brad Miller, Marty Perez.
