EDITOR’S NOTE: Kaia Kater is No Depression’s Spotlight artist for May 2024. Look for more about her and her new album, Strange Medicine (out May 17 on Free Dirt Records), all month long.   There’s a video clip of the great pianist Herbie Hancock in which he shares a memory of one night when he was playing in Miles Davis’ band. They were onstage, in the middle of “So What,” when Hancock hit the wrong chord. “Miles took a breath,” Hancock remembers, “and he played some notes, and he made my chord right.” This story was ringing in singer-songwriter — and major Herbie Hancock fan — Ka ..read more

April saw a return of many No Depression stalwarts. Any new music from alt-country rock stars Old 97’s constitutes a highlight over here. And tunes from singer-songwriting legend Lucinda Williams (on a compilation honoring 40 years of public radio music showcase Mountain Stage), indie-folk legacy band Iron & Wine, and prolific country-rock star Charley Crockett were bright spots too. Plus, April treated roots music fans to a wealth of gospel and blues music from Kyshona (who wrote a beautiful essay about music and music therapy in the Spring 2023 issue of No Depression), Lizz Wright ..read more

  MerleFest was founded in 1988 in memory of Eddy Merle Watson, Doc Watson’s son who died in a tractor accident. Doc himself called the festival a celebration of “traditional plus” music: roots-oriented sounds of the Appalachian region, including bluegrass and old-time music, that has more recently expanded to include Americana, country, blues, rock, and some international styles. Held in late April in Wilkesboro, North Carolina, for many artists and fans it signifies the beginning of the outdoor roots music festival season.  One thing is for sure: Once you go you keep going back be ..read more

  EDITOR’S NOTE: Humbird is No Depression’s Spotlight artist for April 2024. Learn more about her and her new album, Right On, in our interview. And don’t miss her recent essay about songs and how they find us.   Many of the songs on Humbird’s new album, Right On, came into focus on the highway. Siri Undlin has had lots of time to contemplate America (specifically, the Midwest, where she makes her home) through the windows of a van as she’s made her way from show to show in the past few years. The song “Fast Food” stemmed directly from van time, when Undlin and bandmate Pat Keen “we ..read more

Amid the buzzing hallways of Folk Alliance International in Kansas City, Xanthe Alexis took the “stage” in the AEA Microphones room for a serene three-song No Depression Session. She offered a glimpse into her forthcoming record, including two songs from Lover’s Mark along with a fan favorite and title track of her 2020 album, “The Offering.” Between the first and second songs, Alexis does not hesitate to share the spotlight with collaborator and super homey Sarah Clanton, co-founder of the organization Tunedough, which guides artists through the twists and turns of registering ..read more

There’s seemingly no end to the number of Beatles books out there. Readers can expect to travel endlessly down a long and winding road full of Beatles ephemera for more than eight days a week with recollections of their hangers-on, philosophical musings on the priest in “Eleanor Rigby,” phenomenological analyses of the world of the “Yellow Submarine” and “Octopus’s Garden,” detailed glimpses into the lives and words of the Fab Four, and more. Once starting down that road, it’s hard to get back, and readers find themselves either captivated by the endless stories of B-chords, Hamburg nightclub ..read more

  Kaia Kater showcased her talent alongside bassist Andrew Ryan during her No Depression Session at Folk Alliance International 2024. All of her three-song set pulled from Kater’s forthcoming album, Strange Medicine, coming May 17. Opening with “The Internet,” Kater’s vocals intertwined with Ryan’s bass lines to comment on modern connectivity, reminding us how positively fucked we are (if we choose to participate in the attention economy, which we needn’t do. ..). Transitioning into “In Montreal,” Kater transports the audience to the city she originally called home. The last song of ..read more

  Ninety-seven artists are scheduled to perform across 12 stages at this year’s MerleFest, held April 25-28 on the campus of Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The 17 artists highlighted below are, with a couple notable exceptions, ones that regular MerleFest-goers may not be that familiar with. Most are first-timers, and all but two play sets that do not require reserved seats to be up close. There is some overlap, timing-wise, but as 15 of the performers play more than one set, with some careful planning you should be able to catch them all. More acts are featured ..read more

  Sometimes — this morning — one is given to suspect that we are little more than aggregations of the stories we tell about ourselves and each other, stories that haunt and inform and seek temporarily to connect or distance us. Those are the best songs, in any event, the true stories, even if that singular, transitory truth is carried only by the whisper of a single phrase. And sometimes the story is just the beginning: “Hello.” Or “Goodbye.”   Virginia-bred singer and visual artist Ann Savoy married into Cajun music royalty four decades and forty-odd albums ago. That immersion didn ..read more

  Join us as Bruce Sudano delivers his stellar No Depression Session in the AEA Ribbon Mics room at Folk Alliance International 2024 in Kansas City. Accompanied by lead guitarist Randy Ray Mitchell, Sudano’s set draws two songs from his latest album, Talkin’ Ugly Truth, Tellin’ Pretty Lies, which came out in March, and a country classic he wrote more than 40 years ago about his parents’ divorce. As Sudano launches into the session with Talkin’ Ugly Truth, Tellin’ Pretty Lies’ “How’d You Get Here,” his lyrics immediately captivate me. The way my music brain is wired,&n ..read more