Grant Alden and Peter Blackstock (editors),
The Best of No Depression: Writing About American Music



Publisher: University of Texas Press
Released: 2005

(2 out of 5)

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of their venerable No Depression, editors Grant Alden and Peter Blackstock have compiled a "greatest hits" type collection of in-depth feature stories. For those already familiar with the magazine, The Best of No Depression: Writing About American Music is most notable perhaps for generating debates over those omitted from the anthology. For readers new to No Depression, the book serves as an interesting if flawed introduction to the magazine's rich legacy.

In September 1995, Coolio powered the Dangerous Minds soundtrack to the top spot in the Billboard 200 album chart, edging former #1s from Hootie & the Blowfish and Alanis Morissette. That same month, Alden and Blackstock quietly launched No Depression, the "alt.country (whatever that is) bimonthly."

No Depression was a risky endeavor. Not only were Alden and Blackstock writing about a style of music that generally failed to register on the American pop-culture radar, but they were writing about it from Seattle, far removed from the alt.country mainstream (if there is such a thing). They were celebrating a form of music that was decidedly un-cool in a city where grunge bands and Sub Pop-inspired indie rockers reigned supreme.

Through their indisputable knowledge and taste, wry editorial style, and a growing assemblage of contributors in key Americana outposts, they managed to persevere. And in just a couple issues No Depression became established as the main vessel for all-things alt.country. With a circulation of fewer than 35,000 copies per issue, it remains a relatively small-time player in the media industry. But it is the publication of choice for artists and labels eager to reach its targeted coterie of Americana tastemakers.

Those tastemakers revere No Depression for its features, its reviews, and its photography (originally black-and-white, now color as well). The Best of No Depression pulls only from the magazine's features. It's understandable to exclude reviews, as they are by necessity temporal works. But why none of the rich photographs, or at least the covers?

And it's a selective look at the features archives. Included profiles were originally published somewhere between Issue 14 (March-April 1998) and Issue 51 (May-June 2004). Issues 1–13 were previously anthologized in 1998's No Depression: An Introduction to Alternative Country Music. Because the profiles come from just 6 of the magazine's 10 years, can they truly be said to represent the best of No Depression?

The features selected for the book make for interesting reading—or re-reading, as the case may be. More than one-third of the 25 artists profiled shares Texas ties: Alejandro Escovedo, Jon Dee Graham, Billy Joe Shaver, Ray Wylie Hubbard, The Flatlanders, Ray Price, Johnny Gimble, Buddy & Julie Miller, and new Dripping Springs resident Sam Beam (the one-man band Iron and Wine). Other features spotlight such alt.country luminaries as Johnny Cash, Wilco, Jay Farrar, the Jayhawks, Los Lobos, Ryan Adams, Kasey Chambers, and the Dive-By Truckers.

But The Best of No Depression could have been so much more. With its monochromatic print scheme and the absence of editorial commentary to connect the profiles, the book is visually uninteresting. The content remains compelling, but without photos or even pull-out quotes to break the textual flow, reading the lengthy features becomes something of a chore.

The Best of No Depression can only be recommended for those new to the magazine. And even then, it's a recommendation with reservations. The $19.95 cover price is more than a one-year subscription to the bimonthly magazine. If forced to choose, take the six-issue subscription over the flawed anthology—and find a way to pick up Issue 59 (September-October 2005), which celebrates the anniversary with cover reproductions and excerpts from the first 10 years.

September 5, 2005